Why do players change their behavior in freeroll tournaments?

should play more seriously until you have a chance to make money without spending

How many players do you know that do this? Players who you know at both formats? If I run to a bad player, they are bad at both. Just as well a good player. I do give you credit for the keen sense of observation to see a difference or no difference.

Hi, as my concern, i change my play according the limit. So i play a bit loose in freeroll tournaments then "with my money" at stake. Perhaps all players do the same. It does not make the difference if you win or lose because you do not put money in that tourney, plus that the money pool is not so attractive to fight for (usually).

oanacosmin777 said:

Hi, as my concern, i change my play according the limit. So i play a bit loose in freeroll tournaments then "with my money" at stake. Perhaps all players do the same. It does not make the difference if you win or lose because you do not put money in that tourney, plus that the money pool is not so attractive to fight for (usually).

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freerolls tournaments are typically hyper turbo with poor structure. Played adjust more to the loose side when this is the tournament structure.

"Fear of loss" plays a big role in poker. With freerolls, participants have nothing invested so there is no fear of loss. As a result, play tends to be much wilder than regular tournaments. All you can really do is adapt your play and try to trap players who are making these wild plays. Hey, at least it's not costing YOU anything either !

Hi,because many people play relaxed when playing freerolls but when they pay the buy in they tend to be more concentrated..In my case,I always do my best no matter if it´s a freeroll, tournament,cash.....

When players have nothing at stake they are going to shove whatever tickles there fancy. You just have to play very ABC poker and very robot like. With a sprinkle of suited connectors and such IN POSITION. One thing I do think it improves on is dealing with bad beats and patients once you step into risking something of value.

My opinion

I guess your right. You play more serious in money tournaments. It really isn't because of me but the other players. To show courtesy to other players I don't talk much with real money. This actually hurts my game because the silent mind games usually get me.

For me, this is also a mystery)).
In my opinion, if this is a hobby, you will try to play at a good level, because you are interested. If you earn, then more responsibility for the game.
There are only beginners who in a couple of minutes threw chips and went about other things at the same level. And they justify their game "is it a freeroll or a microlimit, or is it a low limit."
But sometimes I see players who play 3-5 years and continue to play at the level of escaped clients of a psychiatric hospital. They play for 2-3 minutes and go to rest. But sometimes they play an hour or two until they fly to the next allin.

First off all not everyone playing freerolls are broke or complete beginners. I have won 1.500$ in tournaments on 888 Poker, and I still play some of their freerolls. Why wouldn't I? Its essentially free money. However I do of course need to value my time, and this is why, I do make some adjustments in freerolls. I dont want to spend an hour just trying to min-cash for 20c, so I deliberately adopt a "go strong or go home" style of play.

Also as someone said already, most freerolls are hyper turbos, so if you dont build a big stack quickly, you are going to be blinded away. Finally other players will tend to stack off more liberally, which allow us to profitably widen our range a bit. So for all these reasons I am one of those players, who do use a more aggressive style in freerolls.

I will answer for myself , because I am bored.
And I like the mentality in every buy in ''go hard or go home''.At least I try to play more marginal spots after ITM phase in buy-in MTTs but in freerolls I take more risks early on.I have nothing to lose , right?

I am not one of those guys though who open jams 100bbs+ or donk shove 300x the pot because they hat their top top, that's ridiculous even in a freeroll game but ok, just show love to those people.If you have those tendencies in your game they might be second nature to you and it will be catastrophic for your overall performance.

akmost said:

I am not one of those guys though who open jams 100bbs+ or donk shove 300x the pot because they hat their top top, that's ridiculous even in a freeroll game but ok, just show love to those people.

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I am not doing it myself, but I have seen people open jam 100bbs+ and get called by the most ridiculous hands. So its actually not a bad way to get maximum value, if you have a premium starting hand early in a freeroll.

By contrast if you open to the standard 3BB, you usually get 5 callers, and your AA or KK often end going up in smoke, because someone hit something. Or your AK missed the flop, and against 5 players you cant really do anything other than check-fold.

It depends on the type of freeroll. If the entry is free, there are many players entering hang out. No aspirations of winning.

fundiver199 said:

I am not doing it myself, but I have seen people open jam 100bbs+ and get called by the most ridiculous hands. So its actually not a bad way to get maximum value, if you have a premium starting hand early in a freeroll.

By contrast if you open to the standard 3BB, you usually get 5 callers, and your AA or KK often end going up in smoke, because someone hit something. Or your AK missed the flop, and against 5 players you cant really do anything other than check-fold.

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Haha yes I know , maybe the players who open jam 100bbs+ know something better than us.
Generally I want to go post flop and reduce as much as I can the high variance spots-in every tournament- but in some phases -open jamming into 2 shorter stacks / bubble phase - is one way play.

Yeap I agree and I am ok with a check fold play when deep stacked in the early stages , you can't do much multiway. You will have many opportunities in future hands to gather chips.
But I won't open 10x in order to take down a few chips or play heads up post flop

when players play in the freeroll they don’t think about losing chips / money, they just shove any hands, which means you just need to play with good hands and hope that you win, you don’t need to look for any strategy, sooner or later you will win!

Many players do not take freerolls seriously because it costs them nothing ...! and because they play recreationally without expecting anything ...! and others because they simply like to play "Bingo" in these tournaments ...!

Erik moraes said:

should play more seriously until you have a chance to make money without spending

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As thankfully there are many different freerolls if play a serious freeroll schedule on many sites one can play very loose and have some fun while growing rolls on 10+ different sites,
Depends on the freeroll though some have to be played more serious than others as greater prizepools.
Sometimes if have 7 or 8 games running from 0 to $215 buy in games there is a huge difference in how you approach these games while open shoving Q10 suited is ok in the freeroll under the gun probably as ok now less screens to focus on
I would never do it with serious buy ins.
Where the seriousness comes in is putting in a huge volume of freerolls and sticking to the schedule regardless of whether your bust even or you have access to thousands of dollars and regulary playing bigger buy in games.

Erik moraes said:

should play more seriously until you have a chance to make money without spending

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I like to take a serious approach always when playing, even if it's a freeroll.
Knowing the opponents will play looser than average though I make some adjustments

1) Try to see as many cheap flops as possible because implied odds are very high

2) Use overbetting and call down lighter postflop than you would in a regular MTT (this doesn't mean calling down with bottom pair, just slight adjustments)

3) Call ALL-INs preflop wider than usual, somethig like 77+ AJ+ (just because people shove any two doesn't mean you need to call A2o QJo etc, since they will always move in everyhand you can wait for a spot where you'll be a 70% favorite)

4) bluff a lot less in the early going, people don't like to fold, so why bother bluffing

5) Ramp up the aggression on the final table but not before. (In normal tournaments we would ramp up moving to the bubble but since the payouts are so small many players don't care about them, they do however care about the difference between a $1 cash and a $20 cash).

My approach with freerolls as with most small buyin events is to be selective, but to go for MAX VALUE when given an opportunity (ie a strong hand or an overly loose opponent) and once your stack is built you can pick people off for big chunks of chips. Patience as always and emotional control are key to achieving this.

A reason people play so loose is because of the opportunity cost of time, yes if you invest no time, then really you are losing nothing, but if you 4x your stack suddenly it may be worth taking seriously. The only consideration is that this can create bad habits and can you 'turn it off' after getting yourself into a gambling mode? If yes, go for it.

As always the best approach will be personal because it depends on how you value your time, skill, and enjoyment of the game. I hope you'll find these tips helpful either way

If you'd like to learn more about freeroll and small stakes MTT strategy I'm streaming a $50-$1Million bankroll challenge at http://twitch.tv/gripsed which has lots of small stakes action

If you'd like an in depth guide on how to win tournaments of all types check out http://gripsed.com/free where you can get over 6 hours of my most popular MTT strategy programs absolutely free!

Let's Get Stackin! :star:

The fact that many players are strongly expanding opening bands! To adjust to account for all play looser. Although the course and maniacs in such tournaments missing.

Freerolls bring all sorts

Freerolls bring out all sorts of players and most times the bad players will play the same whether it is a freeroll or a buy-in tournament. However, more skilled players that want to play solid poker will at times play way looser or more 'bingo' style in freerolls usually because they are trying to 'match' the style of the other players at their table.

Erik moraes said:

should play more seriously until you have a chance to make money without spending

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Not a serious game can be found in any tournament. Perhaps there is no mood. Maybe the card is not coming. Maybe the player stopped by to start the Allin and see the result. It happens to me. I'm not a robot to play the same in all situations. I used to run ollin won a lot of chips and then I think you need to play seriously. As a result, I won the freeroll many times in different rooms. But with the entrance for the money did not win a single tournament. Maximum 3 place. Then I started 3 allins in a row and in the first minutes I collected 8,000 chips from a stack of 1,500. Then I played seriously, because it was easier to crush other players with the stack. It was safe for me to go to bluff, they were welcome.

there is no invested money so there is no fear of loss and philosophy is double up or die

I'd say people don't play seriously in freerolls early on since busting early and winning nothing is better than busting close to the bubble and losing nothing, wasting a lot of time in the process. If you can build a strong stack early, it becomes a lot easier to survive those later stages where the blinds get higher. Since they have nothing to lose (and time to possibly gain), I can definitely see some of the appeal of punting off early

Its free to play low prizes, turbo structure,a lot of players,so many people only gamble in freerolls.

because its a freeroll and they have nothing to lose I guess this is the reason