Best Strategy for Playing Freeroll Tournaments?

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Kpaprince

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  • #1
Hello everyone,
I would like to know what strategy works best in freeroll tournaments.
Should we play tight in the early stages or take risks to build a stack quickly?
I see many players going all-in very early, so I’m curious how experienced players handle freerolls.
Any tips or personal experiences would be helpful. Thanks!
 
john_entony

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  • #3
Freerolls are very different from tournaments with cash buy-ins. Players in freerolls are not afraid to take risks and experiment, so they will more often call your raises on the pre-flop and on the board. I think the best advice is to play by card and bluff very rarely. :unsure:
 
Iryna Stryzheuskaya

Iryna Stryzheuskaya

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  • #4
The best strategy for playing freerolls is to play a lot of them. Then there will be a chance to win money for your starting bankroll.
 
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austral

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  • #5
Extreme variance → patience.
Don’t try to win every freeroll.
You make money if you play many of them and play well.
 
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machinm19

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  • #6
I recommend using them as a platform to gain experience and try different strategies. You will naturally find what’s the best style for you if you play enough of them.
 
mariale_1990

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  • #7
Every freeroll is different. For example, Cardschat freerolls are more relaxed than other freerolls. There are freerolls where the madness starts as soon as the first hand is dealt, and I've found that the prize doesn't make players play "better" or more "seriously." I played some freerolls where the prizes were good; there was one with a 20k prize pool, and from the very beginning, many players were betting everything, for example, 28o, any AX. They didn't care about anything. But you have to develop your strategy as you play the tournament. The first thing you should look at is how often the blinds change and how much your starting stack is. If it's a very fast tournament, you should try to build chips quickly, but if the tournament is a bit slower and you have a good starting stack, then you can play without much pressure, more tight, more cautiously, and wait for your moment.
 
kmiarka

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  • #8
austral said:
Extreme variance → patience.
Don’t try to win every freeroll.
You make money if you play many of them and play well.
Very true.

Since bankroll management doesn't exist when it comes to playing freerolls, the key is to find them a lot.

Be careful though, as I trapped myself into too opening too many not allowing me to sufficiently focus and having lower results rather than to resign from 2 weaker and focus on 2 with biggest pot.
 
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  • #9
freerolls are all about survival early and aggression late. At the start, the fields are huge and super loose, so just play tight and let the maniacs bust each other. Don’t waste chips chasing marginal spots when everyone’s calling with garbage. Once the field thins out, shift gears—start stealing blinds and pushing your stack when the average stacks get shallow. The payouts are usually top-heavy, so min-cashing doesn’t mean much. The real strategy is to stay patient early, then ramp up aggression when it counts.
 
Newzooozooo

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  • #10
I would recommend one very simple thing. Don't play with junk. If you want to gain experience and gradually improve your game, just don't play with junk. Let others play however they like, but you just don't play with junk :)
 
KeyPatience

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  • #11
Kpaprince said:
Hello everyone,
I would like to know what strategy works best in freeroll tournaments.
Should we play tight in the early stages or take risks to build a stack quickly?
I see many players going all-in very early, so I’m curious how experienced players handle freerolls.
Any tips or personal experiences would be helpful. Thanks!
Play tight any time!
All the newbie fish are self-destructive bombs!
They themselves will explode and handover their stacks to you by getting eliminated in a silly way at some point!
 
Claudiunm

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  • #12
There are several types of freerolls. We have the ones here at CardsChat, which are like a paid buy-in tournament, and there are crazy shootouts where no rules can be applied. For CardsChat freerolls, play traditional poker as if you were in a paid tournament. In the others, you should see all the flops that come out cheap at the beginning of the tournament when the blinds are low. As the blinds go up, reduce your range. If you win a premium or strong hand, raise aggressively or go all in. You don't want to be in a freeroll for 2 hours to receive 7 cents. So don't be afraid. If they let you see the flop and you hit top pair on the flop, bet high. If you didn't, fold.
The goal is to build a reasonable stack for the later stages of the tournament where the maniacs have already fallen and you can adopt a more or less normal style.
 
TheniT

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  • #13
In freerolls, you have to start by playing a few hands at the beginning, analyzing your opponents. Once you have the information, you can play more hands against the tight players and play strong hands against the maniacs.
 
kaynbergo

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  • #14
I recommend playing within the available maps and not bluffing too much in freerolls. Many players will easily go all-in with you with a weak hand. Play as many freerolls as you can and then you'll just have more luck playing some of them.
 
Igor Popadyk

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  • #15
Depending on the structure, often freerolls in structure resemble more lotirey, so it is worth playing more aggressively
 
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