Freerolls - Not worth playing?

[mrspolarbear]

Originally Posted by ominieks

I think from free roll you can get experience and money to start real money games

I started with freerolls the one problem I see now when I play a freeroll from when I started back 16 months ago is the play has changed.Players aren't worried about going all in as there is another freeroll waiting for them if they get knocked out.
I can't stand it especially when the blinds are low.Why go all in with 1500 just to take the blinds of 5/10.Ok they may get a caller but that is not the way to learn to play poker and you don't learn anything from it.Also they do it with any 2 cards.

Well I don't think you do.

[Drakken]

Why not just fold and profit from the low blinds to bide your time while donks eliminate each other? Unless you have a matching killer hand, let the idiots go all-in with crappy hands and lose.

After all, in freerolls, like in tournaments, the longer you last the better money you make. Even if a donk succeeds in winning all-in with a pair of deuces, at least another donk got eliminated. And that guy will probably either lose its winnings in a crappy all-in later, or sit out on its gains and exclude himself from the hands. In both cases, good players benefit if they play straight.

Even better: multipolar all-ins! That way even more crappy players get weeded in one flop! I always cheer when I see several people call an all-in, because it means that if everything goes right, I will gain automatically one or several ranks and bring myself closer to the pay-out ranks.

I, for one, am glad that donks exist. They allow other players to climb ranks almost for free and/or win good money with a totally clean conscience.

[xxmommaxx]

By placing in a few freerolls at Carbon Poker, I eventually built up a bank roll of about $15. One morning I woke up early and decided to play online poker for awhile. Being earlier than I normally would be online, I noticed a $3.30 tourney with a $625 guaranteed prize pool. That sounded worth my money since by then I had been placing a lot of the time in the freerolls...and at least winning back my money at small cash tables and .06 and .60 tourneys.

I couldn't believe it when I took first place! I won $227 since the prize pool had increased due to rebuys, which I never had to do . I withdrew some of the money right away and began playing a little with the rest. The next week bounty tourneys started at Carbon so I decided to try a small one...$2.20 and ended up coming in first and knocking out 12 people too....about $92.00 there...I'm still playing with that money a few months later...

So, in my opinion, playing freerolls can be profitable .

[alqazaha]

if you like poker you will play all the freerolls. freerolls will also improve your poker skills and if you get lucky you might finish 1st and get a lot back.

[cparker]

I'm pretty much at the same point right now - i burned my first $10 or so of freeroll money on cash games - and I'm now determined to build a BR slowly like Chris Ferguson did, so I'm following his bankroll rules. I'm up to $40 now, but that was the easy part because you don't risk much money during a freeroll . We'll see what happens when i move to real money games.

[ranthorjoe]

I still agree with the idea that freerolls are worth playing.
They give you experience in playing and the opportunity to have some fun playing poker, for no cost.
My only problem is that most of the Freerolls are run about 4am where I live.

[Skid008]

From my personal experience, I can say that first rounds in freeroll are like playing roulette. But what can we expekt at freerolls, many people are playing this way beacuse it is so many freerolls. Such players starts to play solid poker game after they win their first/second all in. I experienced many times when 5 players went all in with first hand. When I saw their cards I thought they must be crazy.

[Heden1026]

We agree - the first 30-60 minuttes og a freeroll is like playing the Lottery - but pokerplayers that are used to play often wait for the right hands - and so the go longer!

I ususually ends in the last 10% and then are close to the money - and the winnings I then spend on Sit'n'Gos with a little cashprice!

Freerolls mostly must be played secondhand - (more than one table)

[witl69]

I personally love playing freerolls it helps me learn patience in the game and knowing when to push and when to let it go .... I think being able to play passive/ aggressive at the right times is the true marks of a well rounded poker player

[sandbagger17]

I like the experience gained in the freerolls and the chance of winning a few bucks without using my $$$. The one thing is that you need the time and thats my biggest challenge