If you’re looking for a risk-free way to hone your tournament poker skills and attempt to build a bankroll to compete in more lucrative events on and offline, mastering freeroll poker tournaments should be one of the building blocks of your poker education.
It’s one of the best opportunities to expose yourself to competitive tournament poker, without putting your hard-earned money on the line.
The Concept of Freeroll Poker Vs. Real-Money Poker Tournaments
A freeroll poker tournament is exactly as the name suggests, a free entry into a tournament where it’s possible to win a real-money prize or a ticket securing qualification for another more valuable poker tournament. Satellites are often used for big live poker tournaments like the WSOP Main Event.
Freerolls are typically reserved for online poker rooms. You don’t see poker rooms on the Vegas Strip running free tournaments with guaranteed prizes.
In fact, for most poker novices, the idea of playing free poker tournaments online and winning part of a guaranteed prize pool will be very attractive indeed. However, prevailing regularly in freerolls requires you to adopt a very different mindset and strategy to the ones you might use in real-money poker tournaments.
Handling the Mayhem of the Early Levels in Freerolls
There’s no two ways about it, the early stages of a freeroll poker tournament are chaotic. Many players chance their arm in the opening levels of freerolls, searching for a quick double-up by winning an all-in against one or multiple opponents. Some players will be inclined to take this risk since they put no money on the line to play. If they get lucky in the early levels, they’ll then have a deep stack to work with into the latter stages. It sounds good in theory, but it’s a high-risk approach that has a limited shelf life.
The key to surviving in the early levels of a freeroll is to tighten up your own game. Become a genuine nit, only playing premium starting hands and other strong connectors in late position. If you’re dealt anything worse, just fold and enjoy watching the madness unfold. In fact, when you’ve folded hands, use the time to observe the other players at your table.
Which ones are adopting a similar approach? They are worth making note of as they could be taking it seriously like you.
Moving Through the Gears in Mid-to-Late Freeroll Levels
Once enough of the loose-aggressive players are eliminated from the tournament, the play generally moves into a more settled state by the mid-levels. At this point, you should start to get more creative with your hand ranges and look to semi-bluff or bluff in position when blinds and antes come into play.
Stealing blinds and putting maximum pressure on players with smaller chip stacks become hugely important in the race to avoid the “bubble” and cash at the very least. If you’re fortunate enough to reach the final table, it’s here where you can return to focusing on extracting full value from your strongest hands, while continuing to exert pressure on those you perceive to be weaker.
Accepting that freerolls play differently to a real money poker tournament is half of the battle. With patience and persistence, it’s still very possible to achieve good results from freerolls, building your experience in tournament poker.
