Freeroll your way to poker success

Freeroll your way to Poker Success!

One of the easiest ways to break into online poker is by playing poker freerolls. Freerolls are defined as a multi player tournament where there is no entry fee for the players. Typically, freerolls will have either a cash award or some form of buy in to a larger event.

As poker continues to become more competitive at online sites, the number of sites offering freerolls continues to grow. There are sites that offer freerolls every 2 hours as well as sites that offer freerolls with total prize pools of up to $50,000. One of the biggest freerolls to date is the $1,000,000 freeroll put on by paradise poker. (http://www.paradisepoker.com)

Some freerolls are not technically free though, a number of sites offer larger pot freerolls with raked hand requirements. Raked hands are real cash hands you have played over a period of time. Always look to see if the freeroll you are interested in has a requirement before trying to register.

Here are some basic strategy tips for playing freerolls:

During the early stages of any freeroll, the chips are cheap. Try to avoid risking chips on marginal hands. Any wins you make at these early levels will be devalued quickly as the blinds increase. It is probably better to only play strong hands in late positions early on.

Due to the nature of freerolls, expect to see many all-ins early… Do not get sucked in to playing a hand you wouldn’t risk all your chips on at the final table.

Use position as your ally, Think long and hard about checking if you feel you have the best hand. I feel it is better to go ahead and bet out if you think you have the hand won. Grow that pot or win it right there

As the tourney goes on, you will reach a point where antes are added. Try to make bets into these pots that are equal or above the blinds and antes. The intent is to win 2 out of 4 bets this way, remember to only play in late position unless you are holding a monster!

Go with your gut – first instincts are usually right. Try to stick to what you feel

Two-thirds of the time the flop will help no one. Do not assume your opponent always has the ace king

Never show cards – why empower your opponent with this information?

Once you do start winning some cabbage playing freerolls, you have a few choices:

If allowed, you can take your winnings and run

Play ABC poker (high pairs in late position only) in ring games and pray for the math to hold true

Play buy in multi table tournaments or sit-n-gos and use the strategies outlined above to win

“Where do I find these freerolls?” Good question! Most poker websites have a tournament listing. You can search each site for the ones that interest you or use one of many freeroll tracking websites. My site, http://freerolls.drawdead.com is one of the oldest and most established freeroll listings available. You can enter your time zone and see what freerolls are left for the day and even decide to see ones that have requirements or are purely free to play