I played a freeroll today to see what it was like and I was surprised that play wasn't much different than a $1 MTT. I thought that having money on the line, even a dollar, would make a pretty big difference.

The one place that it did seem to make a difference was that a lot of freeroll players, with nothing at risk, didn't care if they missed a bunch of hands, or didn't play at all. I played for 45 minutes and always had multiple inactive players at my table.

Sometimes more than half of the table was inactive. I realized that with the number of active players constantly changing, I had no idea how to adjust on the fly at what was supposed to be a nine-player table.

I play a lot of SNGs and I thought that I knew how to adjust to table sizes. I realize now that in a SNG the dynamics are different and I depend on that.

In a SNG I am often with the same opponents for an hour or more. I can usually tell when players are trying to fold into the money, or when the big stack is a bully who's making it his job to knock players out, or when the blinds will often fold to button steals. Of course, some of the same principles apply to MTT final tables as well.

In the freeroll I was always at a short table with none of those SNG/final table clues. I might be playing five-handed for an orbit, then it would be seven-handed, or maybe four-handed. Suddenly being at a 5-max table, or whatever the number was that hand, with none of the SNG dynamics was really confusing and I had no idea how to adjust on the fly.

I think it's a big leak that I don't know how to quickly adjust to different table sizes with no reads. Any help that you can provide is appreciated.

Don't get caught up by the sitouts. Before each hand, look to see who's sitting out. If you're utg+1 but the HJ and CO are sitting out, then treat it like you're utg+3, no big deal. It's the same issue people have when they say they don't know how to play 6max. Well, instead of saying idk what to do utg in 6max, treat it like you're LJ in 9max.

You definitely want to open wider when the blinds are sitting out, especially the big blind. You can be a little more aggressive when you're in the middle position and the button is sitting out as it's more likely you'll get position for the hand. If lots of players are sitting out and there are antes, then you might want to be a little more aggressive to try and steal that dead money. But long story short, don't worry too much about it. Just pay attention and play poker.