My friends got me interested in poker but, unfortunately, I'm pretty strapped for money (no income). Despite that, I read up a good bit on the game and browsed these forums pretty thoroughly for beginner and novice tips and strategy, and decided I'd try to win a small sum from freerolls to see if I could start grinding out a bankroll.

However, I just can't seem to cash in the freerolls. I've played probably 15 different ones over the past week and I haven't landed in even the tiny payouts. It's starting to crack my confidence and take its toll on my interest in the game. It should be motivating me to get better, but all I keep seeing is guys with 4 times my stack calling huge PFRs with like Q8o...guess I'm not one to judge though.

I guess my question is, in general, would a player who can't even cash in a freeroll tournament probably be a losing player at 2 and 5 NL as well? I realize that's a difficult question to answer because the play formats are different, but I'm just wondering what people think.

Freerolls are all luck no skill even if you play every hand correctly you need alot of luck. save some money and deposit freerolls are no way to learn and just gives bad habits. ask your friend for some money or if he has some books ask to borrow some. you can also read 2+2 that will always help. gl

Cashing in freeroll tournaments is very hard -- there are usually huge fields for small prize pools. Also, I think they usually get into medium/shortstack mode play at a very early stage.
This means that anybody's edge is relatively small. So not cashing for 15 tournaments seems completely normal.

See it from a positive side: you are getting to play a hobby and practice at getting better at it for free, with a small chance of winning some money. Also, this experience can harden you a bit against the cruel reality of poker: you are going to lose often without doing anything at all wrong.
It can also help your patience, another important skill.

If you can't handle that, you are going to have to deposit a small amount of money ($20 or so) and give real money tournaments or cash games at the lowest level a try.

However, I'd just try to stick with freerolls. Possibly you can try getting rich in play money and sell that. Apparently some people will pay a few dollars per million play money dollars.

If you feel bad about not winning, read this:

"The Chris Ferguson Challenge.

But it's also worth noting that in his quest from zero to 10K it took him 7 months to get his bankroll up to $6.50
and thats a fulltilt poker pro. It then took him a further 9 months to turn $6.50 into 10K ..."

So, a poker professional got $6.50 in 7 months via freeroll. I imagine most people would find it harder.

Rest here: http://www.4kingpoker.com/article/78...ls_online.html

All MTT's require a lot of luck, but freerolls are just ridiculous. Even if you are the best player in the field by an absolute mile your edge is still relatively small.

If you have been reading up and have a generally know how of the game i would try somehow to deposit $20, and play 2NL with 10 buy-ins. It should be enough against the 2NL donks, and playing freerolls will probably just put you off poker.

TBH i doubt he was playing freerolls hardcore for 7 months. I reckon he gave up for a couple of months here and there because he had live events/couldn't be bothered.

But the point still stands. Cashing in freerolls is really hard.

I thought he went from $0 to 100k?

And yeah OP i played a lot of freerolls back in the day and it took me ages to cash.


imo just play super super super tight and ship premium hands everytime you get a chance. this way, when the luck runs out, you can end up with a decent stack, allowing you to sit back and keep waiting for hands throughout the bigger blind levels.

patience and SS strategy are essential. nvr just ship something random because you have 10bb's

I played a $2500 freeroll on ipoker a few days ago. about 600 entrants, w/10 min blind levels.

average stack was about 5k and blinds at 200/400, 10 from the bubble, after 4.5 hours

There were 3 limpers (LOL) and I had A7o on the BB and shiped for about 4k into 1600

someone called w/KQo in EP and rivered the K. I was 86.5% to win in that spot and just felt lyk crying when it happened, i just held my face for about 5 minutes with my brain hurting

anyway gl

Nope, it was 10k. But he could have kept going if he wished. It was more a case of proving you can get a solid bankroll starting from nothing.

Yeah, that's pretty decent advice actually. While it is not proper poker, hardly any of what goes on in a freeroll is.

Uhm. I think you need to listen to your own advice.

A7o is not a premium buddy.

"All MTT's require a lot of luck, but freerolls are just ridiculous. Even if you are the best player in the field by an absolute mile your edge is still relatively small."

Based on what? The worse your opponents are the greater your edge should be. Why should your edge be relatively small? I dont get it.

Freerollsplay with a large field and relatively short stacked. Also people won't fold a lot, so you have to win showdowns to win. A lot.
Even if you consistently get it in with ~ 75%, that still means you have only 25% chance to survive 4 all-ins.

I finished 27th in 10k field once, it was epic. i won a ticket to a even bigger freeroll then I busted in 20 minutes.

I think if you can even spare $20 it is worth it to just put money on the site... but I can attest to the freerolls being enough to establish a bankroll.

I literally used freeroll money to bankroll myself and eventually made it up to $2.5K before cashing out of my NON-rakeback account last year (I was attached to an affiliate before I knew about rakeback so I can't get it).

It took a LOOOOONG time, and a $500 random bonus to clear to get me motivated to play the freeroll money I had accumulated over the months. Some of my finishes included several final tables at NL Hold'em, several money finishes in PL Omaha including one freeroll win (I still have a screen of this somewhere), one 2nd place in Razz, one 3rd place in HORSE, and some cashes in that USA freeroll.

Yeah, it is possible.... but as others have said 15 MTTs with no cashes are nothing. I would say it is easier to cash in the Daily Dollar they run than to cash in ANY of their freerolls (I cashed in like 5 of these in a row recently, though my finish position got worse everytime, LOL).

^^ my friend did similiar, and he felt destroyed when he didnt cash in the next one, (10k entrants, 5 places got paid).

Join a site like PTP and start at the micros and build a roll. BOOM

A 2500 dollar free roll is pretty good with just 600 people in it. I would definitely play a free-roll like that. The ones on FTP is like 7500 people for 150 bucks, or like 10k people to qualify 250 people for a 1 or 2k prize pool in a sunday free roll (which ends up having like close to 10k people playing in it)

What were the restrictions on the 2500 dollar free roll with just 600 people? If those run all the time I'm gonna start playing on IPoker... even the PS free-rolls suck pretty hard, they all make you qualify for another freeroll in which you have to do really well, thus to make any money at all, you need to make deep runs in two consecutive tournaments, which is ridiculous to expect.

Freerolls = luck.

That's all you need to know.

TBH the best way is to play terrible towards the beginning of every freeroll and then if you build a nice stack this way tighten up and play smarter. Open shove with any pair or decent ace etc. Most of the time this will just get you knocked out, but every once in a while you'll find yourself with a sick stack. The only freeroll I ever cashed in I won $2.25 and turned it into $215(then lost it luls). So if you do cash, follow BRM and if you have one day of bad beats don't move up to chase losses

Oh yea, open shove the first hand of every freeroll and go from there.

It was lyk the first time they were limpers which indicated at least A6 or worse and maybe a small PP, so i shipped 10bb's into 4bb's which is a solid little amount to win this l8 in the tourney.

I was thinkin more of getting in the top 20 players or so and figured I was gonna get folds basically all OTT but wud flip a small %

The play is perfect 100% of the time imo, since noone with such a small stack, in such a late stage, is limping A8+ 88+, if theyve got that far.

you get 4 tokens for these tourneys as part of a first deposit bonus on titan, not sure about the other skins on ipoker.

barrow 10 bucks from someone deposit and start 2nl. Free rolls are not the way to go. Unless you're just playing for fun and don't want to try and make some money.

Freerolls are a waste of time, just deposit the minimum and learn bankroll management. Why do freerolls have no skill involved? Yes there are a ridiculous amount of donks but if these are standard structure tournaments and you put in decent volume then you can have a high ROI very easily. Also 15 tournaments mean absolutely nothing.

yea this is what i do if i dont have a massive stack from getting lucky in the first half an hour i dont bother suffering for another couple hours

It's not that the play formats are different. It's that the fifteen tournaments you have played don't bear any comparison to anything. You can play like Ivey and go 0-15. Or you could be the worst player in every freeroll you enter. Or anything in between. Yes it's disappointing but no more than that. As far as assessing your standard of play in any way shape or form it is (almost) totally insignificant so don't sweat it.

gl

Gotta love freerolls

Full Tilt Poker $150 Freeroll No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

MP1: t5410 108.20 BBs
Hero (MP2): t11110 222.20 BBs
CO: t6250 125 BBs
BTN: t4647 92.94 BBs
SB: t2635 52.70 BBs
BB: t1305 26.10 BBs
UTG: t1590 31.80 BBs
UTG+1: t18450 369 BBs
UTG+2: t2365 47.30 BBs

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is MP2 with 7 2
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t50, UTG+2 calls t50, 1 fold, Hero raises to t11110 all in, CO calls t6250 all in, 5 folds

Flop: (t12675) Q 2 4

Turn: (t12675) 6

River: (t12675) 6

Final Pot: t12675
Hero shows 7 2 (two pair, Sixes and Twos)
CO shows A K (a pair of Sixes)
Hero wins t12675


Edit: A long way to go ... but do far so good

Hahaha dream crushed

OP is right ...

Out in 497th