Free roll tournament strategy in poker
Saturday, April 16th, 2011No matter how many real money poker tournaments you’ve played in and how many poker strategy books you’ve read, bear in mind that when it comes to Freeroll poker, you’ve got to tear up the rule book.
The reason? Well, poker free roll players are a totally different breed of opponent. They’re not as good as the type of player you’ll find in a real money tourney. There more aggressive too and will play much more loosely. In fact, it’s possible that they might not turn up at all, so if that’s the case, don’t take it personally!
The truth is that whether they’re bored, frustrated or just decided to do something else, a freeroll player hasn’t committed any of his money to enter the tournament and will therefore leave whenever he wants.
If you’ve got an understanding of poker strategy though, it’s certainly going to help. It just means that a few little things need tweaking to ensure that you’ll become a profitable player!
1. First things first - Keep it Simple. You need to remember that your opponents are largely going to be players new to the game. They’re not going to know the right and wrong way to play and so will have no idea when they’re supposed to lay their cards down. With that in mind, don’t start bluffing as it just won’t work. Instead, keep your play basic - anything else will just cost you.
2. Play your big hands strong. In Freerolls, your starting requirements need to be a lot looser. Players haven’t got to worry about losing their funds, so they’ll play anything. Don’t start waiting for a pair of rockets to go all in, if you’ve got two face cards or a high pair, you might want to start thinking about doubling up while you still can.
3. Stay Tight. One of poker’s oldest strategies could have been written for the Freeroll Tournamet:”You’ll make the most money at an agressive table when you’re playing tight.”When people are going all in every hand, there’s definitely money to be made and the best way of doing this is to show a little patience and wait until you’ve got something half decent before you go ahead and call them.
4. Be wary come the end. Once you’re down to just a handful of tables left, you can be sure that everyone still in the tourney is there for the duration. There’ll also be slightly better players, meaning that you might need to change your strategy a little. Your starting requirements can go up a bit and we’d suggest affording your opponents a little more respect - especially when it comes to big raises.
If you keep these four points in mind, you’ll do pretty well in Freeroll tourneys. Just make sure you stay focused while you’re there - a lot of the players will be making mistakes, especially if they’re new so just make sure that you’re there to capitalise on them rather than making mistakes of your own.
It only takes one error to be going home on the bubble rather than with a nice paycheck.
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