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The 5 Most Important Tips for Online Poker Freerolls


Online poker freerolls are a great way to learn the basics of poker when starting out. You also have the chance of winning real money as you learn. As you become more experienced and start to build a bankroll however, you will realise how much bad play makes up a freeroll. It is very hard to be consistently successful at poker freerolls, but not impossible. This is what this article is all about, five top tips to help you crush online poker freerolls.

Tip 1 – Be tight till the donkeys have gone

In an average freeroll of 1000 participants, around 500-700 players will either play like they don’t want to be there, or simply are not there. They will go all-in with any two cards, no matter what position they are in, their opponents etc. They just play horrible poker. It makes the game more or less all-in or fold for the first half an hour or so. It is even more unfortunate when they strike it lucky and start doubling up. They can even become the top stack but continue to go all-in each and every hand.

The only thing you can do about this is sit tight and be patient. You can try your luck with a premium hand, but because of the amount of players that will call, your chance of winning is pretty slim. After around half an hour most of these players should be long gone, and of the remaining players they will either have a very large stack and have settled down, or just have a smallish stack size.

Tip 2 – Know your chances are slim

Although this sounds defeatist, the chances are you won’t reach the money stages of the freeroll. This is because there are so many players, playing such bad poker it takes a small miracle to reach the final table. Luck plays a huge factor in poker and you will have to win literally every coin flip you are involved in, not to mention every hand in which you are ahead and even a few pots where you are dominated. Without that bit of luck, you stand no chance of making the money.

Tip 3 – Noticing the sit outs

On some online poker sites, it is not unusual to be seated at a table in which you are the only player sitting in. As these tournaments are free to enter, players feel less obliged to play despite entering, or may simply forget because the tournament is just not important to them. A lot of people see sit outs as a drawback but that is not the case. You may be lucky enough to be sitting to the left of a couple of sit outs so you can steal their blinds, but either way, sit outs at your table are an advantage.

When you first get seated at your table, take a quick glance around and see how many usernames have “Sit Out” next to them. Say for example if you are playing 10 handed but 4 players are sitting out, you are essentially playing 6 handed. This completely changes the dynamics of the game and allows you to switch your strategy to a more aggressive style.

Tip 4 – Watching when the style of the game changes

As we mentioned in tip 1, the first half an hour of a tournament is more like all-in or fold. After this however, the game changes. It becomes more like a low limit MTT, although not exactly the same. You will still get the same loose play, but much less volume. The players will start to completely change and as you near the money, they will tighten up dramatically. This is because the money is so important to them to start their online bankroll, and they have probably been playing for hours and hours and want some sort of reward for their time. When this happens you must change your style of play. As you should know, when the table tightens up, you must become more aggressive and start stealing blinds which at this level, should be quite desirable.

Tip 5 – Don’t become disillusioned

This isn’t really a tip for winning online poker freerolls, but some advice for playing normal MTT’s. Poker freerolls are like no other variation of poker. The only type of poker you can compare a freeroll to is play money poker, as in both games the participants have nothing to lose.

You simply cannot afford to become fixed in your ways when you start to play real money poker. You will not find play like this in any real money game, so you cannot play in the same way either. To brush up on your real money tournament skills, check out some of our tournament articles.