winning freerolls

[darn]

im tryin to figure out the best approach to these friggin things. i usually just sit back and let all the donkeys take each other out.... play real tight but agressive when i know i got it. this ususally gets me pretty far but nota nice stack. i eventually get clipped off but one of the donks thats been gettin lucky playin like a fool and has like eleventeen million more chips then me. its so frustrating to play for 4 and a half hours and get nothing.... but i cant see playin like these dumbies who eventually get cuaght and lose a top place stack in like 4 or 5 hands.. id break something

[grimReaper]

im tryin to figure out the best approach to these friggin things. i usually just sit back and let all the donkeys take each other out.... play real tight but agressive when i know i got it. this ususally gets me pretty far but nota nice stack. i eventually get clipped off but one of the donks thats been gettin lucky playin like a fool and has like eleventeen million more chips then me. its so frustrating to play for 4 and a half hours and get nothing.... but i cant see playin like these dumbies who eventually get cuaght and lose a top place stack in like 4 or 5 hands.. id break something

I use to play a lot freerolls, cashed now and then, now just occasionally play PLO and Daily Dollar. As for regular NL Holdem freerolls, in the beginning usually half of table is playing, so you really gotta open up your range and play a lot of flops. Usually, when it's 5 handed and the blinds are low, I won't raise w/ unpaired big cards like AQ, reason being, if I raise, the table might fold and I'll get absolutely no value b/ there's no ante, blinds are worthless, and since it's short handed it's unlikely someone else has something playable, but if I call I can get a weaker ace to call down if we both make aces, I get value. Sometimes I'll limp-raise all in if someone else raises, only b/c AQ would have value there. And of course as the tournament progresses, blinds get bigger and all of the sitter-outters are eliminated and you're no longer playing short-handed, you obviously play regular poker and would raise w/ AQ pf.

Haven't played much regular NL Holdem tournaments recently, but next time you're close ITM, notice how many chips you have and remember how comfortably you made the money. That should be a good indicator of how much you should gamble when there are say 300 left. When those tournaments were 2400 man/women tournaments, having around 50k at 300 remaining would get you ITM.

You should play the Daily Dollar whenever you can. It's the fastest freeroll you'll cash in, starts at 5:25EST, ends by 8:15 EST, and you'll cash often, I probably cash one in six times.

And if you have problems in the beginning of the regular tournaments, don't worry, it's not you. It's FTP's tournament structure, every non-double/super stacked FTP tournament is a sorry excuse for poker, equalling the field for the donkeys as variance(luck) is a huge role in the beginning playing their structure. And their turbo tournaments? Horrible.

gl

[KINO2WIN]

do you want to have a soluction? stay away from the freellos 98 per cent of the times its a waste of the time,and you wont learn anything from them. most of times youll knocked by the most unreal hand that can be played. in the begining i used to play freerolls but i got the conclusion that its not worthing that time.
the best way to win its call like a moron in the begining and get lucky, its how almost everybody does in the freerolls. when they started to have a nice stack they stop the stupid moves and try to dont have big damages.

[travz21]

Play a lot of them.

[grimReaper]

do you want to have a soluction? stay away from the freellos 98 per cent of the times its a waste of the time,and you wont learn anything from them. most of times youll knocked by the most unreal hand that can be played. in the begining i used to play freerolls but i got the conclusion that its not worthing that time.
the best way to win its call like a moron in the begining and get lucky, its how almost everybody does in the freerolls. when they started to have a nice stack they stop the stupid moves and try to dont have big damages.

Theoretically this is true, don't play them (unless it's Daily Dollar), but IMHO I don't see the play significantly different between freerolls and low stakes turbo tournaments. In the former, some people play bad b/c they don't know any better, in the latter people play bad b/c that's the play FTP encourages by the environment it establishes. I would even say regular tournaments instead of turbo.

And as a side note, that becomes the equilibrium of the game: play bad. Many times calling a check raise all in in these games is good (with say top pair and Q kicker) b/c everyone is desperately gambling, but obviously something you'd fold if you had a playable stack and blinds weren't going up every other minute.

[RiverstarsVictim]

And if you have problems in the beginning of the regular tournaments, don't worry, it's not you. It's FTP's tournament structure, every non-double/super stacked FTP tournament is a sorry excuse for poker, equalling the field for the donkeys as variance(luck) is a huge role in the beginning playing their structure. And their turbo tournaments? Horrible.

Haha, they cant be any worse than the $3k megafreeroll I played on Party last night.

40,000 players and a 2 minute blind structure. After about 20 minutes I think I'm doing ok, 20k+ chips with blinds at 300-600 and 3 or 4 just got eliminated from my table, with that came a pause, a long pause, presumedly to re-balance tables...or so I thought. About 5 minutes later we finally got dealt another hand, the blinds now 1200-2400 and still only 5 players at the table, I folded and then another long pause. After a few minutes waiting I got moved to another table, got dealt 1 hand before being moved again, straight into the big blind seat with blinds now at 10-20,000, with antes I'm all in. I think I won a side pot or something as I survived and still had chips left after putting in small blind. I folded next hand and thought great, at least I'm late position and should make the money. Nope, I got moved again, 2 seats left of big blind. The hand they were playing ended and then came the 5 minute break Break over, my 5k+ chips now reduced to 1k+ after paying antes, I get dealt AQo and without thinking put the rest of my chips in. Needless to say I lost just 30 something places outside the money, if only I had folded AQ

I seriously doubt FTP turbos could be any worse than that!

[grimReaper]

Haha, they cant be any worse than the $3k megafreeroll I played on Party last night.

40,000 players and a 2 minute blind structure. After about 20 minutes I think I'm doing ok, 20k+ chips with blinds at 300-600 and 3 or 4 just got eliminated from my table, with that came a pause, a long pause, presumedly to re-balance tables...or so I thought. About 5 minutes later we finally got dealt another hand, the blinds now 1200-2400 and still only 5 players at the table, I folded and then another long pause. After a few minutes waiting I got moved to another table, got dealt 1 hand before being moved again, straight into the big blind seat with blinds now at 10-20,000, with antes I'm all in. I think I won a side pot or something as I survived and still had chips left after putting in small blind. I folded next hand and thought great, at least I'm late position and should make the money. Nope, I got moved again, 2 seats left of big blind. The hand they were playing ended and then came the 5 minute break Break over, my 5k+ chips now reduced to 1k+ after paying antes, I get dealt AQo and without thinking put the rest of my chips in. Needless to say I lost just 30 something places outside the money, if only I had folded AQ

I seriously doubt FTP turbos could be any worse than that!

That ridiculous. I wonder if you can contact support for constantly being moved into BB. It's a big deal b/c it's turbo.