Poker Freeroll Strategy for Beginners
by Dougie Goguen | Dec 6 2011
Freerolls are perfect for beginners, especially those willing to work a little bit.
If you've never tried them, freeroll tournaments are perfect for the novice poker player looking to get their feet wet without risking their chipstack. They attract a lot of players, many of whom are going to be gambling instead of playing poker, which means that if you're even just a little smarter than the rest and patient, you can help grow your bankroll with no real investment on your own part.
Once you've read this article, try your luck out in Bodog's online poker tournaments!In order to make money playing freerolls, you have to play in a lot of them. This shouldn't be a problem, really - they're free, after all! All you need is time and patience and the ability to deal with losses. The sort of players that flock to freerolls tend to be aggressive. Again: they're free, after all, so they don't have anything to lose by out-and-out gambling instead of playing poker. Realizing this, and realizing that you are going to lose the majority of freerolls you enter, will make it all the better when you are able to actually win the events.
Because of these aggressive players, the start of any freeroll is a frenzy of rather insane activity. Players who are dependent on luck with do the Johnny Chan and push all-in first thing, hoping to double up immediately. You'll see much more player attrition in the early stages of a freeroll than you will in any other form of poker tourney and you might well be one of them thanks to the fickle finger of fate, but there's always another freeroll waiting for you, just around the corner. Staying tight is the secret to making it through the first few rounds of any freeroll until the blinds hit a certain level. This brings us to our next point.
When you start a freeroll tournament, you'll notice that a certain subsection of players will be sitting out and letting their blinds go to the pot. They're waiting until the gambling stop and the actual poker player begins. This gives you a chance to grab their blinds early on to benefit your chipstack but you need to be aware: dynamics in a poker tournament can change very, very quickly and it's important to be able to shift your game into high gear when necessary. When you're at the final table, you're playing against real poker players, not the gamblers. Oh, sure, there's going to be some outliers, but sticking to this truth is going to help you make it to the end more often,
Play free online poker at Bodog today and enjoy the site that's bringing fun back to poker!Keep this in mind: you are going to lose the majority of freerolls in which you play. That's just the nature of the game when so many others are being very aggressive. Know that it's not your fault as long as you played the best poker possible and move on to the next one as soon as you can.
