Playing the Early Stages of a Freeroll Tournament

9 sep. 2015 7:30

Written by: Jeremy Olson

Freeroll poker tournaments are extremely popular among players because they give them the opportunity to play in a tournament for free. But just because you don’t have to pay anything to get into these tournaments does not mean that you should play as if you’ve got nothing to lose. In fact, your most valuable asset is on the line in a freeroll tournament – your time!

So if you don’t want to waste your time, you’ll need to know how to play the early stages of a freeroll. And the first thing you should realize is that a lot of your opponents aren’t going to play freerolls like a normal tournament. Since they didn’t need to pay anything to enter, the majority of them are going to play like maniacs. This means they’ll be playing a single ace like it’s the nuts, and will be trying to double up every chance they get.

With this being the case, your strategy should be to play tight/aggressive and wait until the good cards come. As soon as they do, be willing to call any huge raise or all-in call in the early going. This tight/aggressive strategy will still leave you vulnerable to busting out early, but it will at least give you the advantage over your maniac opponents.

The key thing to remember with freerolls is that a much smaller percentage of players will receive payouts. That being said, you really need to make moves in the early going while avoiding the overly-aggressive players. By playing tight/aggressive and waiting for the big cards to come, you give yourself a chance to build your chip stack and compete with other players in the middle and late stages of a freeroll.