The Yo Yo of Freerolls

I have not been playing freeroll for very long but I have noticed something about my play and the format.

1) The standard raise is not quite enough to discourage callers . You raise 3-4x BB and still can get 4-7 callers on a full table. This make the amount of starting chips irrelevant. Blinds may be 25/50 but you are already having to risk 1/3 to 1/2 your stack on a hand to even attempt to push someone off the pot.

2) You just can't lose 2-3 hand in a row at any time and expect to stick around. The way people bet and bomb all in you have to win early to double up and then go from there.

3) I call it the tidal wave effect. Over half the people will be gone before the first break, and the money will be spread unevenly. After 15 minutes, you will see someone over 10k in chips and you have not even seen a hand worth a raise/call. The reason you know this is he just got seated to your left and makes it extremely expensive to play whenever you do play a hand.

4) I tend to do alot more folding after the flop. With the expensive betting styles if you don't catch a piece of the flop it is hard to play the rest of the hand. Odds just are not there very often.

Did I miss any?

there are a few ways to avoid some of the problems youre experiencing and still win chips...

at the beginning play SUPER TIGHT...dont waste your time with suited connectors or weak hands where you require a decent flop in order to win any chips (remember this is a freeroll, most of the people dont care about winning, they are playing for entertainment)
i would probably wait at least 30 mins - 1 hour before thinking i could bluff anyone from a pot, these are usually better quality players (with some exceptions of corse)
with the low blind structure early on you can afford to play probably 50+ hands without being in any danger of being blinded out of the game, and within this time you are always going to have a few winners...bottom line, when you enter a pot, be sure youre going to come out of the other side with the chips...

for a more detailed guide on freeroll strategies check out this thread

http://www.freerollforums.com/showth...inish+freeroll

theres lots of info on there from different players (all of which are good and have slightly different opinions on some areas, so just mess around with them and see which one works best for you!)

__________________
you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you cant fool all of the people all of the time!
lucos2k5 rulez!!

One thing I'd add to what lucos2k5 has already stated. Unless you get short stacked, don't let how you play in the early stages be driven by your chip position. For instance, if you have your initial 1000 chips and the leaders have 10K, there's no need to try to catch up right away if the total number of chips in play is a million (meaning the field started with 1000 entrants). You can lose a tournament early, but you can't win until the end.

one thing for me to add is just cause you get short stacked early on doesn't mean you can't win it. I've comeback with less than a 100 chips and made it all the way to the finally table.

another tip from the top:

i saw a pro poker player give this advice on "poker night live" on british TV about 2 months ago and have done it ever since

when in a tournament, be sure to not only observe your opponents actions, but every 20 minutes or so ask yourself questions abuot all the players on your table...start with the guy to your left, and work your way around..this is usually best done while youre not involved in the hand in progress(duh, lol )

you should be asking questions such as:
1) how many hands is he/she playing?
2)is he/she loose/loose-aggressive/tight-passive/tight-aggressive?
3)what kind of hands is he/she showing down?
4)what position are they in relation to you? (left/right) (this is obvious to most but it is overlooked by some to be unimportant)

__________________
you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you cant fool all of the people all of the time!
lucos2k5 rulez!!