Building a Bankroll from Nothing
written by BeatTheFish.com
...Fishy
says, "Even I can't play 5 hours to win $10!"
With so many online
poker sites vying for your business, the promotions are virtually
endless. Every poker room offers you an initial deposit bonus to
reward you for making your first deposit, and freeroll tournaments
are starting to really take off. Freerolls are tournaments hosted by
the poker room that don’t cost anything to enter, but allow you to
win real money if you finish in one of the top places. A lot of
freerolls give you very little money for your efforts. These are
usually the tourneys that don’t have any sort of requirement to
enter. Anyone with an account can play in them. I recently saw a $50
total prize pool freeroll at a popular online poker room. Almost
2000 people played in it, and they paid out the top 18 players. The
top 18 players?! Out of 2000?! That’s less than 1% of the total
number of entrants. Typical online tournaments pay out at least 10%
of the field. Plus, everyone up until 3rd place made $1.
The tourney was down to 3 players, and I was shocked to see that it
had gone on for over 5 hours! Now, if I’ve just beaten 1996 players
and spent 5 hours on a tournament, I better at least get $1
and a giant chocolate chip cookie.
The real freerolls
to look for are the ones that limit the amount of entrants by
imposing some sort of requirement. A lot of Prima rooms have
tourneys that are open to anyone who’s played 100 raked hands in the
past 24 hours. Many online poker rooms have freerolls that cost a
certain number of player points to enter. These tournaments are
preferable because they’re not open to everyone under the sun, which
means that you’re not going to have to play as long or beat such a
massive amount of players to get to the money. The poker rooms
usually offer a higher prize pool for these tournaments.
I recently played
in a freeroll that was only open to player who had registered their
new poker account within the last week. I was eligible for this,
even though I hadn’t deposited any money in the site yet. The poker
room only advertised for this via e-mail, so only about 300 players
showed up. The prize pool was a very generous $5,000. A few lucky
beats later, and I finished in 10th place for a $100
prize. This funded my poker account without me ever having to make a
deposit. The site has since become one of my favorites and I’ve been
able to play some pretty juicy games with my $100 bankroll.
Remember, when you
do play freerolls you should probably employ a few extra strategies
to ensure that you finish in the money. Firstly, you have to realize
that players will be willing to gamble much more, as they don’t have
a buy-in to risk. Thus, freerolls usually start out pretty wild.
Unless you really have a premium hand, I would stay out of the way.
Even if you do have a premium hand, your chances of winning got way
down if 3 or 4 players are willing to play with you. Just play your
strong cards and try to get a couple of double-ups in. Also, be
aware many players who register for a freeroll don’t actually show
up. They still have a spot at the table, but they fold every hand
automatically. Just call and you’ll get their money if they’re on
the blind. Freerolls also tend to play fairly quick, and half the
field is usually gone within an hour.
Spotting some great
freerolls and playing them right can allow you to build your
bankroll from nothing. Even if you already have a bankroll, they can
be a great way to earn some extra free money or just as a side game
if your table is slow.
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Strategy
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