How to Find Poker Freerolls Online

by Josh H | Owner and Editor-in-Chief

Here’s the bottom line: There’s no question that finding the best poker freeroll tournaments can boost your bankroll at no cost. Who doesn’t love a little free money?

Unfortunately, there’s a big problem: there are so many awful poker freerolls out there that aren’t worth your time. There are also so many poker rooms out there that it’s almost impossible to manually scan all of their freeroll tournament offerings.

That’s where I come in.

Rank	Daily Freerolls	Tournament Link
1	8	REGISTER NOW Read Review
2	1	REGISTER NOW Read Review
3	3	REGISTER NOW Read Review
4	8	REGISTER NOW Read Review
5	7	REGISTER NOW Read Review

I’ve been playing online poker since 2004 and I know when I see a quality freeroll on the schedule.

So, what I won’t be showing you is:

Poker rooms that offer minuscule freeroll tournaments simply to get players to download their software.
Sites that require huge amounts of gameplay that will only appeal to the diehard grinders who don’t need freerolls anyway.

A select few offer good value for free tournaments and little or no requirements. That’s what you’ll find right here.

I’ve researched and played personally at just about all of the most reputable and biggest online poker sites out there that offer some kind of free poker tournament.

This is my collection of freeroll sites that I truly believe offer the best combination of value, lack of requirements, and time commitment.

BetOnline has removed their classic hourly freerolls, but still hosts the occasional free poker event. The one you can bet on happening every month is the $1,000 guaranteed Casino Freeroll.

To earn entry into this freeroll, you just have to complete a ‘mission’. This week, all BetOnline is asking you to do is wager $10 on a specified slot in the online casino. The mission changes every so often, so make sure you check every week to find out what the criteria is to gain entry.

BetOnline

Name: BetOnline Poker
Website: betonline.ag
US Players accepted: Yes
Bonus: 100% and $135 in free bets
Traffic: #3 in US market
In operation since: 1991 in brick-and-mortar form
Full review: BetOnline Poker review

BetOnline Freerolls

Only for depositors
Casino freeroll held weekly
Find out how to gain entry by checking My Missions
$1,000 guaranteed prize pool

Play at BetOnline Poker Now

Blackchip Poker actually shares the same network as ACR Poker so you can play in up to 8 $50 freerolls per day. On Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, they are PLO8 tournaments and the rest of the week, they are traditional Texas Hold’em Events.

Blackchip Poker

Name: Blackchip Poker
Website: blackchippoker.eu
US Players accepted: No
Bonus: 100% welcome bonus
Traffic: #2 worldwide
In operation since: 2012
Full review: Black Chip Poker review

Blackchip Poker Freeroll Tournaments

8 freeroll tournaments every day
No deposit neceessary
$50 guaranteed in all freerolls
A mix of PLO and Texas Hold’em Poker tournaments

Play at Black Chip Poker

Bovada has always ranked highly in my estimation as top poker site, but its lack of freeroll tournaments has always been a bugbear of mine. Fortunately, the poker room has finally gotten the message and decided to offer players a few opportunities every week to take part in MTTs without having to spend money on a buy-in.

There are now three freerolls available every day at Bovada, which run at 11am, 3pm and 5pm.

It’s definitely not as many as you’ll find on sites like ACR Poker, but it’s definitely a huge improvement on their previous offering, which was none.

You should stay in touch with the Bovada community by checking their forums often and signing up to their newsletter. Every so often, the online poker room will host special freeroll events.

For example, there was a Refer-A-Friend freeroll tournament event for about a month. While these events don’t come around very often, there are definitely worth taking part in.

Bovada Poker

Name: Bovada Poker
Website: bovada.lv
US Players accepted: Yes
Bonus: 100% poker bonus
Traffic: #1 worldwide
In operation since: 2011
Full review: Bovada Poker review

Bovada Poker Freerolls

Three freerolls a day
No real requirements aside from being a depositing player
Up to $20 prize pools

Play at Bovada Poker Now

ACR Poker is one of the best online poker sites for US players who are looking for free poker tournaments. This popular poker room offers 8 freeroll poker tournaments every day at midnight, 3am, 6am, 9am, 12am, 3pm, 6pm and 9pm.

Each freeroll tournament features a $50 prize pool, which is a lot more than the measly $10 guarantees they used to offer in their on-demand freeroll poker games.

ACR Poker

Name: ACR Poker
Website: acrpoker.eu
US Players accepted: Yes
Bonus: 100% up to $2,000
Traffic: #2 in US market
In operation since: 2001
Full review: ACR Poker review

ACR Poker Freerolls

8 freerolls daily
Prize pool is $50 for each
Hundreds of players get involved
Completely free to enter, no deposit necessary for existing players
$250 private freerolls for our new depositors

Play at ACR Poker Now

What Is A Freeroll Poker Tournament?

A freeroll is a free online poker tournament where you can usually win real money. Sometimes poker sites offer freerolls with tournament tickets as prizes in lieu of real money prizes.

This might sound like they are not worth playing for, but the tournaments that the tickets are for can come with some pretty hefty guarantees – take ACR Poker’s Venom tournaments and OSS events. These are million-dollar tournaments that you can win your way into without having to spend any money at all.

Free rolls are structured with a standard poker tournament format and starting chips, but blind levels are often shorter to finish the game in a quicker timespan. Most free poker tournaments have blind levels of 10 to 15 minutes so they’re not quite turbos but they are quite quick to finish.

Examples of Formats

Freeroll poker tournaments come in all shapes and sizes. Here are some examples of the different types of free poker tournaments that you might encounter:

Freeroll poker tournaments at an online poker room that’s free for everyone to enter with no restrictions.
On-demand poker freerolls that are open to everyone and starts when 300 players register.
Tournaments that are free to enter, but only available to players who have made a deposit in the past calendar month.
Exclusive freerolls that awards free entry into high value MTTs but are only open to poker players who have reached the highest player rewards tier.

poker freerolls without depositing — There are plenty of options to play freeroll tournaments without ever making a deposit

How Poker Freerolls Work

Poker freeroll tournaments are just like any other multi-table tournament except that there is no entry fee. Many top online poker sites offer free rolls that are open to all players without any requirements, giving every player the opportunity to win real money prizes without spending any of their own money.

Other sites require a number of player points or raked hands in order to qualify for the event.

Freeroll tournaments have exploded in popularity over the past 15 years, as new players or experienced players with limited bankrolls compete for a prize pool without spending any real money. These events typically fill up very quickly, but they are great fun when you get involved.

How can I play for free without depositing?

Find a poker site that hosts no-restrictions freerolls. Just about every site does in some form with Black Chip Poker and ACR Poker being my top picks at the moment. Here’s what the process is to get started without depositing.

1. Visit a site that hosts poker freeroll tournaments.
2. Download the poker site software. Some sites, like Bovada, offer freerolls on their no-download platform.
2. Sign up for a free real money poker account. This usually requires minimal information and, at most, will be your name, email address, and home address.
3. Find the poker freeroll in the tournament section. Most poker site software will allow you to only show free-to-enter ones. Just use the filter and select “freerolls” or set your minimum and maximum buy-in amounts to $0.
4. Enter it and play for a chance at real money prizes for free.

Are there poker freeroll tournaments for US players?

Yes, and, in fact, my top-rated site for freeroll tournaments without restrictions accepts US players. These are arguably most important for those from the USA because depositing often means extra hassle.

The few reputable American online poker sites also vary greatly in terms of player traffic, software, and tournament schedules. Freerolls can be an easy and free way to scope out all of those aspects.

winning a poker freeroll — How do you actually try to win a poker freeroll? Take a break and only play Aces or Kings until all the nuts bust out early.

How do poker freeroll tournaments work?

The actual freeroll poker tournament works identically to any other real-money multi-table tournament so you can test drive the feel of the poker website without investing anything.

The best poker format, for me, is one with short levels to get through the tournament in a decent amount of time. Freerolls can draw several hundred up to several thousand players so traditional long blind intervals are impractical.

What kind of tournaments are there?

Freerolls are usually thought of as free-for-all crapshoots with tiny prizes and massive fields. However, there are actually several variations:

No-restrictions. These usually have a prize pool of $100 or less. Entrants may be up to 5,000
Recent deposit requirement
Poker player point buy-ins
Player reward tier threshold
Private community-run

poker freerolls for US players — Tons of freerolls are still available to US players and, truly, they’re the players who need them most

How do you win?

With a lot of patience and luck, and maybe a bit a skill at the final table. Poker freeroll tournaments go a lot like play money tables for the majority of the tournament: half of the table goes all-in every hand and things turn into a lottery with little-to-no skill involved.

My best advice would be to simply wait out the craziness early unless you have pocket Aces or Kings. Those are the only two hands you should call multiple all-ins with and even pocket Kings are questionable when opponents will be playing any Ace.

Wait it out unless you hit a monster hand and start really playing when 50-75% of the field has busted out.

Finding poker freeroll passwords

When browsing for the best poker freeroll tournaments in the tournament section at a given poker site you’ll likely run into dozens of password-protected events with unusual titles. These are private community freerolls, hosted by a specific poker room or organization. They use a freeroll password to restrict entry only to their members.

One of the most unethical practices that has always disgusted me is the stealing of poker freeroll passwords from private communities, often to post on a leech website dedicated to these scummy practices.

Other desperate freeroll players see password freerolls in a tournament list, visit the community listed in the title, and pose as a member simply to get the password. What a bottom-feeding waste of time.

If “freeroll whores” are players who make the online rounds simply to play these freebies, then password scrapers are the gum stuck to the bottom of their shoes.

If you see a password freeroll for a group you aren’t a member of, just move on. They aren’t meant for you.

poker freerolls from mobile — Using Instant Play from Bovada you can actually play freerolls from your mobile with no app download

Where can you find freerolls?

Freeroll poker tournaments are most commonly found online, rising to prominence in the past 15 years thanks to the poker boom of the early 2000’s.

Online poker sites came up with freerolls as a way to get players to download their software and capture their eyeballs without having to convince them to make a deposit.

On the player side, who doesn’t want something for nothing? Actually breaking out the (virtual) wallet is a big decision. Why not get to know the poker site without risking anything? You’ve got a slim chance at a real prize, which you could potentially build up into a real bankroll.

Live poker

While less common, live poker freerolls do exist. However, these are very exclusive freerolls that take place in the form of special invite-only events such as a small cardroom inviting players with the highest number of logged hours for free tournaments.

In the height of the early-2000’s poker boom one of my local cardrooms even hosted a freeroll every week just to get new players in the door.

More notable live free tournaments have included heads-up championships and WPT championships featuring top pros and winners of annual tournaments. Of course, these are the most exclusive of exclusive freerolls.

Where did the “free rolls” term come from?

The quaint story from the Wikipedia pages on freerolls explains that the term came from the old surreal ’50s Las Vegas days when casinos would often try to draw players by literally giving them free rolls of nickels to play at the slot machines. We’re still rolling with it today as the term has become synonymous with poker freebies.