Freerolls are bogus

[AgainstAllOdds]

So are these $1 qualifiers... Dont play them...I dont care if you knew a friends aunts brothers cousin that got to play in the WSOP main event for free...for that one person that got in 5 million people tried the same thing. Just dont play in them...they are bogus.

(and no I didnt just get busted out of any big freeroll)

[FREAKSFORUM]

Guess you won't be joining my freeroll.

[Bullajami]

I never play any tournament that is designed to get me into another tournament. What if I won and then didn't feel like playing poker on the day of the prize tournament? Just give me cash.

[VegasDave]

I never play any tournament that is designed to get me into another tournament. What if I won and then didn't feel like playing poker on the day of the prize tournament? Just give me cash.

That reminds me of my freeroll story...

I was playing in a 10,000 person freeroll at the now extinct www.citypoker.com .... 180th gets like $0.10 and it slowly goes up...

So I get to the final table and it goes

1st, 2nd, and 3rd get a free buy-in to a $225 tournament

4th gets $125
5th gets $99
6th gets $65
etc

So I'm the chip leader and we get down to 4 and I say "fellas I want my money Im folding every winning hand and pushing with shit..." first hand I get 2 7 off just call preflop... flop A K J guy pushes, I call... lose 3/4 of my chips... next hand 2 4 suited I call pre flop... FLOP THE FLUSH... fold... next hand 5 8 I call flop comes K K 10 guy pushes I call he has AK and eliminates me.

I take $125 while these clowns played 4+ hours for no guarenteed money.

[McBa1n]

Yeah, I can't stand 'qualifier' tournaments/freerolls like that. At least at pokerstars you can cash out of the buyin for tourney $ and play whatever the hell you want - that's nice... But it still locks your money into the site until it's used.

[Bullajami]

I used to play lots of freerolls for cash, but good ones have become few and far between. You get like 2,000 people fighting for $50. Play for 4 hours and win $0.60.

You can join freeroll leagues - pokerfreerollsonline(dot)com is pretty good - and get some realistic field/prize ratios, but you're still playing for peanuts. But when you're drunk and looking for a game without risking any real money, it can fill the bill.

[jolub]

It makes no sense to play games where there are hundreds of players all trying to win like $50.00. You play all day to win a few cents if you do win, no way.

[coldhardfacts]

"If you want something for nothing, go jerk off."

Bob Weir

[slacker00]

It depends who you are. If you are a professional poker player or at least a break-even player, freerolls are a stupid waste of time. If you are a poor (losing) player or someone that is just learning the game, then freerolls are probably not the worst thing in the world.

I recommend online freerolls to anyone I meet casually and talk about online poker, but tell them to NEVER deposit real money to those places. That's probably sound advice, in general.

[jon13009]

The only freerolls worth playing are the ones on Bodog. Yes you have over 3000 players playing for $500 at 9:40pm where only the top 100 cash, and it takes over 5 hours to win something worthwhile, but if you get past all the crap and stupidity that goes on for the first 2 hours or so, then you can try out different styles and actually improve some of your basic poker skills. If you win a couple of bucks on bodog poker freerolls, you can instantly use the CASH to place a few small sportsbook bets. The rest of the "freerolls" that offer tourny buy-ins or credits are worthless. I have tried the freerolls on Pokerstars, UB, Full Tilt....and Bodog is the only site I have seen that gives you cash freeroll winnings you can use to make sports bets with - instantly. If there are others, let me know.

Slacker is correct, pro and strong players have better places to go than freerolls. However for the rest of us, freeroll tourneys are there to practice poker patience skills, learning how to mix up your styles and learning to calculate pot odds. If you have made it into the money in a freeroll, it can be a learning experience because the later stages have weeded out most of the irrational play - if you have the time to spend. Once you get into the top 50 or so, the chip swings are quite interesting......

As for actually playing on-line poker with my own money, I am too leery of the scams out there (see Absolute Poker, ....) and the problems with player collusion, bots.....

Better to just play live money games with any significant amounts of real money.