Free poker games are a gimmick that the online casinos use to reel in the players, and you can take advantage of this opportunity to make some real cash. I first started playing online poker in a virtual pokerroom in 2006, at this time; I was introduced to the freeroll concept.
The free poker games ran about 4 times a day and allowed a maximum of 2500 players, which filled very fast. I managed to get into a few of these and soon realized that many people did not take this serious. There were players going all-in on the first hand with absolutely junk cards. I asked the question, why is everybody going all-in? To which several people replied, hey it’s a freeroll!
This mentality soon irritated me and I decided to watch a few of these freerolls instead of playing in them. Over the course of several months, I noticed a trend and started to do a little math. What I discovered was that more than half the field was gone in the first hour. I also noticed that if you folded every hand and just sat, you would make the first hour with a little more than half your original stack.
Now of course, it is tough to make it deep with about 25% of the chip average, however, I wanted to see how a ‘survival’ mode would play out in the free tournaments. So I continued to play and watch the ‘freeroll mentality’ to learn more about how I could take advantage of the free poker games. At the start I decided unless I had a top ten hand, I would not play, and even then if I would be put all in preflop, I would fold (yes, even aces!)
My plan was working well, as over the next month I was getting to the first break in the free poker games with as much as 2 or 3 times the starting stack. Soon I learned that the best way to get deep in the free poker games is to stay as tight as possible in the first hour and part of the second hour. Do not make any unnecessary moves or call for draws unless the price was largely in my favor (like 10:1 or better).
This strategy not only strengthened my play at the online poker rooms, but also in my live tournament plays. The idea was to save all your plays and moves for later when the field is smaller, and poker players generally tighten up when they get close to the money. Eventually, using this style with other tips and tricks I picked up, paid off on the free poker games; I took first place three times in one month and cashed eight times in total.