Winning Free Online Poker Tournaments

Tournament poker is one of the most exciting forms of the game and it can also be one of the most profitable. Every day there are hundreds of tournaments run by Ladbrokes Poker, some with small entry fees, others that are more expensive and there are even some completely free online poker tournaments to take part in.

The free tournaments, otherwise known as freerolls, are a great way for a player to learn the differences between cash games and tournament play including the the ideal strategy, bet sizing and expected value without having to risk any of their own hard earned cash. Major online sites, such as Ladbrokes Poker, even award real money prizes to those who win or finish in the top few places of their free online poker tournaments, meaning that players could start a poker bankroll with no initial outlay whatsoever. There are many well-known players who now play for the high stakes poker who started their careers by playing freeroll tournaments namely Annette Obrestad and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.

Beating free online poker tournaments

Free online poker tournaments are very popular due to the fact they cost nothing to enter and, as mentioned, often award real money despite having no entry fee. This means that the field sizes, that is the number of entrants, in these free tournaments are generally very large, often between 2,500 and 5,000 depending on the time of day and poker variant being played.

The vast majority of the field will not be approaching the game in the most professional of manners due to them not having any money invested in the tournament, so they therefore play much looser than a tournament that has any entry fee attached to it. This means that a player who is prepared to sit tight and wait for the more premium of hands stands a good chance of making it to the money places in typical free online poker tournaments.

That said, although the player should play tightly to combat the extremely loose play around them, they should also be willing to gamble, especially during the early stages, so that they can build a large stack and make a deep run in the tournament. This means calling all in bets with hands like suited ace-queen and ace-king against sole opponents in the early stages because the person moving all in will often be doing so with any two cards and most certainly weaker aces that ace-queen and ace-king.

Obviously not all of the poker played in these tournaments is pre-flop so a freeroll player will need to learn how to play some post flop poker. In these free events it is much more straightforward in that a player should try to bluff as little as possible, simply because their opponent will not understand what they are trying to achieve, and they should value bet any made hand they have, even one as weak as top pair, because most of their opponents will call them down with any piece of the board.