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• Getting Started
• Resources
• Preflop Play
• Playing the Empty Seats
• When to Gamble
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Full Tilt Freerolls

How to beat Full Tilt freerolls

When to Gamble

One of the biggest strategy changes from regular tournaments to freeroll tournaments is dealing with the super tight payout structure. Since usually only 1% of the field (often less) in a public freeroll gets paid, you need to be willing to take some risk that you wouldn’t in a normal payout structure. This is something that hasn’t been covered by many poker writers, and tere just isn’t much coherent information anywhere about it.

If you are playing a private freeroll that pays more than 2% of the field then ignore the following advice and play a standard solid strategy.

With so few spots being paid out, you need to amass a huge quantity of chips, and even with very good strategy you are not likely to make the money in any one tournament. Because of this, you need to be willing to gamble in “coin flips” and situations where you may even be slightly behind. You also need to start stealing the blinds and antes as soon as they reach 10% of your stack unless your stack is huge and you are close to the money.

Someone raised already and you have Ace-Queen in the big blind? Unless you know the player is tight, or you both have large stacks, you shoudl be moving all-in over his raise.

Pair of sixes on the button with a few limpers? Unless it’s the first level or two or your stack is huge, you should be all-in here to knock out those limpers and take down the pot or take a shot at doubling up.

A raise and two calls? If it’s less than 20% of your stack you probably want to call here with any small pair or suited connectors. Flop something big and you are likely to triple up or even more.

At a table full of dead seats with one opponent? You should be getting all-in against him with any pair above 99 and any AQ or AK. If he’s short stacked you shoudl be getting all-in against him with any reasonable hand.

If you are the short stack, you should be going nuts, stealing blinds and trying to get all your chips in there and mix it up. If you get knocked out it’s not a big deal, because you were short stacked anyway, but if you can triple up you are back in the tournament and have a shot at taking it down.

This is poker, you need to have a hand most of the time when you get your chips in, but in a big public freeroll you need to get your chips in and gamble it up if you are going to have any shot at winning.