Some Freeroll Strategy advice for Beejayville.

[Beejayville]

Beejayville is pretty chuffed cos he has just qualified for a Team Australia 2 Freeroll Event on Poker Stars where the first prize is $1,000 and an entry to the WSOP by the looks of it...The event is on Monday week the 28th of May and will have 2000 entrants and pays down to 250 people.

Now where Beejayville needs some help is chipping up early.

Tonight's event had about 1400 people in it and when I got to last 50 to qualify, I only had $1246 left, and blinds were 1500/3000 and antes 150.

I was never above $9,600 for the whole tournament, and only kept myself in by going all in when I had the cards and position, and luckily I got called by people with 10 times more money than what I had, but not much in the way of cards

In the end, I was just doubling whenever the opportunity provided it, and as soon as i could before the blinds would put me out, so in a sense I guess I played fairly well to finish where I did.

I barely played a hand when it got to under 100 people left, cos I had enough to get through the rising blinds, and went all in a couple of times when I had around $5,000 or so and people folded luckily, and didn't call, so stole a handful of blinds. I was always about 95 out of 100, or 70 out 75, all the way down to 50...Basically had to play the pots I could in position and with minimal people in the pot, and didn't want to go head to head with chip leader.

When it got to under 100 people I had a guy on the left of me who had $100,000+ chips, and 6 of the 9 at the table had $30,000 plus, and they kept raising everything and I didn't want to get involved in that, couldn't afford to lose too many chips if I didn't hit. (didn't get many hands anyways)...My main objective was to finish top 50 to qualify for the next event, not win tonight's freeroll.

I have played about 5 of the freerolls and got to mid 100's the other times and ran out of chips to the blinds, so if I can improve my chip raising capacity, then think I can improve for a few more tourneys with some luck.

So was wondering if any of you guys in here could give me some advice as to how to chip up early for freerolls.

[spireitedaz]

Hi

I don't think you did too much wrong, You qualified. Even if you had 1 chip, then thats what matters. Granted the ones with loads of chips could in theory sit out and still qualify.

Sometimes in tournaments things don't go your way, no cards and people stealing your 'moves' when they act before you. Depending on your stack this can mean effectively its a call, and you can only win the one way, your cards winning.

Patience is usually the key. Maybe there'll still be loads of easy chips at beginning of tournament, as people try to double their stack early, so look out for spots when you take them.

I'm no expert mind, but am sure some of the other stars like croc, GaF, strider etc maybe able to give you some useful nuggets of info.

[Beejayville]

That's what I found strange...People with 20,000 and 30,000+ chips going all in and getting called and busted out, even when only about 70 or 80 people left...I think they must have thought they had to win or something, but once it got to 50 people left it stopped and the whole 50 people were declared winners...So I was just happy to qualify with only 1200 or so left.

Spose you are right about the qualifying...If I was playing to win the thing, or go top 5 to get a money berth, I would have played different earlier when the blinds were lower, and played more hands...I am just grateful to those around me who kept going all in with 3-5 times more chips than me, and gettting busted out.

Now I just have to hone the skills a bit to try and win this next one, or finish top 250 if I don't.

Cheers