150k Freeroll - players bust out very quickly!

I tried a Freeroll MTT today as a warmup.

It was interesting. 364 players signed up by the close of registration, and I ended up taking 15th overall, and spent a lot of time near the top of the leaderboard in this one. I’ve been playing fairly well lately.

What was surprising to me about it was how quickly the field dropped from 364 to half that. I think the entire tournament only lasted a little over an hour, but after the first 10 minutes or so, a good hundred or so players had already been eliminated. After a half hour, only half the field was left.

I guess people play very wild and loose when there’s no entry fee. I assume this is typical?

For all the effort I put into the tourney, I only came away with 2500 chips, which hardly seems worth it given what I’m capable of winning at mid-stakes SNG in the same amount of time. Maybe playing for tickets is more worthwhile?

People also sign up for tourneys but then don’t play , so after 3 blind levels are completed they are booted… good job though

In a freeroll on a free poker site? No way! I can’t believe they would play wild and loose at any time, ever. LOL. Even on cash sites, the freerolls are insane. Try is with a few thousand players. If you aren’t doubling up quickly, you’re toast so its best to take your shots early rather than waste time and be blinded out.

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@puggywug ,

Many more players will play a Freeroll, than play a 1k-2k MTT.
The problem is all Freerolls I thought are capp’d @ top 27 & Prizefund.
Players will play super loose, and many as Sharon said won’t even show.

I’d say you’re better off playing 2k-5k MTTs,
much better profit potential… but they are not free to play.
Sassy

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Wow, @puggywug, 324 entries on that 7pm ET one. That’s approaching Bust the Staff numbers. Normally I only see the Freerolls hit mid-200s.

I have people on my friends list who register & play literally every single Freeroll, but have 1M+ bankrolls. I’m not sure why they do it; with their bankrolls they’d certainly have more profitable ways to spend their time. Perhaps they just like playing for free. Regardless, they are great if you’re new and don’t have much of a bankroll.

Also, @Sassy_Sarah is right, the prize distributions from paid Low Stakes MTTs are often much better and somewhat easier to obtain by normal means. In these massive Freerolls, you have to double up early & often to have any chance in the late stages. That means lots of all-ins & early bust-outs. (Very similar to the 500 B+R in this regard.) Then you have the level 4 no-show purge as already mentioned. So, yes, they tend to clear out quickly.

I did initially play the 2.5K ticket Freerolls, but realized I’m better off spending the time fishing at Beijing Rush instead.

On average (by direct observation), about 12.5% of registered (signed up) players in free rolls never play a hand and get dropped after the third blind level. If you figure an average of about 220 registered players, by the end of the fourth blind level, there will usually be about 100 to 120 survivors. Starting with 15 & 30 blinds, by the time of reaching the 500+100 & 1000+100 level, there are usually less than 50 survivors, and 30+ of them will have less than “average” chip stacks (that’s because so many chips are held by the lead players).

A legitimate case can be made for all the “bingo” play in the opening rounds, being that it’s better to have a big stack to sit back with OR to be broke and able to devote the time to some other pursuit, and quickly either way. An equally good case can be made for keeping a low profile and “staying out of trouble” until the hyper aggressive have mostly killed themselves off. As a primarily defensive player, I usually fall into the second group, but now and then make an exception based on the perceived strength of my hand.

As they say in the carnival world, “you pays your money and takes your chances.”

A “second thought” on this, again by direct observation. In the Facebook Free Roll events, the number of players is noticeably lower, more like 140 to 180, and sometimes fewer, and only about 8% ~ 10% don’t show up to play at least one hand. Also, there is a LOT less initial “bingo” play. Some of that is surely due to needing to make the effort to find and enter the password to sign up. The rest is likely that the players who make that aforementioned effort are a bit more patient, and just don’t bingo as often. That’s just my speculation, but it feels right.

They may be ringplayers normally and want to wait to do pay-to-play until they feel more confident.