Freeroll Strategy - The First 90 Minutes

This strategy covers the first 60-90 minutes (or until the blinds are 100/200) of an online freeroll or low buy-in multi-table tournament.

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Hand Selection

- From any position regardless of anything else, go all in with AA, KK, AKs. I did quite well playing only these hands this way and no others in a number of tournaments. I would play maybe 4 hands in the first 90 minutes and be in the middle of the pack. I decided to add the hands below to add to that edge.

- From mid to late position with no more than 4x the minimum raise in front of you add AKo AQs, AQo and QQ to all in. Otherwise call a raise up to 20% of your stack, otherwise fold.

- From mid to late position raise to 4x the minimum bet or 20% or your stack for all pairs down to 66.

- From early position limp with these same pairs and add suited connectors (in any position) down to 76s. Also limp from any position with suited Aces or Kings.

Post-Flop Play (both pocket cards play)

- With a pair and over cards on the board, a 4 flush or 4 straight bet 2x the minimum bet, call raises up to 4x the minimum bet or 20% of your stack. Fold to bigger bets.

- With top pair or 2 pair and an unpaired board bet 4x the minimum but fold to any raise more than 50% of your stack unless you have top 2 pair and there is no chance of a flush or straight. Consider re-raising all in if this happens.

- With trips, straights, full houses, etc. try to slow play after the flop. If you don’t get any action put in some big raises and end there.

Summary

Try not to show weakness. If you bet big before the flop and totally miss, consider another big bet. Since you are playing big cards you probably still have the advantage.

Freeroll Strategy - The Last Hour

I like to play this strategy after the first 60-90 minutes or when the blinds are 100/200 or higher. This is not a final table or in the money strategy. By in the money, I don’t mean just a return of your entry fee or a small amount over, I mean winnings that are in the final table or two or three tables. You will again make an adjustment in that situation which I will go into in my next strategy post.

If you have used the ‘First 90 Minutes’ strategy you should either be out or cruising nicely in the tournament. You now need to focus on getting in the money. It means that you look at every pot and work out a way to win it. It doesn’t mean you will play wildly or make hopeless calls with bad hands. Position is important. Take advantage of it. Look for tricky players that limp with big hands.

Style of play:

- Shift your style of play to ‘raise or fold’ and survive to the money. There are only a few hands to limp with. You should otherwise not just call. Make other players beat you. Do not let them get a cheap ride. If you cannot justify calling an all-in, don’t do it, just fold. You position in the tourney is not important, but you should pay attention to it. You should also keep your eye on where the cut for the money is. Players will tighten up when the cut happens. You should also, but you can also take advantage of this if you have the chips. Stealing the pot before the flop is something you should look to do.

- Standard raises are: 4 times the minimum bet, the size of the pot, the amount of the short stack or, in heads up play the amount your opponent has remaining, 10% of your stack and 20% of your stack. You can vary this as you see fit but these should be pretty effective. A note about the short stack. When he is in the pot you should make him go all-in to play when your hand dictates. While I do not advocate trying to get players out yourself, you should make a statement that you are gunning for him when you can.

- Getting out of the way is something you should look for. If several players want to mix it up and it looks like one of them will go out in the process, fold your hand. No sense in getting a bad beat put on you. I generally will fold anything to several all-ins or several giant bets that happen before me or even after I make a bet. If 2 or more players want to go at it, let them.

- Timing is important. By that I mean take the same amount of time to play each round. Do not use the pre-bet/fold check box. Wait 5 seconds or 8 seconds for each hand. It will keep you from giving your opponents a read on your hand as well as adding discipline to your game. You might even toss that K9o that you would have called with and lost the hand. It helps keep you off tilt and keeps your concentration up.

Hand selection:

- From any position regardless of anything else, raise with AA, KK, AKs. If you are re-raised you are going to have a choice to make. It depends on where you are chip-wise in relation to the opponents at the table. The AKs is a possible fold if you will go all in with calling the re-raise. If a short stack raises you make sure you put him all-in if he is not already. One option with these hands is to call a raise if you are the last to act and no other raises can happen. For instance, you are the big blind with AA and the first player to act put in a big raise. When it gets down to you there are no other raises and it is up to you to just call and see the flop.

- From mid to late position with no more than 4x the minimum raise in front of you add AKo AQs, AQo and QQ to betting big before the flop. Otherwise call a raise up to 20% of your stack, otherwise fold.

- From mid to late position raise to 4x the minimum bet or 20% or your stack for all pairs down to 88. You can also play off-suit paint this way, AJ, AT, KQ, KJ. Fold to re-raises.

- From early position limp with these same pairs and paint and add suited connectors (in any position) down to 98s. Also limp from early position with suited Aces or Kings. You might also want to consider one-gap suited hands down to J9.

Post flop play (both pocket cards play):

- With a pair and over cards on the board, a 4 flush or 4 straight bet 2x the minimum bet, call raises up to 4x the minimum bet or 20% of your stack. Fold to bigger bets.

- With top pair or 2 pair and an unpaired board bet 4x the minimum but fold to any raise more than 50% of your stack unless you have top 2 pair and there is no chance of a flush or straight. Consider re-raising all in if this happens. A special note on top pair. Your kicker is important. An ace is preferred but a king or queen will do. Just be aware you may be out kicked.

- With trips, straights, full houses, etc. try to slow play after the flop. If you don’t get any action put in some big raises and end it there. Make sure a bigger straight, full house or trips cannot beat you. If you bet and a player goes all-in on you, you may be beat with anything less than the top hand. Of course, the player could have top pair or two pair. This is common with paint on the board, so take that into consideration.

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Try not to show weakness. If you bet big before the flop and totally miss consider another big bet. Since you are playing big cards you probably still have the advantage.

A special note on all-in play. You will not be able to avoid it. It will happen at least once and probably several times during this stage of the tourney when you must go all-in. Just make sure you have something to do it with. Keep notes on the players. Refer to those notes when a player makes a move. I had notes on one player as follows ‘goes all-in with 3rd pair after the flop’. Sure enough, the flop comes down and I catch top pair. He goes all-in with K3o. The board had a 3 and no king. I called him and knocked him out. If I had no notes then I might have folded with top pair after the flop to protect my stack.

The word here is fight when you must, run when it makes sense and pick a battle you can win. This can only be learned from experience.

Freeroll Strategy - The Final Table

If you have used the ‘First 90 Minutes’ followed by ‘The Last Hour’ strategy you should either be out early or at the final table. You now need to focus on getting up the money ladder as far as possible. The real money is in the top few spots and that is where you want to finish. It means that you look at every pot and work out a way to win it. It doesn’t mean you will play wildly or make hopeless calls with bad hands. Position, stack size and action are important.

Where are you in stack size? This will determine your style of play. You will be one of the following:

- Serious short stack. The next round of blinds will put you all-in.
- Short Stack. You can go 2 or 3 rounds of blinds.
- Cruising. You are middle chip or higher.
- Big Stack. You are the top or near the top in chip amount.

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Serious Short Stack Strategy:

- You have 2 plays. Fold or go all-in.
- Let’s start with being on the button or up to 2 places off the button. From late position you can play based on the action in front of you. If there are 2 or less players in the pot in front of you and neither player went all-in then you can go all-in with any pair or any Ax. You may also want to consider any single face card. As more players are in the pot in front of you the more selective you want to be. If there are 3 or more players in then limit your pairs to 88 and up, Ax, Axs and Kxs.
- From mid and early position consider going all-in with any pair or any single face card, suited or not. The requirement is no one in front of you has gone all-in. Let them bust out and you move up in the money.
- As an alternate strategy, if there is a lot of action on each hand, just fold and let them bash each other about. If you get AA or KK consider a play but fold everything else.

Short Stack Strategy:

- You now can make some plays. Waiting for good hands is something to consider. It only takes one win to make you a big stack. All plays will require an all-in or a substantial raise. Consider 40% of your stack or a single size raise, which ever you are comfortable with. Consider in your decision who has already committed, bigger stacks or shorter stacks. Also consider position. You can play more hands if you are first to act with few players behind you.
- For hands to play, AA and KK warrant a raise. 40% or more of your stack. An all-in in front of you is a signal to fold if someone has called it. Otherwise you should go all-in also and hope to get heads up. Other hands to consider are a pair 88 and up for a nice raise. Fold if you are re-raised or someone goes all in on you. For suited cards with one being a face card and no more than a 2 gap, you want to have a straight, flush and straight flush possibility, you can also put in a single raise or even just limp if there is a lot of limping in front of you. If someone follows you with a move that would put you all in you should consider folding. If there is a move that would put you all-in and another that calls then you should definitely fold these hands with maybe the exception of QQ. Again, let others go out and move up in the standings. The last type of hand you can play is Axs. If you don’t flop a 4 flush or better you should check/fold unless you think you can bluff your way out.

Cruising:

In this spot you can basically take two paths. Play a lot of hands or fold a lot of hands.

For folding a lot of hands:

- You can use the Short Stack strategy with an adjustment of bigger raises and less folding to heat. Use the same hand selection but raise or call raises to everything you play. No need to be shy in this position.

For playing a lot of hands:

- Now, if you want to play a lot of hands you will be limping a lot. Challenge all short stacks that limp. If you can put them all-in and get heads up then do it. Use any single face card, suited or not, any pair and any 1 or 2 gap cards, suited or not. This is wild play and I do not recommend it unless the table is very tight. In that case play like a maniac until someone wakes up and challenges you.

Big Stack:

- The first think you should do is challenge the smallest stacks when you can get heads up. Make them go all-in or just call their all-in bet with just about any two cards.
- For all other players you should be putting in 3x-5x raises before the flop if there are limpers and call the same with good cards. No need to loose a lot of chips with bad cards. Pairs 88 and up, suited paint and Axs. Fold everything else. Consider position and be aggressive if first or last to act. Raising in the middle is something I don’t like because a late position player may whip-saw you with a raise that gets re-raised. Being first to act sets the tone and last to act states you are in command the rest of the hand.

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The final few players:

With 3-5 players left let others knock each other out. You should have no problem with playing heads up short-stacked. You can play single face cards and just about any pair. All hands should be raised 4x or more or 50% of your stack or more. The finish line is in site and you want to win. At the same time you cannot be a wimp. You will get some good money relative to your buy-in no matter what. Again, if the other players are going at it then just sit out, otherwise be aggressive.

The final two:

This is it. Raise almost every hand, fold if you are re-raised with a weak hand. Fold any hand that doesn’t have at least an 8xs or 2 cards 8 and up. You are trying to set up the kill. Don’t go all-in pre-flop unless you have been re-raised and you have a good hand like AA or KK. What you really want to happen is to have a hand like 85s and flop a full house, trips or a straight. Post-flop play with a hand like that is a slow play hand. Only bet on the river if no action has come your way. You may be able to get some chips that way.