Don't restrict your bankroll growth by focusing too much on freerolls

[Arjonius]

I did this to myself for a while after I started, and I also see others doing so quite often.  It's kind of a trap that can be easy to fall into because freerolls are safe; the only cost is time. 

Don't get me wrong.  Freerolls are a great way to start a bankroll - when you're a newbie.  But once you improve your game a little, you can expect to make more per hour playing micro-ring and small buyin tournaments.  The improvement in your game doesn't have to be much; just enough so you can consistently win from the ATMs who play at those levels without giving it all back to the relatively few decent players. 

The mental adjustment is definitely more significant; you have to be willing to lose money once in a while in the short term in order to gain more over the longer term.

[Whitewolf2k]

I agree useally when i've played Freerolls i get people in tournments who don't treat it like a non Freeroll they don't play normal way. plus you get alot Newbies playing them,

[Arjonius]

It's not about the all inners and noobs.  They suck out sometimes, but they're great sources of chips.  The thing is that once you get your game to a half-decent level - not even good, just half-decent - you'll win more money playing small stakes where the overall level of play isn't much better.  So holding oneself back from playing them has an opportunity cost since such players' EV is actually higher than in freerolls. 

[rgchan]

Not only the $$ question but the free roll playing can even hurt your game. Many poker forum,s have small $2 buy-ins where the poker site adds $20 to the prize pool. These are usually good quality games with small fields. I,d rather play against good players the DONKS who are impossible to Read.

[Tomturkey46]

rgchan much rather play against people like Me.  People who know how to play cards, not freeroll donks who get lucky.

                                                  The Turkey

[Whitewolf2k]

So True

[Arjonius]

Like rgchan, I'd rather play decent opponents in a nice money added than poor players in a freeroll.  However, my primary reason isn't concern about the donks play making them hard to read or about being sucked out on by people playing rags.  It's EV.  Once I factor in the amounts of freeroll prize pools and the sizes of the fields, I make a fair bit more money per hour playing the buyins. 

As a hypothetical comparison, take a $2.20 buyin with $20 added.  Many only draw about 15 entrants, so if I'm an average player, my EV is about $3.30 for a net of $1.10 per tournament.  In a $50 freeroll, if I assume "only" 150 entrants, my EV and net EV are both 33 cents per tournament.  If I assume I'm decent enough so my adjusted EV is three times average, that puts me up to $1. 

That seems almost the same, but it doesn't factor in the average length of time I play - which is obviously a lot shorter in fields of 20 than 150.