Risk-Free Rounding: Part Deuce

Another poker post. If you're not interested, check this out.


The real way to make money on online poker sites is to enter freerolls. Here I was worried about losing my bankroll, and all the while the sites are handing out money for doing next to nothing.

Freerolls on big sites are a waste of time. All the ones that are highly advertised are useless. For example, a freeroll at ***.com has 10,000 entrants. You must finish in the top 27 to win. The problem though is that if you do manage to finish in the top .27%, you don't win money, but qualify to enter the weekly freeroll. You then must wade through hundreds and hundreds more players in order to grind your way up into the money. The payoffs may be decent, but the chances of surviving are slim. Bad cards come frequently and the best hand doesn't always end up winning.

Now I shouldn't complain about getting something for nothing, but there are better ways to earn a quick buck in the freeroll game.

There are a ton, of smaller online sites that are ripe for the picking. They offer freerolls in an effort to have people try their site. This is fine marketing, and I understand it, but from a player's perspective it's pure gold. I typically play at a site that offers a half dozen or so freerolls a day each with around 800 players. There is no qualifying for an additional tournament; if you finish in the top 10 you win cash. Roughly that means that the top 1.25% get paid.

You laugh and say, "Those are still ridiculous odds," and I would agree, but I've already increased the chance of success. Lets say in tournament one at one of the big sites, you finish in the top .5%. That's a great result, you've outlasted 9,500 players. Amazing finish, but you win nothing. Let's say that you win that qualifier and beat all 9,999 other players. That's an incredible result, but you get beaten early in the real thing later on in the week and, monetarily (and I recognize that knowledge is worth far more than money, blah, blah ,blah) you've earned nothing. If you finish in the top .5% of the field at one of the lesser known sites you've still had a great game, but you also get to add some some cash to your bankroll and gain that valuable knowledge. I'll take this one step further.

Many of the smaller sites sponsor poker forums as part of their marketing campaigns. The forum managers make money based on the number of referrals that they get, and they sponsor members-only freerolls. I have joined a few of these forums and played their freerolls. Yesterday, I played one that paid the top 10 players, and the event had 41 entrants. That means that the top 24.4% get paid.

Even the worst player will end up in the money if they persevere. It is not uncommon for people who aren't even playing to finish in the money. In other words, you could sign up for every freeroll, not play, and still end up in the black. All this with absolutely no risk your credit cards. Brilliant!

Now there are more to these freerolls than simply taking the money and running. The forum's goal is to create a community, and for the administrators to make money. It is expected, then, that if you do finish in the money in the freeroll that you play that week's forum buy-in tournament.

Before you drop your knowledge of Shakespeare with, "Aye, there's the rub," consider this: the weekly buy-in has a much higher payout, and still fewer entrants. For example, yesterday's buy-in had a prize pool of $115 and the top 10 were paid. There were 18 entrants. That means that 55.6% of players made their buy-in back and more.

I registered for a tournament a few weeks ago, but couldn't play as there was a technical snafu and the game started late. I woke up the next morning and discovered that I had finished in 3rd place and won $6. Not much you say, but that was for 30 seconds of work to find the password and register. I bought-in at that evening's tournament for $2.20 and outlasted 21 players and won $12.80 plus my $2.20 ($15 total). For playing one freeroll tournament, I was up $21. It took a little more than an hour.

As you sit there and shake your head, with your mouth agape at anyone who would worry about a measly $21, consider the risk: zero. I am risking nothing here. I'm spending time, sure, but I'm not dropping $10,000 on an entry into a high-profile event. I'm realistic about my abilities and know that the chances of me defeating 8,000+ other players (mostly professionals) is slim to none especially at this stage of the game. You have to train in order to win a marathon and it is foolish to believe that you can make 10 million dollars playing poker without training.

I'm having fun and using my leisure time, to practise my game, and to learn how to get better. I'd much rather do that and consistently make a small amount of money than to blow a big wad of my paycheque entering a tournament that I don't have any realistic chance at winning. In the past two weeks, I've won more than $55 simply by playing freerolls. I'm going to transfer that directly into my cash-game system (which, incidentally, has grown to $34.49). The results may seem small now, but through the process of learning, I am building a bankroll and gaining the wisdom to do something with it later on.