The strategy to employ at freeroll tournaments will differ slightly from cash games and also from online poker games. Many players sign-up for freerolls as a way of building up a poker bankroll to use at bigger games and while this is possible, it is quite difficult to do unless you have an extremely good run of luck.

There is less bluffing at a freeroll tournament as most player’s stacks are smaller in relation to the pot size. In the early stages of a tournament it is best to avoid gambling too much. Playing fairly tight and going for the occasional big pot will do you more good than harm.

In the middle stages, you need to go up a gear and start stealing blinds. While it takes a weaker hand than is normal to raise in order to steal a blind, it takes a stronger hand than normal to call a raise. During this period you are looking to survive and also increase your stack little by little. Try to avoid any confrontation without the nuts and concentrate on taking down some smaller pots without drawing too much attention to yourself.

However, if you hold a large stack, you can take advantage of the fact that others are in survival mode by raising and putting other players in a decision for all their chips. If they go all-in they risk everything whereas you don’t because you can afford to lose the pot and carry on. Be careful not to overdo this or you’ll get called all-in more often than you’d like.

Towards the end of a freeroll tournament, the importance of the coin-flip decisions increases. It happens frequently that blinds go so high that it makes sense to go all in pre-flop, especially if you hold an ace or a pocket pair. This places you at an advantage over all non pocket pairs. In general, if you have a marginal hand it can be better to put all of your chips in pre-flop especially if you have a low stack as you can’t afford to be behind at this stage. This also helps avoid getting bluffed out.