If the mods approve, I thought it might be an excellent idea for the doper poker players to post links to online freerolls that pay real cash.
[Vast Disclaimers]
Without speaking officially for the SDMB, Chicago Reader, any of their sponsors or affiliates, I hope that as a mere member, I can safely say that none of the afformentioned companies, corporations, employees, or stockholders would willingly or likely accept any liability for the independent opinions of any posters whithin this thread.
I’d also like to (in my OP) disourage flagrant spamming of any BS flybynight or (especially) Refer-A-Friend promotions and associated codes are thereby expressly verboten (forbidden).
This longwinded IANAL disclaimer, I hope, will absolve any SDMB liability and allow the thread to continue.
If not, sincere apologies.
[/VD]
WHEW!
That said, http://www.empirepoker.com has two $500 freerolls per day, one at 1:00pm Eastern, and one at 1:20am Central (registration starts in 4 minutes from now). The noon freeroll allows only 250 players. This means you MUST wait for at least a minute watching the register button and being ready to click when it turns black.
They pay 60 places $2 or more, during the (US) night. They pay 30 places $20 or more during the (US) day.
Where are more freerolls on line? I don’t think Pokerstars counts cuz it’s a freeroll qualifier to another freeroll… with 5,000 players.
Freerolls are IMHO a monumental waste of time. Invest hours for the chance of winning a very small amount. The ones I’ve played don’t even serve as a decent training exercise, because they are infested with nitwits who play with a “what the hell, it’s free” mentality.
It’s much more profitable for me to invest my time in a single-table tournament.
The caveat herein lies that my wife will never let me ever move money out of checking back to poker.
Even though in roughly 3 months of online poker, our checking at least is at least $500 in the black. I’ve taken $50 from checking, turned it into $500, and put $250 back into checking… then I’d get all big headed and lose the other $250 left in the poker account, rewithdraw $50 from checking andn catch hell.
I promised her I would never move another cent in the wrong the direction. For me that means taking my twos and fews in freerolls, then putting that into the $5.50 single table sit and goes.
So even though, I’m up, I’m still in the doghouse for losing hundreds of profit in a few drunken hours.
Please also bear in mind that this is purely a hobby, not an advocation.
I like the last hour of any given freeroll because the play is usually pretty good, but the first hour sucks hard. The “all-in cause it’s free” mentality usually means that I play ultra conservative and end up with a short stack compared to people who’ve been playing every shit hand and winning by fluke.
Of course I could change my strategy and play like that too, but I don’t want to be one of “them”.
It only takes one idiot pushing it in with garbage and catching to cripple you or take you out. And freerolls are havens for idiots. Without some of their own money at stake, a large segment of the freerollers I’ve encountered don’t play poker; they shoot craps. One beat I remember in particular I had AA. I raised pre-flop, one call, one guy pushes all in. Of course I call, the other caller folds and up flips 10-7 os. All in with 10-7 os? He goes on to catch a damn straight and I’m screwed. And yes, that’s poker, and any two cards can win and blah blah blah, but no one who’s actually playing would even call a raise with that, let alone go all in. Sure in the long run, if you’re up against one or two or even a few players like this you’re going to get paid off, but freerolls attract them by the hundreds. Even if one manages to wade through them all to make it to the money, the payouts, at least the ones at the sites I can access on my Mac, are so small that the time I invest in them I could instead play two or three single-tables and make a lot more money.
I know, and I’ve seen this alot. I tend to do better actually just checking “Away - post blind and fold” until the first break. That tends to weed out a decent percentage of the idiots.
While I appreciate the comments, I wasn’t really looking for a debate about the relative merits of freerolls, I’m just looking for more of them.
