Poker Freerolls – Playing Poker for Free
Playing freerolls and tournaments for free (or for FPPs)
Every respectable online poker room offers a bunch of freerolls for its players, as part of its promotions package. Freerolls are generally regarded as MTTs (multi table tournaments) where playing for fun is what most people do. There’s seldom any real money value in your average freeroll. The reasons are obvious: huge crowds of competitors, shallow prize-pools, extremely bad poker play involved, which also means increased variance.
In the beginning stages of a freeroll, play will be downright abysmal. Nonetheless, the sheer number of people involved means that it is extremely tedious to reach a money position. Even if you do, you’ll find yourself with a few cents won, at the end of 3-4 hours of play. The return is just not worth it.
Thank God though, that not all freerolls were created equal. There are private freerolls out there, which will present you with some of the biggest EV+ in online poker. These tourneys have a limited number of participants, and much more substantial prize pools. Gain entry to one of these freerolls if you want the EV on your side.
Still other “free” tournaments include action point tourneys. These are not freerolls per se, even though they do not cost any real money to enter. They do cost Action Points or Poker Points however, which are just as precious as real money in the world of online poker.
These points are generated via real money cash- or tournament play, to reward players for the rake they give birth to when they play. Poker points are also a direct function of the rake generated. They are about the same as casino comp points.
At poker rooms like Pokerstars, players will be able to use them to buy their way into tournaments, or to have them exchanged for merchandize: mugs, T-shirts etc.
Often, one will be able to enter action point qualifiers for some of the most prestigious live events.
Just to illustrate how valuable these poker points really are: there are tournaments in which the prizes consist of more action points. These FPPs (Frequent Player Points) will not count towards unlocking bonuses, but they will be usable for just about everything else.
