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Final Stages of a Freeroll

By: Yvonne Miklovic Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Congratulations, you've made the money! Unfortunately, usually at this point you've got barely enough to go buy a hamburger at McDonald's. You'll need to make it farther to win big money. Usually you won't see a good payout compared to the amount of hours invested in the freeroll until you hit the final table...Which is not hard to do! Unfortunately, reading this guide will not make you an automatic winner. A huge part of getting to the final table is knowing how and when to make moves. The blinds are becoming very large and one mistake can send you out of the freeroll. Relying on your cards, however, is not going to take you to the final table. You're going to have to bluff. This is not the end of the world though! Just remember, capitalize on other people's weakness. There will almost always be someone you can outplay. More so than things to do to get to the final table, there are things to savoid:
1. Don't try too much on the chip leader(s) of your table. Calling you will not hurt their stack as much as it will yours.
2. Watch out for small stacks. You may think they're no threat, but that's why a lot of people make mistakes against them. Small stacks are starting to know they need to start some winning some pots (often requiring all-ins) or they're out of here. When a small stack goes all-in, it's often for a reason...However, not always a great one. If a small stack goes all-in against you and you've got top pair with a good kicker, call (if your stack won't take too much of a beating from it, of course). A lot of times a small stack will go all-in with a mid pair or even top pair and bad kicker. Usually they're hoping to get you to fold. That's where you need to be smarter than them. Also, if you're in good position, make moves on a small stack. Most of the time a lot of them are tight (make sure you know what kind of person you're playing against) and you can easily bluff them out of a pot if they've already checked. Don't make it blatantly obvious however. You'll need some bluffing finesse, and that takes time to learn.
3. Don't rely completely on poker odds. Make sure that by now you know how some of the people you are playing with play. In the beginning it doesn't matter too much, but you should now be trying to learn a lot about your opponents so you can use that information against them. If you haven't payed much attention to your opponents, you may be calling high bets from an extrememly tight opponent who flopped his set when all you have is top pair. all because you didn't know he was a very conservative person.

There are things to do as well:
1. Win blinds. If you're on the button or near and you're the first to call the big blind, make sure you raise most of the time. The people next to you may not have anything either and you'll often win some blinds, which add up well at this point. Once, again, don't make it blatantly obviously, and if they call, try to represent the flop, but if they call here, don't try to keep winning the pot with nothing. It's not impossible for the big blind to have a hand.
2. I've said it once, I'll say it again. Capitalize on weakness!
3. Be aggressive. This should be the time in the freeroll where you're most aggressive. Don't be sloppily aggressive though, make sure their is technique behind your aggressiveness!

Mostly in the final stages you're just exercising the same techniques you used for the mid stages, but finer tuned and with more finesse. These techniques will often take you to the final table, but you won't always make it there. Don't feel bad if you go out betting. Atleast you won SOME money, and the best thing to remember is that you should be proud that you even made it this far. Remember, 92% of the people in the freeroll didn't make it this far. If you make it to the final table, there will usually be a few small stacks who'll probably be out soon without some skill or luck. Don't take it upon yourself to get them out, let the big stacks do that. They have enough chips by this point to call an all-in even from you probably and not be hurting too terribly. Play your cards well.

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