Freeroll Tournaments

Online poker tables and tournaments are quickly becoming one of the most popular ways for many people to participate in poker playing.  These games are growing in popularity due to not only being a good place to practice your poker playing, but also because of the possibility of winning real world money prizes, all the allure of a casino right at your home computer.  Many different kinds of tournaments are available including shootouts, rebuys and elimination rounds, but one of the most popular is the freeroll tournament.  This type of tournament, the freeroll, is defined as a tournament where there is no entry fee required, yet real world cash prizes can be won.

Like most tournaments, freeroll games generally include multiple tables, often each playing an elimination round and then those winners coming together for the final game, and are a large draw for spectators.  Each poker room has different requirements for participation in a freeroll tournament, and some rooms do not use them at all as the money put up by the room may or may not be recuperated.  In these cases such losses are sometimes deemed acceptable if they bring more people to the room in question, the freeroll game then becoming a marketing tool as well as a fun tournament for players and viewers.

Reasons and methods for running a freeroll tournament:

• Getting practice players or new applicants to join a room.  In this case the freeroll tournament is a way to offer incentive for new players to join a room, or to upgrade their account from a practice account.  The only thing required for entry is the creation of a real money account by the player for cash to be deposited to.  This type of freeroll game is based on the drawing of new players to the room, so even a player that has never participated in a ranked hand or a fee table game can be involved and potentially win the big pot.
• Rewarding regular players or keeping a player from cancelling their account.  These tournaments are held for players that have been participating at the hosting room for some time.  Players will be invited to the freeroll tournament based on the length of time the player spends at real money tables, or the number of ranked hands that a player has participated in.  Usually the higher the freeroll potential pay out the longer a player must have been active to be invited.  Sometimes players that have been part of a room for a long time and are considering quitting their account are also invited to the freeroll tournament as a way to generate new interest in staying and continuing to play.
• Rewarding new players.  Slightly different from the first case listed here the players invited to these freeroll tournaments must have already created a real money account and, often, have played in at least one ranked hand before being invited to participate in a freeroll tournament.  The pot for these kind of freeroll tournaments is usually fairly modest, but significant enough to make it worth continuing to play in the room and maintain an active account.

All in all a freeroll tournament can be a great way to get involved in a poker room, whether as an active participant or a spectator to the game itself.  If you are in a room and you see an advertisement, or invite, for such a tournament, check it out, but make sure to verify the rules and regulations of the room so that you are familiar with the requirements for participating and taking your winnings home.