There are many different types of poker tournaments available, both in online poker rooms and in live poker rooms. There are tournaments for many different poker games, and the individual tournaments themselves vary in buy-in size, ante and blind structure, and length of the blind and ante levels. One type of poker tournament that is very popular in both the online and live poker worlds is a freeroll. Here we’re going to take a look at what freerolls are, how they work, why they exist, and why you should consider playing them.
A freeroll is essentially a poker tournament where the players do not pay a buy-in to play, but are competing for real money and/or prizes. Some freerolls are open to the public, but some freerolls are special events put on for specific groups of people. One example of a very famous freeroll tournament is the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. The WSOP Tournament of Champions is a one million dollar freeroll in which a small group of 10-27 players are invited to play. Most freerolls do not have such a large prize pool, but are great to play anyway.
The way freerolls work is that a poker room or special group will decide that they either want to show appreciation to a certain group of people, or that they want to have a poker tournament as a marketing event. In either case, the hosting party puts up the money and/or prizes to be awarded, and invites players to come and compete. In exchange, the hosting party gains publicity and, in theory, could recoup their losses on the freeroll with new business they receive as a result of the freeroll. When a freeroll is held for a special group of people to show appreciation, it helps to keep the group’s loyalty by showing that the hosting party cares for them and is willing to give back.
If you’re given an invitation to a freeroll, you should generally try to play unless you have a good reason not to. They are essentially free money, but you also help the hosting party by showing up and making the event more popular and successful. People who host successful freerolls are more likely to host more freerolls in the future that you can cash in on, which makes attending even more worthwhile.