Freeroll Tournaments — Part III

This is our third in a series of columns on Las Vegas-type freeroll tournaments. These events have very short intervals between raising the blinds, and normally are played without an ante. Jim Brier, Bob Ciaffone’s co-author of Middle Limit Holdem Poker, is a regular player in these events.

This column will focus on preflop play with short stacks (10-30 big blinds in chips) and mini-stacks (less than 10 big blinds in chips). When you’re short-stacked or mini-stacked, you must be much more aggressive than normal. The blinds will eat your stack in a hurry if you wait to put chips at risk in as good a spot as you are accustomed to doing in a cash game. Oftentimes, the structure raises the blinds every orbit of the button.

Most of your freeroll play will be with a short stack or a mini-stack. If you start out with 2,000 in chips, blinds of 25-50, 15-minute rounds, and don’t win a pot, you will be mini-stacked within a half-hour (starting a round of 100-200 blinds with less than 10 big blinds in your stack).

You cannot win just small pots, but must double up to stay competitive. Thus, you welcome opportunities to double up. Be prepared to play your good hands stronger than usual.

Don’t open-limp. Avoid cold-calling raises, because you have no fold equity. Try to win the pot right away, or be in a position to go all in on the flop. Let your opponent(s) make the tough call-or-fold decisions.

The following are guidelines, not rigid rules. Adjust raising amounts to the specific situation.

Short Stack (10-30 big blinds)

Early Position: Open-raise to three big blinds with pocket sevens or higher, any ace with a 10 or higher kicker, or a suited ace. If a weak player limps, raise to at least nine big blinds with a pocket pair higher than 9-9, or A-K or A-Q.
Middle Position: Add 6-6, 5-5, and any two suited facecards when open-raising.
Late Position: Add any pair, any ace, any two Broadway cards, and any suited connector down to 5-4 when open-raising.

Mini-Stack (less than 10 big blinds): Never raise only part of your stack!
Early/Middle Positions: Open-raise, raise a limper, or reraise all in with all pairs, any two Broadway cards, any ace, or a suited king.

Late Position: Add 10-9 and suited connectors down to 6-5 suited for opening all in. With four to six big blinds, go all in with any two cards.

The following problems assume that the opponent is a stranger.

Hand No. 1: You are first to act from LP [late position] with the 8♥ 7♥, a 4,000 stack, and blinds of 100-200. Your opponents have stacks about equal to yours.
Correct Play: Raise to 600. Your short stack demands raising. Unless the button calls, you will have position post-flop. A lot of flops are good when you are heads up in position with a suited connector. Any pair, any flush draw, or any straight draw enables you to play aggressively. Many hands better than yours will fold. The button may fold a weak, offsuit ace, king, or queen, and the blinds will often fold hands like Q-9 or J-9.

Hand No. 2: You’re in LP with the A♣ 9♣ and a 2,500 stack. The blinds are 50-100, and will soon double. A player in MP [middle position] with a 2,500 stack open-raises to 700. It is folded to you.

Correct Play: Go all in. Your short stack is about to become a mini-stack. You can isolate the raiser and force him to risk his stack if he decides to play. Your opponent may fold rather than risk losing his tournament life. If he calls, you are in trouble against a bigger ace or a pair higher than eights. But even then, you will win about a third of the time (unless he has aces). Occasionally, you will catch a player with a pair smaller than nines, giving you even-money chances to double up. The probability that he will fold plus your overall chances of winning a showdown justify gambling.

Hand No. 3: You are in MP with pocket eights, a stack of 5,500, and 100-200 blinds. A player in EP [early position] limps in, and someone with a 5,000 stack makes it 800. It is then folded to you.

Correct Play: Make it 2,400. The limper will probably fold and the raiser also may fold. You could easily have the best hand, and should seize the opportunity to increase your stack by more than 20 percent. Even if the raiser calls, you’re ahead of everything except a higher pair.

Hand No. 4: You’re in EP with pocket nines, a stack of 3,000, and 100-200 blinds. You open-raise to 800. Another player with a 6,000 stack reraises to 1,600, and everyone folds back to you.

Correct Play: Go all in. If you fold, your only remaining move is to go all in at a later time when your hand and/or the situation may not be as good. If you just call, you are pot-committed. By pushing all in, you have a decent chance of getting him to fold, since your stack is large enough to cripple him if he plays. Go all in and hope for the best.

Hand No. 5: You are under the gun with the A♠ 2♣, a 7,000 stack, and 800-1,600 blinds. The small blind and big blind have 5,000 and 8,000 stacks, respectively.

Correct Play: Go all in. If you fold, you can barely survive another few orbits. By going all in, you are at least raising an amount that will make others hesitant to call without a much better hand. You may win immediately, since your raise from under the gun looks legitimate to your opponents. Your most likely caller is the big blind, but your weak, offsuit ace plays well against his range of calling hands.
Hand No. 6: You are on the button with the Q♠ J♠, a 5,000 stack, and 300-600 blinds. A player in EP with a 12,000 stack open-raises to 1,200 and a player in MP with a 4,000 stack goes all in. It is then folded to you.

Correct Play: Fold. Don’t let the fact that you are mini-stacked panic you into playing. Not only do you have a weak hand in the presence of an early-position raiser and an all-in player, you also have no fold equity. If you play, you are playing for virtually all of your stack. Your decision to play won’t influence the early-position raiser, since it costs him about the same amount to play. And you still have another seven hands before the blinds come back to you.
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Summary*

Here are the major points: First, more than half of the hands have you playing for all of your stack. Second, none of the hands are particularly strong. In fact, many of them would be considered poor-percentage hands in a cash game under the conditions cited. Freeroll events simply do not let you be selective and wait for decent starting hands. You have to play outside your comfort zone. Because many players dislike freerolls, they don’t adjust well. But if you can suppress your discomfort and make the right adjustments, you will have an edge. We should add that the range of experience and styles of players is very wide, so your adversary in a pot matters a lot. Therefore, pay close attention to who is waiting for a good hand and who enters combat without one. ♠

Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Poker. All can be ordered (autographed to you) from Bob by e-mail: [email protected]. Free U.S. shipping to Card Player readers. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons at a reasonable rate. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert’s Rules of Poker, for free. Bob also has a website called www.fairlawsonpoker.org.