The Ultimate Guide to Freerolls: where better to play and how to climb up faster?

Poker is not only an interesting game where you can spend time with your friends. Some players made poker their job. Some of them started their career as a poker player without deposits and risking their own money. They started from freerolls. In this article we will talk about: 

• how to start your career from freerolls; 
• which poker rooms hold the best free tournaments; 
• what types of freerolls are there; 
• what free software will increase the chances of success in MTT.

What is a freeroll? 

Freeroll is a free poker tournament with real money prizes. Sometimes tournament tickets are raffled off instead of cash prizes. In online poker, free tournaments are held to attract new players. Most players want to play for real money, but are wary of making a deposit. Previously, beginners had 2 options to start the poker path without risking their own money: 

• No deposit bonuses;
• Earn starting capital on freerolls. 

By 2021, there were only 2 offers from poker rooms with no deposit bonuses: 1) $ 88 from 888Poker; 2) $ 11 for registration at GGPokerOK. Since June 1st, the Good Game no deposit bonus is no longer offered. The bonus from eights remained the only one no deposit. Read about the 888Poker bonus in our material. 

Poker freerolls with no deposit and capital for registration - eights lure newbies

Building a bankroll on freerolls is harder now than it was in the early 2000s, but the mission is feasible. With the right approach, you will not need to exert extra effort and spend hundreds of hours of life. But patience, knowledge of the basics of tournament poker and a systematic approach will not be superfluous. 

Which poker stars started from freerolls?

For clarity, here are a few poker celebrities who started out with free tournaments: 

1. Chris Ferguson. The winner of 6 WSOP bracelets started with the challenge “from $ 0 to $ 10,000 without deposits”. 

Ferguson's Challenge - the golden page of online poker

He started in March 2006 and in the first weeks earned $ 2 and ... lost them at the NL10 table in coinflip. After resetting to zero, Chris continued to roll freerolls, hitting the money 1 time out of 10. The key success on the way to the goal was the victory in the tournament for $ 1 and $ 104 as a reward. In September 2007, the challenge was successfully completed. The story of Chris Ferguson's bankroll building has inspired many players. Black Friday turned Ferguson from a hero into an outcast. However, this is a completely different story. 

2. Annette Obrestad. The youngest WSOP winner started her career opening a PokerStars account at the age of 15. Annette provided false information, because registering an account in online poker is possible only from the age of 18. At the initial stage, she only played freerolls and by the time she came of age she had gained a lot of experience and a bankroll. In 2007, she finally got the right to play in the casino. The new goal is to try herself at live poker. Success came the same year - she won a gold bracelet and £ 1,000,000. The number of her prize money for her entire career exceeds $ 3,900,000. Annette retired from poker in recent years, but remains in its history. 

3. "BigBlindsBet". The player from Britain hides his name and does not participate in live tournaments. However, it is known that he started his career with free MTT and NL2-NL5. He was included in this list for winning the WCOOP in 2019. The first place in the tournament earned him $ 1,665,964. 

Grow from poker freerolls at Pokerstars to a WCOOP winner - that's the way of the samurai

An impressive amount for a player starting from PokerStars freerolls. 

4. Victor "Limitless" Malinovsky. The Belarusian player has gone from freerolls to NL1000 in a couple of years. Now Victor is one of the strongest cash game players in the world, willing to play with anyone. In 2018, the WCOOP submitted to him. For the victory, Victor received $ 725,847. In June, an epic duel between Limitless and Stefan11222 ended, as a result of which the latter became richer by $ 1,776,837. Victor was not very upset - after all, freerolls cannot be divided anywhere and you can always repeat the path of success. 

5. Yevgeny Tymoshenko. The Ukrainian poker player has earned over $ 6,000,000 by the age of 21. Along the way, he won the Aussie Millions and WCOOP. And he started his career with $ 6 in a freeroll from the favorite superuser's room - UltimateBet. In recent years, he practically does not play poker. It is possible that he will soon become a competitor to Annette Obrestad and start his own YouTube channel about makeup. But it is not clear. 

Freerolls with the biggest prize money

Free tournament guarantees are rarely big. More often than not, several thousand participants are fighting for amounts of $ 100 - $ 200. With this number of participants, the tournament lasts 7-8 hours. The worst part is that as a reward for all your efforts, you can get $ 1 - $ 2. Many players will be kicked out with great pleasure in the first hand of the tournament. However, in online poker there are also freerolls with impressive prize money: 

1. In 2016, PokerStars ran 4 freerolls with $ 1,000,000 guaranteed each. 

Most expensive free online poker tournament took place on PS in 2016

The winners received $ 10,000 each. The tournaments attracted so many players that the number of participants was limited to 100,000. To participate in the tournament, players had to play 1 hand in a game for real money (cash, Spin & Go, Sit & Go, MTT) or place a bet on sports at BetStars. The casino game was also counted. 

2. To celebrate the new tournament schedule, Partypoker held 3 freerolls in December 2019 with a prize pool of $ 100,000. 

Free MTTs are rarely held at Party poker, but if they do, then they are very generous

Access to the first of them - "The Opener" - was open to everyone; in "The Bridger" and "The Closer" were given tickets provided that you played at least 1 tournament for $ 5 + and $ 10 + respectively. 

3. In December 2020, GGPokerOK hosted a free tournament in honor of the birthday of its ambassador Den Bilzerian. It was possible to participate in the $ 100,000 tournament for a $ 10 deposit. Freerolls with big prize money are held within the framework of major tournament series or big changes for the poker room. Therefore, we recommend that you follow the poker news carefully - this work will quickly pay off. 

What types of freerolls are there?

Free tournaments differ not only in the size of the guarantee and the number of participants, but also in the conditions of access to them. Sometimes you need to make a deposit, sometimes register an account from a specific site, sometimes get a certain status in a local program. These are the types of free MTTs: 

• Accessible to all. Do you have a poker room account? - So you can take part in the tournament! The worst kind of freeroll in terms of the ratio of the number of players to the guarantee: several thousand bodies converging in a fight for $ 50. The winner will take $ 7- $ 8 and will not deny himself anything. Most of the rooms have refused such tournaments. But WPN does it. 1308 participants, 7.5 hours of play, $ 7.92 prize for the winner - it is difficult to call tempting numbers.

       

The freeroll schedule at Poker King is one of the most stable online

• Satellites. All conditions are repeated by the public freerolls, but instead of money, the best MTT players will receive a ticket to a tournament that will allow them to participate in a tournament where they will compete for tickets to another tournament... There is less competition in free satellites, but tournament tickets are far from being the ultimate dream. After all, they still need to be converted into money, which not everyone will succeed in and not on the first try. 
• Private. Such freerolls are allowed either by invitation or by password. There are much fewer participants in them, and the prize money is higher. It's easy to get a password - Google can easily find poker sites where private tournaments and passwords are published. The situation with invitations is more complicated - you need to initially register in the room from the site holding the freeroll. Novice players do not know about this, therefore they do not get the maximum benefit when opening an account. 
• With a condition. Rooms often run “complete the mission - get a prize” promotions. The peak of offers is in December. The tasks range from “play 1 hand at the cash table” to “win X Spin & Go tournaments”. A freeroll ticket is one of the most common types of rewards. Another option to get tickets is to place a sports bet or play at the casino. For the promotion of other products, rooms are also rewarded with tickets to a freeroll. 
• VIP. Almost every room holds closed tournaments for privileged status holders. Poker dinosaurs still remember the $ 1,000,000 Supernova freerolls at PokerStars. Now status freerolls are held with more modest guarantees. At 888Poker, the largest VIP tournament is for players with level 80+ at 888Club and $ 10,000, at Winamax - for players with "Red Diamond" status and $ 20,000 guaranteed. The catch is that if you've come this far in the loyalty program, then freerolls aren't interesting to you. And if you are attracted to such tournaments, then it is impossible to fill statuses for them with a zero bankroll. 

 

Winamax has some of the most generous freerolls in online poker in 2021

• For points. An intermediate version of free tournaments - freerolls for points. At PokerStars, you can participate in MTTs with StarsCoin. The situation is similar to VIP tournaments - StarsCoin is awarded for playing for real money. In the history of poker, there have been cases when poker players lost their entire bankroll, but were promoted at the expense of points, but this path cannot be called good. 
• For depositors. All rooms are happy to welcome new players to closed tournaments, where only those who recently made a deposit participate. The size of the deposit does not matter - more often than not, $ 10 is enough. After the deposit, you are given access for several months, or 8-10 tickets are issued. 

General information about freerolls in the most popular rooms

Pokerstars 

The world's leading poker room is not the best place to climb from 0: there are no public freerolls on PokerStars. If you are planning to start a career without a deposit here, then you will have to be patient. From Monday to Friday, PS hosts 5-6 free tournaments, on weekends their number increases to 10-12. To participate in most of them, you need a password or invitation card. Sometimes there are pleasant exceptions, like the “PokerStars Community $ 1,000 Freeroll”, where you will be manually registered for 1 post or comment in the PS community. 

Where to find Pokerstars freerolls: Tourney - Buy-in - Freeroll

The key problem of freerolls at Pokerstars is the huge number of opponents. Even MTT with a $ 100 guarantee attracts more than 2,000 people. As a result, the size of the prize money for the victory and places in the final is blurred, and the way there takes 6-7 hours. Add insane opponents ready to go all-in with all the trash to that, and we get a road of blood, pain, and losses. 

Talking about the beginning of a poker career on PS, one cannot fail to mention the “PokerStars School”. It contains a huge number of training courses on MTT, cash, Spin & Go, Heads Up and other disciplines. Most of the content is designed for beginners and inexperienced players. At PokerStars we are interested in two leaderboards: "Freshman Leaderboard" and "Scholars Leaderboard". 

Freshman is available to players who have opened an account within the last 90 days. The prize pool of $ 2,500 will be split among the top 50 players of the month. Leaderboard points are awarded for participation and success in special tournaments. To get a ticket to the tournament, you need to enter the code "FRESHMAN" in the PokerStars client. Tournaments are held on Mondays and Wednesdays. In addition to the leaderboard points, there are also $ 150 tournament dollars. 

Free poker freerolls from PS school shouldn't be ignored

The Scholars Leaderboard Tournament will cost $ 0.2. Formally, this is not a freeroll, but the prize pool of the race is a solid $ 6,000. Leaderboard tournaments are held from Monday to Thursday. In addition to the points, MTT also has a $ 300 additional prize pool. 

PokerStars also has daily freerolls with $ 5,000 and $ 10,000 guarantees. However, they are available with tickets dropped from StarsReward chests. And this is the lot of players who already play for real money and receive Starscoins. 

The minimum withdrawal amount on PS is $ 10. The minimum deposit is the same. 

Conclusion: PokerStars is not the best room for building a bankroll from 0. There are a lot of opponents, the prize money is mediocre, there are not many freerolls a day. But if you managed to play at least $ 5, then the easiest way to unwind is here. Multi-table Sit & Go tournaments for 45, 90 and 360 players for $ 0.1- $ 0.25 will help you with this. 

GGPoker 

PS's main competitor is not interested in freerolls: there are practically no freerolls here. 

GG Poker and freerolls - these entities do not overlap in 2021

No private, no depositors, no satellites. Sometimes they are held in honor of major tournament series or Den Bilzerian's birthday. There are no poker schools and leaderboards at GGPokerOK and BetKings. There are no free play modes for play money either. 

Conclusion: The Good Game Network is not suitable for building a bankroll from 0. 

888Poker 

If 888Poker cannot compete with GGPoker and PokerStars in popularity, then it is almost an ideal place to rise from zero: 

• About 20 freerolls are held daily, many of which are password-based. 
• Winner Spinners are often rewarded with tickets to free tournaments as rewards for spinning the reels. Users have access to 1 free spin per day for registration. To get a prize you just need to login to the poker client and press a button. 

     

Freerolls 888 Poker - a strong argument for playing here

• 888Poker remains the only room where you can get a no deposit bonus. Although it is issued in installments, the $ 88 deserves your attention. How to get a bonus, read our material in the section with useful articles. 
• Periodically, there are whole promotions dedicated to freerolls. In the summer of 2021, the 888Poker Freeroll Splash Party raffled off $ 1,000,000. Free MTT tickets were handed out for completing assignments. 

There are not so many players in freerolls from 888 Poker as well as on Pokerstars: instead of 2,000-2,500 you will often compete with 200-300 opponents. At the same time, the prize pools of free tournaments are comparable.

Busy schedule of freerolls at 888 Poker

The minimum deposit is $ 10, the minimum cashout is from $ 10 to $ 20, depending on the payment method. 

Conclusion: The combination of a no deposit bonus and a large number of freerolls makes 888Poker the best place to spin up your bankroll with freerolls. 

Partypoker

888Poker offers over 20 freerolls per day, Partypoker hosts the same number per week. Most of the free tournaments are password protected. Some of the freerolls are available only for certain countries - they are simply not visible to representatives of other countries. 

There are not many freerolls at Party Poker

The number of participants in freerolls is from 300 to 600. Depends on the size of the guarantee and the method of entry. 

The minimum deposit is $ 10, the minimum cashout is $ 10. 

Conclusion: Partypoker is not the most obvious choice, but you can find interesting events. 

Winning Poker Network 

Another great place to start without a deposit is the Winning Poker Network. Every 3 hours freerolls are held here with a $ 50 guarantee. To get access to them, you only need to register in the room. The skeptic will immediately notice the number of participants in 1000+ players and twirl his fingers at two temples at once. The big advantage of freerolls on WPN is that among disciplines there is not only Hold'em, but also PLO with PLO8. It will be easier to win a prize in free Omaha tournaments, because some opponents don't even know the rules. 

WPN - a network where poker rooms have a clear freeroll schedule

A hidden feature of WPN freerolls is that Americas Cardroom hosts many free MTTs that are not available at PokerKing. They are not displayed in the lobby under the Freeroll tab. To find private tournaments, go to the "Guaranteed" tab, select "All" there and filter tournaments by buy-in. Every day you can play 5-6 private freerolls on Americas Cardroom. 

A huge number of private tournaments - a highlight of Americas Cardroom

Conclusion: Along with 888Poker, you should definitely try Americas Cardroom. The mix of public and private tournaments looks promising. 

Chico Poker Network 

Talk about freerolls at Chico Poker Network is very short - there is only 1 free tournament hanging in the lobby all week. The study of other tournament tabs did not give any effect - without the buy-in, only this "TheNuts Bankroll Builder". 

TigerGaming: No Money - No Free MTTs!

Conclusion: We can safely throw Chico poker into the same basket where we have GGPoker. The room is good for MTT players of low limits, but it is not suitable for freerolls. 

Winamax 

Winamax is one of the coolest places for free poker fans. Every week there is a play for € 10,000 in freerolls. Every day there are 12 freerolls with a prize fund ranging from € 50 to € 250. Tournaments are held in NL Holdem and PLO. Part at long tables, part at short tables. 

WP is one of the best poker rooms for playing poker no deposit

Winamax Poker gives a ticket to the "Welcome Freeroll" for checking documents. Welcome Freeroll Guarantee - € 1,000. To receive a ticket, you need to verify your identity and residential address. Use your ticket within a month, otherwise it will burn out. The freeroll is held every week on Sundays. 

In honor of the birthday, Winamax Poker is giving tickets to the "Birthday Freeroll". The prize fund of the tournament is € 500. Tickets are automatically credited to the account of users whose birthday fell on this week. The tournament is held on Sunday evening. 

Every Tuesday there is also a freeroll for women. Ladies Freeroll guarantee € 150. 

There are also free Sit & Go tournaments on Winamax. Players can claim up to 4 tickets each day. The main problem with these free Sit & Gos is € 0.05 for winning the tournament. At this rate, it will take more than one month to build a bankroll even at € 10. 

Unique offer - poker room with Sit & Go freerolls

Winamax has challenges where you can get additional tickets for freerolls. You complete tasks in the play money mode. For successful completion you will be given 5 freeroll tickets with a total guarantee of € 800. Tickets are valid for 90 days from the date they were credited to the account. 

The minimum deposit is € 10, the minimum cashout is € 10. 

Conclusion: Winamax Poker is a great place for a start. We would boldly give the first place in terms of the attractiveness of conditions for promotion from scratch, but the access of countries only from the EU spoils the overall picture.

Pokermatch 

PokerMatch does not attract new players with the help of freerolls: there are few of them, and the guarantees of 500-1000 hryvnia look frivolous. The brightest illustration is MTT with access by the ticket and a 500 hryvnia guarantee (less than $ 19). There are 2-3 free tournaments per day. Most of the PokerMatch freerolls are designed for players with VIP status.

Playing free online poker tournaments at PM is not a good idea

Conclusion: one of the worst options for freeroll players. No free public tournaments.

PokerDom 

The older "brother" PokerMatch pursues a similar policy: there are few freerolls, and the guarantees are tiny. Most of the Free Tournaments tab is filled with MTTs for those who missed out on the Punch Series. The only bright spot is the Pineapple freeroll. 

PokerDom is not suitable for climbing from zero

Conclusion: slightly better than PokerMatch, but worse than almost all other rooms. 

Vbet Poker

There are surprisingly many free tournaments on the BetConstruct network, with an average of around 25 freerolls per day. The problem with MTT at Vbet Poker is that absolutely not money is raffled in all of them, but tournament dollars. That is, if you win, you will not receive money, but you will be able to participate in larger tournaments. Another nice feature is the minimum number of opponents: no more than 70-80 people participate in freerolls. Compare this to 2,000-2,500 members at PokerStars. 

Vbet Poker is a great place to start without bankroll

The minimum deposit on Vbet poker is € 10, the minimum cashout is € 10. 

Conclusion: An excellent place to start a career without a deposit: a lot of freerolls, few competitors.

Freeroll Tips 

Here we will not talk about the tactics of playing in a particular tournament: what hands to fold, what is involved in the game, when to start pushing. These are tips that will help you get up from zero faster and collect the minimum bankroll to start your career. Here's what we recommend: 

1. Subscribe to all social networks of poker rooms where you play freerolls. This will allow you to receive passwords for free MTT faster than others. For example, this week PokerDom is holding a 20,000 rubles freeroll for subscribers of its telegram channel, PokerStars gives a ticket for 1 comment in its community to a tournament with a $ 1,000 guarantee, and Partypoker rewards all subscribers of its channel in discord with a free MTT of $ 500. Do not be lazy to create accounts in telegram and discord. It will be useful to register on Facebook and Vkontakte. 

2. Follow not only the rooms, but also the streamers. Many of them run small freerolls for spectators. Sometimes they give out tickets to exclusive tournaments. So check out Twitch and YouTube.

Streamers often give free tickets to viewers

 In order not to get bogged down in studying hundreds of streamers, try to go from the opposite: follow the schedule on the tabs with freerolls for 1-2 weeks, write down the nicknames of those streamers who conduct free MTTs. Then only watch them. Many streamers have contracts with specific rooms - study their list on the room's website and subscribe. 

3. The “reverse” strategy is applicable in another case: large poker sites often hold regular freerolls to attract newbies. Some are available for tickets, which are given only to those players who register an account in the room through their affiliate link. Others require a password to participate. If you want to register in a room from a poker site, then carefully study the alternative offers, because you will not be able to go back and open a new account. Multi-accounting is prohibited by the rules of any poker room. To find out the main sites that conduct freerolls, download the room client and look in its lobby on the tab with free tournaments. Write them down on a separate list and choose the most attractive option. 

4. There are many poker sites on the Internet whose main purpose is to share passwords for freerolls. For insurance, subscribe to them. This way you will definitely not miss out on value. And the coverage of the rooms will be wider. 

5. Make your tournament schedule so that you can play several freerolls at the same time. This will solve 2 problems at once: 1) you will not be bored and you will not start playing marginal hands; 2) The disappointment of being eliminated from a multi-table tournament will be less than if you spend the entire evening on just 1 MTT. If you can't multitable on a specific day, add play money tournaments. Don't take them too seriously, but stick to a strategy. Any poker practice is good. 

6. Be patient.

Don't expect to jump right in the freerolls and take out your opponents in a real money game. Building a bankroll without a deposit is a tricky task. Get ready to spend a few stressful months on it.

Imagine how beautiful your story will look next to stories about Annette Obrestad and Victor Malinovsky. 

7. Learn. Even in a free tournament, you can get a rewarding experience. Do not play carelessly and try to reason during the session. If you have 1 table left and you are distracted, then start some poker stream or training video. It can keep concentration. 

Free poker software 

It will not be superfluous to use free poker programs as well. Most of the poker programs are paid, but have a free trial period. However, there are also a few tools that are free all the time. We are not talking about hacked programs - just the developers have chosen a different model for distributing the product. Here are the top 3 best programs: 

1. StarsCaption. The software transfers stacks to the big blinds, blocks pop-ups, creates bet profiles, accelerates multi-tabling through hotkeys, contains a built-in HUD, and automatically positions tables on the screen. Works up to and including NL10 and in tournaments up to $ 3 for free at PokerStars with no time limit. Partypoker and 888Poker have similar programs - PartyCaption and 888Caption. 

2. Hand2Note. A poker tracker, the basic version of which is free with no time limits or limits. Play with poker statistics and HUD in any tournament. Download Hand2Note from the developer's official website for free. 

The program for collecting statistics will definitely come in handy during the ascent

3. SharkScope. You are seated at the table with a new opponent. In the next hand you get a good starters, and your opponent decides to go all-in. If you win, you will become the chip leader of the tournament. If you lose, you will be left with 4 blinds and are unlikely to get into the prizes. In such a situation, Sharkscope will help you out: the service will provide a graph of the opponent, show his form, favorite limits, ROI, total number of tournaments played, profit. With this data, you can make the best decision. SharkScope works in a browser, and any user has 5 free searches per day. 

Conclusion

In modern poker, the rise without the deposit is more like a feat: guarantees in freerolls are very modest, but the level of play is much higher than it was in 2010. Many popular rooms have refused to hold free tournaments, others give access to them only for a deposit. Previously, many poker schools gave $ 50- $ 100 for the quiz and registration, but now the no deposit bonus is only available at 888Poker. 

We recommend that players focus on 4 rooms: 888Poker, Americas Cardroom, Winamax Poker and Vbet. These poker rooms are the best in terms of the ratio of the number of players and freerolls.