Freerolls: What They Are, Types, and How to Play

To get acquainted with poker, there's no need to make a deposit. You can take your first steps in the game for free. Let's discuss what freerolls are and how to win them. We'll look at poker rooms with the most interesting free tournaments.

What is a freeroll

A freeroll is a free poker tournament with cash prizes.

To participate in a free tournament, all you need to do is register an account on the platform

Participants in a freeroll not only gain experience playing against real opponents but also win their first money. Many online poker rooms organize free tournaments. For example, PokerOK hosts freerolls with a $100,000 guarantee. Such large prizes are the exception to the rule; usually, modest sums are up for grabs in free tournaments.

A freeroll is one of the few ways to start a career in poker from scratch. Previously, beginners could start with a no deposit bonus. In the early days of the industry, free money was given out by rooms and poker schools. By 2025, there are few no deposit bonuses left in online poker. One of them is offered by the “FunFarm Start” program. It allows you to receive a $50 starting bankroll for completing the theoretical part of the course. The student can enhance their knowledge and start a career from scratch thanks to the school's bonus.

Which top players started with free tournaments

Free tournaments are not the optimal place to start a career. Spending several hours, overcoming the resistance of thousands of opponents, and earning $7-8 is a doubtful prospect. However, this path has been taken by several stars of modern poker. Let's discuss them in more detail.

Viktor Malinovskiy. One of the world's best players came to poker from professional sports. A pivotal moment in the career of a promising handball player was a knee injury. During his recovery, Viktor got to know poker through freerolls. Later, Limitless became famous in cash games but didn’t forget about tournaments. In 2018, Viktor won WCOOP-2018 and received $725,847. In 2024, Malinovskiy won a record tournament with a $200,000 buy-in at the Triton Series, earning $4,789,000 for first place.

Alexei Borovkov. He started his poker career with freerolls and Avr0ra. Tournaments on Full Tilt Poker helped him earn his first money. Today, Alexei is considered one of the top cash game specialists. Avr0ra’s biggest tournament poker victory came in December 2023 when he won GGMillion$ on PokerOK, earning $299,880.

Annette Obrestad. A star of online poker in the early 2000s. She registered her account on PokerStars at the age of 15 and played free tournaments until she came of age. In 2007, Annette won the main event of the live World Series of Poker Europe festival and made history, taking home the gold bracelet and £1,000,000 at the age of 18—an impressive achievement.

Annette Obrestad ranks in the top 6 players from Norway by winnings

Other popular players who started with free tournaments include David Peters, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, and Chris Ferguson.

Types of freerolls

Free tournaments can be divided into categories. One criterion is the rewards. Most poker rooms organize freerolls with cash prizes. The player participates in a competition, finishes in the prize zone, and receives money. Some platforms give away tickets to other tournaments. Such freerolls generate less interest. With a bit of luck, you can turn a free ticket into a pass to the brand's largest tournament. For example, PokerKing offers a chance to enter The Venom with a $5,000,000 guarantee from a freeroll.

Free tournaments are often distinguished by the entry method. Among them are: open, password-protected, invitation-only, conditional, and VIP.

Open. Anyone can participate. To enter a freeroll, you simply need to register an account. The prize pool rarely exceeds $50.

Password-protected. A secret word acts as a pass to the tournament. It is indicated in a popup when registering. Passwords need to be found on the poker room's social media, a player's page, or a poker resource. Passwords aren't an effective means of protecting against random players. They often become publicly available long before the competition starts. Larger sums are usually up for grabs in closed freerolls compared to open ones.

Invitation-only. These limit access to random individuals. To participate in the tournament, you initially need to register an account from a specific portal. There are no workarounds. This category also includes tournaments with tickets for deposits. When replenishing the account, the player is given several free passes.

Conditional. To participate in the freeroll, you need to meet a rake requirement or complete a daily mission. Sometimes players are sent to place a bet at a bookmaker or play slots.

The prospect of winning money without risk attracts many

VIP. Most online poker rooms reward clients for their loyalty. Holders of high statuses are awarded tickets to free tournaments. The best example of a freeroll was a quarterly tournament for $1,000,000 for holders of Supernova Elite status. Until 2015, it was held on PokerStars. Currently, Winamax organizes free tournaments for VIP status holders.

The largest free tournaments in history

Most modern freerolls feature modest prizes and a huge number of participants. Occasionally, leading industry rooms allocate significant funds for free tournaments. Let’s explore the largest freerolls in poker history.

• 4 PokerStars freerolls for $1,000,000. In 2016, PS's dominance was unchallenged, and the room organized large-scale promotions. Free tournaments attracted so much attention that PokerStars had to set a limit on the number of participants. Freeroll winners received $10,000 each. To be eligible for prizes, the client had to: play a hand for real money, place a sports bet, or play in an online casino.

• 3 partypoker tournaments for $100,000. In 2019, partypoker presented a new tournament schedule. In its honour, they organized free tournaments with large prizes. Only the first tournament was open to everyone. An entry in the others required playing in tournaments with buy-ins from $5.

• Freeroll at PokerOK for $100,000. In 2020, PokerOK held a free tournament to honour their ambassador Dan Bilzerian's birthday. Tickets to the freeroll were given for a deposit of $10. Since October 2025, PokerOK organizes a regular tournament for $100,000.

• Weekly freeroll by MTT Sports for 1 Bitcoin. Every week, this experimental room hosts a free tournament with a prize fund of 1 Bitcoin. At the time of writing, 1 Bitcoin is worth $112,000.

New online poker brands organize larger freerolls

Often, good free tournaments are organized by new rooms. Therefore, we recommend keeping a close eye on the schedules of newcomers in the industry.

How to win freerolls

The difference between a freeroll and a regular tournament is the level of opponents. If a player has spent money on entry, they play more cautiously. In free competitions, poker players take no risks, so they act more freely. Thrill-seekers play any two cards. The most daring go all-in every hand. To succeed in a freeroll, you need to:

• Play carefully at the start. Enter with strong pocket pairs and top Broadway cards. Discard marginal speculative hands to avoid difficult post-flop situations. At the beginning of a free tournament, you'll see a lot of all-ins, so it's wise to narrow the range of openers. There's no point in raising from an early position with AJ or AQ if 2-3 players will shove after us.

• Increase aggression as the stack decreases. In the middle stage of the tournament, start stealing blinds more often and make min-raises. If you managed to build a good stack in the early stage, put pressure on opponents with fewer chips. Many opponents want to hold on until the prizes, so they will offer minimal resistance.

• Skillfully play with a short stack. Success in tournaments is often determined by skill in push/fold play. Choose suitable situations to go all-in. Don't lose chips on calls and dubious plays post-flop. If you're weak with a short stack, practice in software. Basic skills can be learned with the free ICM Trainer. Advanced players should try ICMIZER 3.

To increase your chances of success and accelerate progress, play several tables simultaneously. Hundreds of free tournaments take place daily—many run concurrently. Playing multiple tables at the same time will protect you from making stupid decisions out of boredom. In a tournament, bad hands can be dealt 10-15-20 times in a row, and many poker players stray from their basic strategy. In most situations, entering the game with weak hands leads to losing pots and getting knocked out.

Push/fold is useful both in free tournaments and at the WSOP

Statistical software will give you an additional advantage over opponents. Developers of each poker tracker provide a trial period ranging from 2 weeks to a month. We recommend using Hand2Note or PokerTracker from the first tournament. Basic statistics will allow you to determine the type of opponent. As a result, you can devise an effective game strategy against them. If an opponent is passive, bet with weaker combinations; if aggressive, check more often with strong hands.

At the final table of a satellite, be cautious. Often novices don't change their strategy and lose their guaranteed ticket. Let's illustrate with an example. Suppose a player has AA. They have the second stack, with 3 opponents remaining. Two have short stacks. Tickets are given to three. The chip leader pressures and goes all-in every hand. In a regular tournament, you don't fold AA preflop. In a satellite, accumulating chips is pointless—no second ticket is given. Don't risk it—fold the hand and wait for the short opponent to bust.

Where to play free tournaments

In recent years, rooms have spent less on freerolls. As a result, the number of tournaments and prizes has decreased. However, most online poker platforms still offer them. Let's discuss poker rooms with freerolls.

PokerOK. Although a global leader in player numbers, it doesn't focus much on free tournaments. The platform’s most notable freeroll is the GGCare & GGCheers with a $100,000 prize pool. Tickets to this are earned through unfortunate losses or impressive wins. For example, a pass is given for being knocked out of a tournament with AA or winning a large pot with four of a kind 2222. Recently, PokerOK’s schedule added another freeroll for $100,000.

PokerStars. PokerStars made history with $1,000,000 freerolls in 2016. Nine years later, the situation has changed: PS has abandoned cash prize freerolls. Instead, they now conduct satellites to other tournaments.

WPT Global. The World Poker Tour platform offers a unique approach. WPT Global does not have regular free tournaments. However, it occasionally organizes freeroll festivals.

In autumn 2025, $2,000,000 was played in a series on WPT

RedStar Poker. The iPoker network also doesn’t excel in the number of freerolls. Primarily, RSP offers tickets to major events. Its tournament schedule includes daily freerolls with prizes from €25 to €50.

PokerKing. The Winning Poker Network room combines free satellites and tournaments with modest guarantees. PokerKing holds several freerolls according to Omaha rules. Free PLO tournaments are rare in online poker. Notably, PokerKing features freerolls for the network's flagship event, The Venom.

888Poker. The British room has long been regarded as one of the best places for beginners thanks to its no deposit bonus and many freerolls. 888Poker has not abandoned free tournaments, even now. The room organizes freerolls: 1) with passwords; 2) for those who have deposited; 3) for VIP status holders. There are also qualifiers for major events.

Pokerdom. It hosts both public and password-protected freerolls. The prize pool for most of them is 1,000-1,500 rubles. Pokerdom’s schedule also includes satellites for live festivals in Russia and neighbouring countries.

Among other rooms, note VangPoker and Stake Poker. The former's tournament schedule includes up to 40 freerolls a day. The latter organizes 3-4 free tournaments daily with relatively high prizes. The winner of a Stake freeroll receives $50-$60.