Don't understand Free Roll Concept

[DougI]

I know I'm missing something here, but don't know what.
Sites like UB offer free rolls for entering a tourney.
This means it costs nothing to participate?
If it costs nothing, then what prize is there?
I know UB and other sites are not in biz to give free money away.

What am I not understanding?
Confused newbie.

[Cerril]

Well there are two types of freerolls in tourneyspeak.

The first is something paid for with FPPs (frequent player points or whatever the site calls them). Basically it's a reward for long-time players, who pay a whole lot over time in rake.

The second is just a pure freeroll, usually for $200 or so. It is free money the site's giving away. It's a bonus feature to generate interest, and the amount is so tiny (even if it was a $2000 freeroll it's pretty tiny compared to their per-hour rake) that it's just good advertising. There are also fee-free tournaments (such as $2+0, where all the paid money goes into the prize pool). That doesn't cost the site anything in practical terms, but doesn't make them anything either. Same deal.

The second-and-a-half method is the 'value added' tourney. A tournament might be along standard lines ($10+1 or whatever; they tend to be low buy-in) but have an extra couple hundred or thousand dollars added on top. In almost every instance the entries more than compensate, and in many the extra interest alone probably pays for it up front.

Last, and this is going far enough off topic that I'll stop after this one, there are 'guaranteed prize' tournaments. For example, maybe a $10+1 tournament guarantees a $25,000 prize pool. Obviously there need to be 2500 entrants in order for the pool to be paid for by entry fees alone, so if the number of entrants is low enough everyone is getting a little extra equity on their investment. Of course, most of these are multi-rebuy plus add-on tournaments, so 1000 entrants might easily make $25000 in prizes.

[SevenStuda]

Indeed, in life it is possible to get something for nothing.

-Dimitri

[DougI]

Thanks Ceril for that detailed explanation. Much appreciated.

[jdl22]

Just wanted to add something. While this was not asked in the question it is a reference to freerolls and freerolling. Freeroll (sometimes used as a verb) generally refers to any situation where you are gambling on a can't lose proposition. While this seems like an oxymoron it isn't necesarily. Here are some examples of freerolling:

1. For the WSOP main event this year you could bet on who would win. There were many players available to place money on and there was also a field bet. You could get even money on the field so if none of the players they had listed won then you would win. Say you bet $100 on the field. Then when the final table had formed you could bet on any of the 9 players, each with various odds based on stack size and other factors. This final table featured Dan Harrington as the only player that was featured before. That is, Dan Harrington is the only player that could win to ruin your field bet. But you could also bet on Harrington getting odds of 10:1 (can't actually remember so I'm making the numbers up). Say you wagered $10 on Harrington. If Harrington wins you win $100 the exact amount you lost in the field bet so you break even. If Harrington doesn't win then you lose that $10 but win $100 for a total win of $90. Hence, you are freerolling. You are guaranteed to either break even or win $90. There are similar examples with sports where you can find one team at at some odds then at another bookie you find the opposing team at a similar odds in reverse so that if you wager a certain amount on each team to win you will break even if one does and win a small amount if the other wins.

edit: Just wanted to add that you could go to the opposite extreme with the Harrington bet - putting 100 on Harrington. If he wins you take in a cool 900 but if he loses you break even. You are actually freerolling by placing any wager on Harrington between 10 and 90. You could guarantee a profit of 81.81 by wagering 18.18 on Harrington (for those of you who are like my mathie friends I was an undergrad with, actually you get 81.80 if he wins and 81.82 if somebody else does).

2. Suppose you have 6 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 7 /images/graemlins/spade.gif and I have 6 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif 7 /images/graemlins/heart.gif and the flop is 5 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 8 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 9 /images/graemlins/spade.gif. We both have the same made hand but you are freerolling on your flush. You can bet like crazy because at worst you split the pot with me and at best you scoop it when a spade comes.