Early Freeroll Strategy

[Dave5511]

I just wanted to find out, for those of you who play freerolls, do you have an early (say maybe till 2nd break) strategy for these games?

There are quite a few freerolls out there that have nice top end payouts, but surviving the massive player pools (2000-2500) is proving easier said than done.

Do you like to take chances early on marginal hands to try to either build a stack or get busted out early so you don't spend too much time? Do you play it just like any other tourney?

The "survived and thrive" method that treats me fairly well in small stakes MTTs doesn't fare as well in the freerolls. One of the issues is that a normal MTT pays out around the top 10%. Many freerolls play only the top 30 or 50, wich is getting down to the top 1%-2$ for a 2,500 player pool.

Should I play these as I normally would, and just realize that I'm going to have to avoid a few more hard beats from the "fling 'em and hope" crowd you'll find in most freerolls?

Anything ya got could be helpful.