Empire $500 freerolls, these things are silly

For those who might not know already...

Empire has these $500 freeroll tournaments, presumably as some sort of encouragement for new players. The blinds ramp up at an insane level, every 2 minutes they go up. As if this weren't bad enough, the top 100 players out of 1000 or so end up in the money, so once you get near that and afterwards, lots of players start slowplaying to try to get in the money, to get more money, etc. One player waiting 30 seconds for each of his plays, when the blinds are going up every 2 minutes, makes a big difference.

The end result is that these tournaments are pretty much all just a matter of luck, once you get past the first 15 minutes or so. At the end, the blinds get to be so high that the final 2 tables of 20 players become one table in 5 minutes, and 5 minutes later the tournament is over.

I wonder if the purpose of this is to encourage new players to think that poker is all about luck. There is very little skill required to play these things, by the time the tournament is half over, your only choice each hand is to fold or go all in. A bad player will do just about as well as a good player, as long as he has any sense of which hands are playable preflop. Seems like a great way to give new players the illusion that they have as good a chance at poker as anyone.

[Exitonly]

Those are lame, but the Empire freerolsl that you have to play 50 raked hands for.. those aren't all that bad. Ultra-ultra soft, and a decent prizepool for a freeroll. Enough value to compensate for a good portion of the rake you paid for those 50 hands.

[FakeKramer]

How long do they take to finish? I mean a player of average skill could expect to earn $.50 each time they enter this tournament, which isn't all that bad for like an hour of all-in poker while you're a new player who is bored and likes playing tournaments.

But I mean... yea... I agree they're retarded.

The format and design of those tournies are the exact same as the speed tournies on Party. The blinds in the Party speed tournies go up every 3 minutes, and after about a half hour you have to go into "fold until the big blind puts you all in" mode.

No skill involved, its all just a matter of surviving the hands where you're automatically put all in.

[ QUOTE ]
How long do they take to finish? I mean a player of average skill could expect to earn $.50 each time they enter this tournament, which isn't all that bad for like an hour of all-in poker while you're a new player who is bored and likes playing tournaments.

But I mean... yea... I agree they're retarded.

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The one I played lasted about an hour and a half. They have them twice a day, I believe, and yeah, if you are halfway decent you could probably make $1 on each one, since the top 100 players end up in the money. But spending an hour to make $1 wouldn't be worth it to most people.

[ QUOTE ]
The format and design of those tournies are the exact same as the speed tournies on Party. The blinds in the Party speed tournies go up every 3 minutes, and after about a half hour you have to go into "fold until the big blind puts you all in" mode.

No skill involved, its all just a matter of surviving the hands where you're automatically put all in.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just folding until you're all in in the big blinds would not be optimal strategy, of course. More realistically, go all in every time you have a strong hand preflop (AQ, high pocket pairs, etc) Especially if you are able to do so against multiple players who have shorter stacks than you. Going all in against both blinds, who are forced all in by the huge blinds, is a great move.

So there is a little strategy involved, but not a lot.