Poker freerolls are whats really hot right now in online poker with everyone wanting to get in on the act.

Just in case youve never played one, a freeroll is a poker tournament with free entry that pays out prizes in real cash to the winning players. They are not to be confused with play money tournaments that you can also play for free but do not pay out cash prizes.

Some poker freerolls have thousands of players in every tournament and are almost always full. Its the idea of getting something for nothing that appeals to people and although the freerolls have relatively small prizes and although they require a lot of patience and skill to win, they remain the first port of call for many online poker players.

So how do you win at poker freerolls?

The most important strategy to adopt to have any chance of success is survival, you need to stay in the game no matter what. There are no second chances, when you lose all your chips you are out. You might have been sitting for four hours but if you get knocked out before you reach the money positions it will all have been for nothing.

Dont be tempted into bluffing too much, you will almost always find someone whos willing to call you - especially in the early stages of the tournament. Also use your all-in calls sparingly, only when you are absolutely sure you have the best hand and preferably when you have more chips than your opponent so that you dont get knocked out even if you lose the hand.

On the other hand to win a Texas Holdem freeroll tournament you need to win chips, so when you get a good hand bet it aggressively and take out the limpers. Dont let somebody call you with a 8 3 and flop 8 8 3!

This is a slog and you need to be prepared for the long haul. Four hours is a long time to play poker online and although there is normally a break every hour it is mentally very taxing keeping up a level of concentration for that length of time.

However if you do manage to stay focused on the game, you will be at a great advantage over most freeroll players. The psychology of poker freerolls means that most people dont treat them with as much respect as they would a tournament that they had paid to enter.

Easy come easy go is often the motto.

So if you maintain full concentration throughout, adopt a strong survival-based strategy and play only good hands betting aggressively, you will do better than 90% of the entrants in a freeroll tournament.

Beating the other 10% is up to you!

Click the link to read part 2 of this poker freeroll article and to see the 100 Best poker freerolls.