All right, you’ve made it to the final stages of the freeroll tournament. Time to hit the gas and throw all caution to the wind. At this point, the fewer people that remain, the more money left for those that stay alive. So as you imagine, the top stacks will be trying that much harder to pressure the lower and middle stacks into busting out so they can maximize their winnings. The small stacks are already hanging on for dear life…they’re not about to face off against one of the giants. They know they wouldn’t stand a chance, so they’ll try to avoid that confrontation. However, they can’t avoid it for more than a round, as the blinds will swallow them up instead.
So what’s the strategy? Well, if you are one of those unlucky short stacks (yes, you’ve made it to the money, but you’re about to die an unfavorable death), take the first chance you can to ride something that looks relatively positive. In fact, I’d venture to say at the flash of a face card, that’s your cue to make your move. You’re in an awful position, as the final table has very little to do with cards, and almost everything to do with chip stack. So anything that offers you the potential, however remote, of a giant hand on the flop is worth going all-in for. Limping is worthless, bluffing is worthless, waiting isn’t the answer…you really don’t have a choice anyway.
There’s going to be so much action on Full Tilt Poker, that unless you’re all-in as a short stack, you’ll probably never see a showdown anyway. Middle and large stacks have the primary goal of not letting you keep your blinds, so in an ideal world, you’ll make your move when you still have some control of not paying into the pot before the deal.
If you survive with any stack to make it down the the final 2, first of all that means there’s some nice money to be won. However, it’s no time to relax, as you should be raising almost every hand. Know your opponent at this point. If he’s not super aggressive, you have to be. Winning heads up means taking chances, especially in freeroll. You definitely want to go down swinging rather than allow yourself to be bullied into second place, especially after you’ve made it so far.