Sky Poker Turbo Freerolls info

When you join a poker site, the general rule is that you deposit some cash into your account and then you do one of two things. You either have the skill and good fortune to develop this into a poker bankroll that will sustain your gaming over a long period of time, or you crash and burn, spending through your cash until you run out and need to deposit more.

Of course, through our articles, hints and tips about Sky Poker (and Bet365 Poker for that matter) we hope very much that you are in the former category, however there are times when even the best and most skilled poker players just see the cards go against them. This can impact drastically on your bankroll and leave you somewhat short of cash.

So if you don’t have much cash to spend on games at Sky Poker, but you want to continue playing, what can you do?  Well one option is to use the free play cash tables, but as most players who have played poker for real cash will realise, there is something lacking from pretend cash games that make them a pale imitation of their real cash counterparts.

But Sky Poker does offer another alternative, provided that you have earned enough Sky Poker points through your real cash gaming and that is their freeroll tournaments, specifically, the £20 Guaranteed Turbo Freeroll events.

What are the £20 Guaranteed Turbo Freeroll events?

The name is somewhat self-explanatory, these are freeroll events that offer a guaranteed total prize fund of £20 on Sky Poker. They are played to turbo rules and this means that the blinds increase very quickly compared to standard games and as such, they tend to be played out more quickly.

Although these are technically freeroll events and do not require you to spend any of your cash to enter, you do need to have accrued enough Sky Poker Rewards points to play. Registering for each event costs 10 Sky Reward Points, so they are easily affordable out of the points you have accrued for playing for most Sky Poker players.

If you aren’t a Sky Poker registered player, of course you will need to sign up to join these events. Create an account with the top UK poker site today and you will find yourself with a free £10 Sky Poker welcome bonus with no deposit required.

How popular are these freeroll events?

The freeroll games are amongst the most popular on Sky Poker and most games usually attract around 150 to 200 players in each.

However, there is a distinct pattern to how players join the game. A game may start with between 80 and 100 players most often, however as the registration period for these games extends to up to the end of Level 6, this means that you do tend to get a significant number of players joining the tournament after the start.

This is a risky strategy as it does mean that you are allowing some players to increase their chip stack markedly before you play, but the benefit is that several players will already be eliminated from the competition before you even begin playing.

Given that there are usually between 150 and 200 competitors in a typical Sky Poker £20 Guaranteed Freeroll, this does mean that winning a cash prize isn’t particularly easy.

What are the cash prizes on offer?

In each £20 GTD Freeroll, Sky Poker offer the same pool of £20 to the players finishing in the paying positions, however the number of paying positions is dependent upon the number of competitors in the tournament and the more players there are, the more prizes will be offered (which decreases the size of the overall payout per player).

For example, before a tournament starts, the tournament data says that the prize fund will be awarded £10 to the winner, £6 to the second place player and £4 to the third. However, that is based on the minimum amount of players in an event (three).

When there are considerably more players in an event, the payout structure alters. For example, a recent tournament attracted 169 players and as such the prizes were divided up very differently, with the winner receiving £5.45, the runner up £3.27, third £2 and then a succession of other cash prizes awarded down to the players finishing 17th and 18th who each earned £0.27.

How the cash prizes are divided up may be different but as with all poker tournaments, the higher up the table you finish, the higher your cash prize will be.

Can I rebuy if I am eliminated?

Yes, you can rebuy chips for any £20 GTD Freeroll on Sky Poker at a price of £0.50 for 2000 chips, in addition you can also purchase a 5000 Chip Add on after Level 10 also for £0.50.

You are allowed an unlimited number of rebuys, though remember, these will cost you money from your bank roll.

When are the £20 GTD Freeroll events scheduled on Sky Poker?

Each day usually sees four £20 GTD Freeroll Events available to play in on the site. The first freeroll event takes place at 1am GMT so is ideal for late night poker players, or those on shift work. The remaining three events take place at two hourly intervals from 10am GMT, with another at midday and the final freeroll of the day at 2pm GMT.

There is a different regularly scheduled freeroll available (A Bounty Hunter Seat Freeroll, costing 75 Sky Reward Points) available at 4pm each day, but we will look at this event in a bit more detail in a future article as it is a very different kind of freeroll to the £20 GTD events.

What are my chances of cashing out in a £20 GTD Freeroll on Sky Poker?

Over the years, Sky Poker has earned a reputation as having somewhat soft opposition on the site and while there are still a fair proportion of ‘donks’ playing on the site, I have personally found that the standard of player on Sky Poker has improved considerably over the last 12 months.

Here’s a thought for you to digest: I have personally earned far more in cash outs playing short tournaments (Six Max events and the like) on PokerStars than I have on Sky Poker over the last three months or so.

That doesn’t mean that the £20 GTD Freerolls are impossible to earn cash on. Far from it, strong playing, a bit of luck and solid poker skills will likely see you perform well in the tournament and with the top 10% of players usually earning some form of payout, if you are a micro stakes player then this is a good opportunity to boost your bankroll, albeit with a modest sum.

However, to do this regularly you will most certainly need to be a strong player. The turbo nature of the game means that unless you are prepared to cover your mistakes by buying in at 50p a pop each time, you’ll need to be turning over chips from early on in the tournament.

One word of caution, buying in at 50p a time sounds a cheap deal, but if you are only likely to win less than that if you get in the cash prizes (bar the top 10 players or so), is it really worth investing in a tournament where you are not likely to make your money back?

As with all tournament games, strong play, excellent tactics and technique, playing position well and having an innate feel about the players at your table will serve you well. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that because this is a free to play game, that it will be an easy way to bolster your account with cash. These games are as tough to win as any small stakes cash tournament on Sky Poker.

That said, they are free to play, immense fun, over relatively quickly and held so often that you can get a great deal of enjoyment and satisfaction from playing, even if you don’t cash out.

Looking for more Sky Poker hints and tips? Check out our in-depth Sky Poker site guides for a variety of useful topics pertaining to Sky Poker and the entire family of Sky betting sites.