I’ve probably mentioned that I can’t stand tournaments–multi-table tournaments, sit-n-goes, whatever. There’s something about putting in your chips while you have the best of it, suffering a brutal beat on the river, and getting knocked out after investing your buy-in and 1-4 hours of your life with nothing to show for it that just doesn’t appeal to me. In a cash game, you tag the idiot, re-buy, and wait for him to make another mistake. In a tourney you don’t have this option.

Still, there’s something to be said about being able to multiply your buy-in by a factor of 10, 20, or more. I think if I played a lot more tournaments, that luck factor would be reduced substantially. As they say, you will find the same group of men and women at the final tables time after time. More practice might also help me suck less.

But practice costs money; or does it?

One of the lesser-known Party skins is MultiPoker. As with the other Party skins, MultiPoker shares all the same cash tables and SNGs as Party/Empire/Intertops/Poker Now/Eurobet. However, MultiPoker has the advantage of having four daily $100 NLHE freerolls (one regular, three turbo) and a weekly $1000 NLHE freeroll (200 raked hands required) that make for good practice for the cash-strapped/excessively cheap. At least the top 20 cash in all the freerolls.

Empire Poker also has four daily $500 NLHE freerolls for people who play 50 raked hands prior to the tournament. These freerolls are limited to the first 500 registrants. Top 40 cash.

A while back I jackassed and tilted away what little bankroll I had and basically dropped down to zero. I had withdrawn a little profit before busting out, but I was hesitant to get back in the game. Still, I was hooked on playing, so I entered several of those awful 3000 player PokerStars nightly freerolls. One night I got lucky and won a seat at the weekly Round 2 tournament after five and a half hours of brutal all-night play. My luck held at the Round 2 and I won the damn thing after another four and a half hours of play. Top prize? $50. Woot! I made 5 dollars an hour! But that’s not the point. These freerolls gave me a little bit of practice when I had no money I was willing to spend on poker and gave me a chance to start rebuilding the bankroll.

Now that I know about the Multi and Empire freeroll tourneys, I would obviously recommend that you play these instead. The smaller fields make the time commitment less prohibitive, and there’s a small cash prize in each one, which means you don’t have to do double the work just to get a small prize.

So which to play… Multi or Empire? I’d say give them both a try. In fact you may be able to play both at the same time. Empire has by far the larger user base, so you may find the competition there to be slightly tougher. I personally have a special fondness for MultiPoker’s predominantly Swedish user base. While you sit there waiting and folding your garbage, engage your tablemates in some conversation and learn some Swedish.

Spela poker med riktiga pengar!