When it comes to online poker tournaments, the most important consideration is the buy-in, or the amount it costs to get into the game.

After all, the buy-in is what you’re playing for, or more precisely, the total buy-ins of the players in the game. The total buy-in determines how much money is up for grabs and the size of prize pool. The bigger the buy-in and the more players that enter, the more money you can win.

With that in mind, any promotion that offers you a free buy-in to a tournament is a pretty good thing. You’re basically playing for free.

Well, at online poker sites—as well as live poker rooms—nothing takes that concept further than the freeroll. A freeroll is just what it sounds like, a free tournament with no buy-in, yet players are still playing for real money. It’s a risk-free option. You can’t lose, but you can win.

At New Jersey’s online poker sites, freerolls are used to reward loyal players, welcome new players and pretty much just to spice things up.

BorgataPoker.com

One of the leaders is BorgataPoker.com that offers several freeroll options.

The first and best is their daily freerolls, which are open to any player every day. All you have to do is sign in for the games. Most aren’t for big money—they range from $10 to $50 prize pools—and are great for casual or new players looking to gain a little tournament experience.  Borgata’s Sunday freeroll, however, has a $1,000 prize pool.

Check out the schedule at our Borgata promotions page.

BorgataPoker also offers a quarterly freeroll that’s a little more rewards-based. Players who finish in the top 750 in the monthly BorgataPoker.com Online Poker Tournament Leaderboard promotion receive an invitation to participate in the quarterly freeroll played every three months (next up June 11).

The top 75 places in the freeroll win a share of over $20,000 in prizes—including tournament entries (land-based and online) and online tournament dollars.

That’s a nice reward for steady play.

WSOP.COM

At WSOP.com in New Jersey and Nevada, there’s even more freeroll options. Their daily freeroll option is a $100 freeroll played … uhm, every day. Again, it’s low stakes, but it’s a great way to learn the game and maybe even earn some entry money into a bigger tournament. The top 20 percent of players earn part of the prize pool.

WSOP.com also offers a monthly freeroll for military personnel, as well as fire and police personnel—and also veterans of each—dubbed the Hero Freeroll. It’s a $1,000 freeroll at 2 p.m. on the third Sunday of every month. Just go through the site’s procedures to verify your veteran status.

WSOP.com also rewards members of its Action Club—a loyalty reward level—with a weekly $500 freeroll. Plus, every week, five lucky players who earn gold level status get to compete in the Big Sunday 5 Seat freeroll for another $500.

The bottom line? There’s a lot of free poker available at New Jersey’s (and Nevada’s) online poker sites.

So, are you in?