Rafael Costa

About Rafael Costa

Rafael Costa learned poker the slow way, with no deposit. He started in online freerolls and the smallest micro-stakes tournaments, where the only way up was patience and a bankroll measured in cents, and he spent years grinding the variance that comes with multi-table tournaments before he understood how to beat it.

That background is exactly why he runs FreerollsDB: he knows what it is like to want to play tournaments without risking money you do not have, and he knows which free tournaments are actually worth your time. He tracks freerolls, tournament tickets, and codes across poker rooms, tests that they still work, and writes the strategy that turns a free seat into a real result.

His economics background shows in how he thinks about the game, in terms of expected value, position, and risk, rather than hunches. His core message is the one most poker content avoids: tournaments are high-variance, the freeroll is the cheapest way to learn, and bankroll discipline matters more than any single hand.

Expertise

Freerolls & Free TournamentsFinding, verifying, and ranking the freerolls and ticket offers actually worth entering, and filtering out the ones that waste hours for nothing.
Tournament Codes & PasswordsTracking working passwords and ticket codes across poker rooms, and confirming they are still live.
MTT StrategyEarly-stage survival, mid-stage chip accumulation, and the late-stage adjustments that decide who cashes.
ICM & Final TablesHow the Independent Chip Model changes correct play on the bubble and at final tables.
Bankroll ManagementWhy tournament players need a deep bankroll, typically dozens to a hundred-plus buy-ins, to survive normal variance.

How Rafael Evaluates Freerolls & Codes

Rafael's method is bankroll-first and framed in expected value, not hype. Before a freeroll or code goes on the site, it is judged the same way he judges a tournament to enter himself:

Is the code actually live?Passwords and ticket codes are tested against the room, not trusted because another site listed them. A code that no longer works is removed, not left to waste your time.
Is the freeroll worth the hours?Field size, prize pool, and time cost are weighed in EV terms — a large field for a tiny prize is flagged, not sold as easy money.
Does the schedule still hold?Listings are checked against the room's current schedule and timezone, because a freeroll that moved or ended is worse than no listing.
Bankroll fit, not promises.Strategy advice is sized to variance: freerolls are the cheapest way to learn, and any paid step up is framed against a buy-in count, never a guaranteed result.