Poker Stars freerolls

I've tried a couple of the WSOP freerolls on Poker Stars, and made it to the low 200's out of 3400 tonight. With the blinds and antes escalating so fast, it quickly becomes a luckfest, but with some good opportunities for stealing with an all-in raise after a couple of limpers. There's also the dead money players, who are sitting out during the first few levels. There were a couple of these at my first two tables, and I noticed a strategy by one player to minraise in early position when the dead money was in the blinds. That might be a decent strategy, as you can shut out some of the players who would call for their share of the dead money, but you are not committing too many chips in case of a reraise. If I ever get some dead money directly to my left, I'll have to try a reraise steal when I notice a player using this strategy.

I'm not sure why I'm playing in these freerolls, as I won't be able to go to Vegas during the Main Event anyway. We're heading off to a retired friend's retirement party house on the Cape around then. And then driving to Maryland and back.