Proper strategy in a short-stacked rebuy tourney

[Larimani]

I play in a weekly live tourney in my local casino. It's a $20 rebuy tourney. You start with 1000 chips and the blinds start at 50-50. After 1 hour the blinds go up to 50-100. One hour later the blinds are at 100-200 and it's the end of the rebuy. You can then take an add-on of 1000 chips for $20.

The players there are awful and I do mean awful. They are all old pensioners who play only to get away from the roulette table once a week. there is always 6-7 people to the flop. They'll call your PF raises with any broadway cards will go to the felt with any draw. The average rebuy per person is 5x after 2 hours of play.

Until now my strategy has been to play really tight and push premium hands. I will also limp speculative hands in late position.

My main problem is that because I do not take many risks I end up with a smallish stack at the end of the rebuy period. Fair enough, I haven't had to rebuy like the other donks but it's hard to play poker with 10BB. Is my strategy flawed? Should I be gambling more?

[Larimani]

no help?

Assuming this is NL, and assuming a lot of the players are passive/calling stations etc, you could loosen your starting reqs earlier in the tourney and hope to hit some flops that hit other peoples' hands, but hit yours better, and get some callers in the pot.

In a rebuy tourney, I think if you go in with the idea that you aren't going to rebuy, you are playing scared money, and we all know where that gets us.

If it is limit, push the hands you make - bet it up - maybe you will rake in big pots - maybe you will be forced to rebuy a couple of times, but either way, in NL or limit, if you are one of the better players, you will eventually have to come up with a few good sized pots and after the rebuy be sitting in a good position.

Sounds like it might be limit if you have 6 or 7 players seeing the flop, but without knowing for sure, there isn't much more I can add.

[Larimani]

It's no limit. Yes they're that bad... this is in the United Kingdom by the way and not london. I don't think you'd find a tourney that soft in the states.

I've won this tourney once already and finished 3rd another time... It's a 60 people tourney and I've played no more than 7-8times... so I'm not doing badly... I'm just wondering if I'm playing optimaly against these players.

For example, everyone limped and I had 99 in the BB. I pushed with my 1000 stack. I got called by everyone showing hands like K2, Qj, A4, etc etc... 99 is just not doing well against that kind of a table. From now on, I will just limp and hope to hit a set... the problem again is that with 1000 stack and blinds at 50-100, I almost don't have the odd to limp for a set. So should I just fold it? you know what I mean... I find it really hard to play against a field of player that bad. It just seems like a lottery. Give me deep stacks and I win this tourney week in week out.

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For example, everyone limped and I had 99 in the BB. I pushed with my 1000 stack. I got called by everyone showing hands like K2, Qj, A4, etc etc... 99 is just not doing well against that kind of a table. From now on, I will just limp and hope to hit a set... the problem again is that with 1000 stack and blinds at 50-100, I almost don't have the odd to limp for a set. So should I just fold it? you know what I mean... I find it really hard to play against a field of player that bad. It just seems like a lottery. Give me deep stacks and I win this tourney week in week out.

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I am in Canada - Winnipeg actually - the local government is trying to make this the "Las Vegas Of The North"... they are building Casinos, etc (yes the government is making money hand over fist!)

Games here are pretty soft but not as bad as what it sounds like you seeing...

I would say make a small raise preflop with your pocket 9s, either double or triple the BB, and that way you get a good sized pot cheaply but it doesn't cost you a fortune if you have to lay it down. If you flop a set or it comes with no overcards, you can then push and hope everyone folds, or check and wait for the turn to see if a scare card comes - if you bet, in a game that loose, you will likely get several callers anyway, and you could lose on the turn or river, so you are better off saving your bet for the river if you have been lucky enough to not see another overcard or a 9 by that point because you will also likely get callers when you have the best hand...

Another good strategy here would be to play a lot of suited connectors, even 2 gappers, when you can get in the pot cheaply. It sounds like since they are playing the rags they are on, you will get paid off very well if/when you hit a straight or flush (preferably a straight though as your flushes might not hold up if they are smaller suiteds) and I would assume that most times while you are drawing to a straight, they are stuck with their mid pair & lousy kicker, unable to let it go, allowing you to build the pot.

I hope you find these ideas at least somewhat helpful.

[hurlyburly]

During the rebuy phase you have the odds to limp for anything, if you tap you can rebuy. With implied odds like you stated, I'd be hard pressed NOT to push with ALL good multiway hands.

If that 5x overlay is typical, then you are definitely not playing to potential by playing too tightly. Take almost all the cheap flops from good positions, push as many of these as you can. Don't change the decision-making process, just adjust your play to include that you can take a rebuy. Make sure they know that when you hit a flop, you are going to make life expensive.

All that goes out the window if you can't afford to risk a lot of rebuys, or don't want to.

[TakenItEasy]

I am not a rebuy expert but I can tell you that strategy during and after the rebuy peiod are night and day. I have tried taking both a tight approach and a loose aggressive approach to the rebuy period.

The tight approach is to get super aggressive with the goods on a drawing board and hope someone on a draw comes along. You will be surprised on how often you will get takers. You will often have a very +EV situation. With the short stacks, that generally means all-in on the flop. This is generally cheaper but it means you have to get cards. Don't tighten up too much though. You only need to be tighter than most of the table. Any tighter is a waste of opportunity. Also if you can double buy-in at the start you should always take advantage of that.

The laggy approach is to push with draws and call all-ins with decent draws such as a flush draw with 1 overcard. IMO you don't necessarily need to be pot odds correct. Don't get too crazy and start calling with gut shots though. The idea is to get your variance up very high and let your stack take big swings up and down. Suited connectors become very playable. Once you get your stack up to a comfortable level (based on typical average stacks after the rebuy peoriod) lock it in by reverting back to the tight overly aggressive strategy. Perhaps a little tighter. As the stack grows the tighter I get. You will have more success on average but it will cost more.

At some point you need to give up on the re-buy as the buy-in amount is no longer worth the money, unless the buy-ins increase with the levels. Oddly enough for the rebuy period it is more dependant on the blinds rather than the average stack. Chips don't actually decrease in real value as some suggest. For example, if know one quits the re-buy period and average stacks go up, the prize pool goes up in direct proportion. What decreases is your ability to maneuver. For your tournament it looks like the give up level is level 3 since the blinds jump up so much.

After the rebuy it's business as usual keeping in mind that there are some people who don't grasp the difference and remain laggy. Hopefully you can take advantage of this fact once you identify who they are.