Rebuys

[Admania]

Hi all

After playing online for about 4 months and having some success in online
tournaments I thought I would for the first time give my local casino a shot
and entered a £10 pot limit holdem tourney plus rebuys for the first 2 hrs
along with another 50 or so players. Eventually I went out in 6th place
which I was very pleased about and generally had a good run of cards
throughout the night.

What shocked me the most being a live game virgin was the total chaos of the
rebuy situation. I had never encountered this before and some people would
try any two cards on the offchance they could double through. I personally ,
as a novice played extremely tight early on and caught some flops with the
odd monster and i wasn't short of action.

My question is what is the best way to handle rebuys and a very loose table
in your opinion in b & m low stakes tournament?. Any comments would be most
appreciated.

Cheers
Adam

[Al_Capone_Junior]

With unlimited rebuys, bring enough cash to rebuy as many times as you are allowed to. You can play a bit looser in the rebuy period, hoping to get lucky and get a big stack, but you don't have to play like an idiot (like many do).

[Greg (FossilMan)]

IMO, with which many disagree, the availability of rebuys shouldn't have much impact on your playing decisions. Early in a tourney, your goal is to maximize your chip EV, same as a cash game. You should make whatever play maximizes your EV. If that means playing loose for a given situation, play loose. If it means tight, play tight. Each hand is a unique situation, and it's your job to interpret which decision maximizes your EV.

There are small exceptions. In a no-rebuy event, if there is a choice between two plays, one of which has very slightly higher EV but hugely higher variance, then you probably should pick the lower variance play. In a rebuy event, you should probably always pick the higher EV play.

Don't play loose just because you can rebuy. Play loose if that is what maximizes your EV on this hand. For example, if other players are raising with any two cards, you might want to raise all-in with AJo. Of course, if you're on the bubble in the WSOP main event, and a couple of people have put in bets before it's your action, you would rarely do anything but fold AJo. It's because the situations are different, NOT because you should play loose in one and tight in the other, per se.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[Guy McSucker]

My two main pieces of advice have already been covered, but let me expand a little.

1) Take enough money, as Al said. For my local games, where the rebuy period is 90 minutes and the blinds are reasonably small, that means 50 quid in the ten pound events. I usually take more but have never needed it. If that's too much for you to risk, then consider either not playing, or playing a one-rebuy strategy while you gain experience. It sounds like you placed in the money this time, so you should be able to afford rebuys!

2) Play +EV poker, as Greg said. What this means depends on how the game is playing, and during the rebuy period this can be different from "usual".
In my experience there is usually a preflop raise, and then most hands two or three players end up all-in on the flop. This means that you want to build top-pair-decent-kicker hands. The reason for this is that the loose nutters are building middle-pair-no-kicker or drawing hands and getting all-in with them. The preflop raises mean there is no value in playing pure drawing hands like Axs or 87s, and the ease of getting all-in on the flop means that top pair is a pretty worthwhile holding. So play your AQ and better, play KQ I suppose, use your discretion with other big cards, and obviously play big pairs.

Where are you playing?

Guy.