[yoadrians]

OK, so here's the deal. A couple friends and I are driving to Rockford, Ill., on Friday to compete in what's being billed as a 'World Series of Poker' qualifier. In all actuality, it's a glorified, 500-person speed tournament.

First, the details:
- $60 buy-in gets you 1,500 in tournament chips
- One rebuy during the first hour (if you are at 500 chips or below) for $30 gets you another 1,500 in tournament chips.
- After the first hour, there is a $30 add-on that gets you 1,500 more tournament chips.
- 500 players, 1 WSOP ticket and 19 - yes - 19 other places paid
- Blinds go up every 15 minutes and double - yes double - from 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400 and so on and so forth
- Each table starts the tournament either 11- or 12-handed. Again, 11- or 12-handed.

Probables:
- Probably a lot of TV players, meaning the kind of players who just watch poker on TV. They'll have the shades on and will take a lot of time staring you down, trying to get 'reads' on you, etc.

OK, now that you know the tournament structure, I'm looking for guidelines/advice on how to do well here. I mean, you have to figure that at 11 or 12 people per table, we're going to MAYBE average 20 hands per hour. Maybe. Which means that 45 minutes into the tournament - 15 hands in - we'll be at 200/400.

So, the questions:
- How to play the rebuy period?
- Do we advocate just flat-out 'pushing' any hand we get early, or playing normal style?
- Any other advice, words of wisdom, etc?

We're looking for help. My friends and I are all decent players - no donks here - and have some experience playing MTTs on Stars and Party. I also play about 50 SNGs per week at the $11 level at Stars and/or Party. BUT, none of us are all that familiar with speed tournaments.

So, again, I say:

"Speed Freaks - HELP!"