rebuy strategy

[rchandra]

I've seen the following advice to rebuy:

1) Always take the starting rebuy.
2) When you bust out, take both rebuys.
3) Take the addon unless you're huge or tiny.

Since online there's always another tournament you could enter, wouldn't that be better than rebuying mid-tourney? You'll have more time at the early levels. I understand if playing live that's not really an option and you want to do well in "this tournament".

So my rebuy strategy has generally been to take the initial and addon, but not make rebuys mid-tournament. I am wondering that if my logic is good, should I be forgoing even those and just play with the smaller stack? I can after all play with the smaller stack twice.

The other consideration is that your rebuy / addon may not be raked like the initial buyin. But that seems like its still not worth it, and of course some (like PokerStars $2 / $3 satellites) have no juice anyway.

Thanks in advance for opinions.

Rahul Chandra

[Cooker]

I could be wrong here, but I think most people in the know would consider rebuying at the beginning and coming back for 2 rebuys when you bust are not good moves. It has been clearly shown that the fewer chips you have the more they are worth to you. Therefore, the immediate rebuy is a rip off since you are buying chips worth less at the same cost as your initial buy-in.

I only rebuy when I go broke or my stack is so crippled that I wouldn't reach the orginal stack with a double up, because I wouldn't want to waste a double up opportunity with no chips. If I were extremely short compared to the blinds then I would add on if this would relieve a great deal of pressure (I think this is unlikely).

[pzhon]

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It has been clearly shown that the fewer chips you have the more they are worth to you.

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I agree with that, at least in theory, but this effect is very small at the start of the tournament. At the start of a tournament, chip value is close to linear.

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Therefore, the immediate rebuy is a rip off since you are buying chips worth less at the same cost as your initial buy-in.


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No, that doesn't follow.

In a PokerStars $10+$1 rebuy tournament, I might expect to get back about $30 for my initial $11. From the immediate $10 rebuy, I expect to get less than $30, but much more than $10. It still looks like a good deal.

Rebuying immediately makes sense for a good player because there are so many wild players, and you want to have the maniacs covered. See this example.

[Cooker]

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In a PokerStars $10+$1 rebuy tournament, I might expect to get back about $30 for my initial $11. From the immediate $10 rebuy, I expect to get less than $30, but much more than $10. It still looks like a good deal.

Rebuying immediately makes sense for a good player because there are so many wild players, and you want to have the maniacs covered. See this example.

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I hadn't thought of that. I don't play many MTTs and I was posting my impression on what I thought was the consensus. Thanks for clearing up that misconception.

[rchandra]

OK, I see the value of taking the initial rebuy, and similar logic for the addon. But the bustout rebuy .. surely I have more equity with 3000 chips in a newly starting rebuy (assuming other players play the same way as they do in this one) than in one where the blinds have increased? The only difference between the two tournaments prize pool-wise is that the one I'm currently in would have my initial buyin. The pools are the same other than that.

Or is this just about saving your time? It will take less time to make the money halfway thourgh the rebuy period than it does at the start... that's only 1/2 hour though.

Rahul

[benkath1]

So how would you change your strategy in a larger rebuy tournament? Say the 250+20 on empire this sunday? I won a seat and don't know what to expect.