Rebuy Tourney questions

[JerBear77]

How do you guys determine when to rebuy and when not too??

My example....on Pokerroom $5 Rebuy yesterday


start with 1500, go down to 780 or so w/ blinds 20/40.
Do i rebuy here to go back up?

Then, later on...

I have about 1200 3 minutes or so before the break....would this be a time to rebuy and then also do the add-on??

I couldn't find anything on here that would help me with these questions..

Does everyone automatically do the Double rebuy entry at the beginning??

I think it depends on your style and, my case, my mood. Not too many people of Ladbrokes seem to take the first opportunity to re-buy (you start with 1500 and can re-buy at 1480) and I don't really think it helps to do so early for the sake of it because your larger stack is not scaring anyone at that stage and so many people are rushing around like maniacs putting fat raises in with any two cards.
I've won two of the rebuy tournaments on Ladbrokes. The first, I played very tight, very solid and took advantage of the mania early doors, doubled up and made the break with a large enough stack that rebuying was pointless. The second, I rushed around like a maniac, bought in three times, crawled to the break, doubled up last hand and added-on. The rebuys didn't make a lot of difference but the add-on was crucial.
I am no expert but my take and advice is that tight play works best in these events and should shouldn't 'aim' to rebuy. Too many people seem to fall in love with the idea and play a huge range of hands so they can 'build their stack' and 'get going'. This is all well and good but at a low entry (these are $20) it seems wiser to me simply to play decent, tight poker and save your money. Add on if to so increases your stack by more than about 15%, otherwise don't bother.
The other thing I've noted is that both live and online, punters get 'addicted' to the loose play and can't change gears after the break.
However, on the three final tables I've made, I've been up agaisnt some of maniacs who have been rebuying every other hand early doors and these guys feature high on the leaderboards. I don't consider myself in their league so, personally, I wouldn't follow that strategy but if you think your real good, then that it clearly the way forward.

The whole point of the rebuy period is that it nullifies the MTT mantra that going broke is the "end of your tournament life." This allows a player to take some slightly -EV situations and gamble in order to obtain a large stack by the first break and the end of the rebuy hour. Sklansky somwhat recommends taking advantage of the rebuy hour in this manner in TPFAP. Consider that Daniel Negraneu brought $20,000 in cash to this years WSOP $1,000 rebuy event and actually spent $12,000 in rebuys. Last year he spent over $20k and bought in more than any other player. This is a strategy that many posters here use and it works.

While I agree that you can also get deep into these fields by playing solid poker, I believe you miss out on a lot of opportunity to accumulate chips and enable yourself to play deep stacked poker by not gambling early when you can afford to go broke and rebuy. I rebuy frequently in these tournaments and often these are double rebuys (on sites that allow you to rebuy instantly). The value of having a large chipstack that can be used to push people around is definitely enough to justify the costs of the buyin. I've had it go both ways for me, but coming out of the break with 40k-50k in chips is a great help in going deep in the tournament.

Consider this if you will. It's the final hand of the rebuy period. 5 players are all-in in front of you and you're holding a decent hand, but not a monster... something like KTo. You have 3400 in chips and this is definitely the final hand of the rebuy period. Your table has been very active during the rebuy period and lots of players have gone all in with plenty of garbage hands so far. If you go all in here and win you can take down 20k in chips. If you lose you can rebuy and still have 3000 in chips at the break, only 400 less than what you have now. Do you call and gamble with your stack or do you fold and go on with your 3400 in chips? The answer is easy for me.

People that refuse to rebuy in these tournaments are great too. They're dead money that (usually) won't be around after the break. I thank them for their continued donations!

[JerBear77]

So basically, Im looking at.....what is the best case to get the most chips after break, even if it means taking some -EV....


So, if i drop below the starting chips... (1500 start, Im at 750) do you rebuy here to get above it again?

I almost always do the add-ons during the break that makes the most sense to me, just unclear about the rebuy options in the middle of the tourney when its optimal.

I have noticed though that the first hour after the break is real juicy cause alot of people can't switch gears.

If a rebuy is available at the very beginning, (take you from 1500 to 3000), I would take it right away. You want to have enough chips to cover the donks.

A poster below mentioned that you should be willing to take -EV chances to accumulate chips. I wouldn't take this to too much of an extreme, b/c pretty quickly any -EV moves you make are going to outweigh any benefit of gaining more chips.

Rebuy instantly and often. Let's run with your example.

You have 780 chips and pickup AA. You get two callers, who both have you more than covered, to an all-in bet preflop and you now triple up - to 2340 in chips. Had you taken the rebuy you would have had 2280 here. A triple up would bring you up to 6840 in chips. You missed out on almost 4500 in chips here.

Two orbits later you pick up KK. Your 2340 chipstack is now about 2250 because of the blinds. You get one caller to your all in bet preflop and double up to 4500. Had you rebought earlier you could have doubled up to near 13000. You're now missing out on almost 9000 in chips because you didn't rebuy when you were at 780.

Just before the rebuy period ends you pickup AK and end up all in versus 2 other players who seem desperate to accumulate chips. They have 11k and 9k in their stacks. Your stack is now 4300 due to blinds and not playing many hands. By not rebuying earlier the most you can win is 4300 X 3 or 12,900 in chips. Had you rebought earlier you could take down the whole pot by winning this hand and have nearly 30k in your stack. You're now missing out on nearly 15000 in chips because you didn't rebuy with 780 remaining.

Now tell me what you think? Do you rebuy at the point you mentioned in your post?

To clarify my earlier statement, I'm not always looking for -EV situations to get involved in but a slightly -EV situation that gives me greater +EV later is worth it in my opinion. I'll gladly risk my 3k stack and $10 in a multi way all-in with a "mediocre" hand to possibly walk away from the hand with a 15k stack. I'm not doing this against Tighty McTightNuts that has only pushed with AA/KK and AK here but I'll gamble it up with people that are playing marginal hands as well.