Poll: Do you rebuy immediately?

[johnnycakes]

When playing a rebuy tournament, do you rebuy immediately or wait until you bust (or get very low on chips)? Please answer and post arguments for rebuying immediately or waiting.

[shaniac]

It's been discussed ad nauseum on this board, but good players will always have an edge by taking every rebuy that is available to them. So, you always take the first rebuy, always take the addon, and if you go broke and want to play more, you take the double rebuy too.

Besides, it's more fun to play with 3000 in chips to start and if you can't afford to play for at least 3X the buyin (one rebuy+addon, mandatory) then you shouldn't play.

Shane

[mrbaseball]

I typically wait. I personally hate the rebuy period because the ones I play in (Stars mostly) feature retarded maniacs. They will go allin with anything and everything hoping to double. So my strategy is just to play as tight as I possibly can because you aren't gonna get away with any moves or steal any blinds in the rebuy period. You can only hope to go in with very good cards, hit and not get sucked out.

When first starting rebuys I used to try and play my normal game and rebuy immediately. But the nature of the maniac playstyle cured me of that and since adopting the tighter than tight style during the rebuy period I have started doing much better and investing far less in this type of tournament.

[shaniac]

[ QUOTE ]
I typically wait. I personally hate the rebuy period because the ones I play in (Stars mostly) feature retarded maniacs. They will go allin with anything and everything hoping to double. So my strategy is just to play as tight as I possibly can because you aren't gonna get away with any moves or steal any blinds in the rebuy period. You can only hope to go in with very good cards, hit and not get sucked out.

[/ QUOTE ]

I fail to see how rebuying right away would hurt you, even when employing the tight strategy you describe (which I believe is correct in these events during the first hour). Having the additional chips in your stack is a wonderful thing when you double up off one of the "retarded maniacs" who happened to have rebought himself.

You don't need to extra chips in front of you for the purpose of making moves or executing steals, since the blinds aren't worth stealing for a couple of hours anyway. You need the chips to maximize your score when you find yourself allin with the best.

Shane

[mrbaseball]

[ QUOTE ]
I fail to see how rebuying right away would hurt you, even when employing the tight strategy you describe (which I believe is correct in these events during the first hour).

[/ QUOTE ]

It costs more money with the decent chance of being sucked out costing even more. I'll take my chances of doubling the initial stack and then rebuying if sucked out rather than risking an additional buyin. This is just my personal preference and may not be "correct" all I know is it is correct for me. I can often get through the rebuy period without a rebuy which is actually one of my goals in these things.

But I will always take the addon and will always rebuy if I get low or if I am eligible for a rebuy just before the add on period. But if I can get to the add on without ever needing to rebuy all the better.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

But if I can get to the add on without ever needing to rebuy all the better.

Do the math. With 3000 in starting chips, doubling through three times against an equal stack gives you 24000. Without the initial rebuy, the same success gives you 12000. Thus by taking the initial rebuy, you've gotten double the chips for the same price per chip.

Not taking the immediate rebuy strikes me as penny-wise and pound-foolish.

[mrbaseball]

[ QUOTE ]
Not taking the immediate rebuy strikes me as penny-wise and pound-foolish

[/ QUOTE ]

Like I said it is a personal preference. The way these things play during the rebuy period is not really poker. I just want to get past the break as cheaply as possible and then start playing. Once again personal preference. I don't mind being short once the real game starts as long as it doesn't cost me much. I'm certainly not looking to double through 3+ times in the rebuy anyway. Once or maybe twice and I fold jsut about until the break. Once again personal prefence. May not be the strategy for everyone but it works well for me.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Once again personal prefence. May not be the strategy for everyone but it works well for me.

Differences of opinion, as they say, are what makes horse races. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[shaniac]

I wouldn't want to change your personal preference on this issue, but one of the most essential aspects of poker is being able to analyze flaws in your thinking and strategy.

As I alluded to in another post, if the additional buyins are too much for your bankroll to handle, you ought not play the event.

The bottom line, as most of people on this board who are smarter than me will tell you, is that any +EV player is losing some sort of edge by not rebuying right from the start.

It sounds like you play the first hour in constant fear of being sucked out on, which puts you at a disadvantage, even against the "retarded maniacs." In case you haven't been watching seasons 1 and 2 of the WPT, I'd say it's a fair bet that fearlessness is rewarded in No Limit Hold Em and worrying about having your premium hands cracked during the first hour--and the extra money you think it cost you because you chose to do the first rebuy--is not a very fearless approach.

If you are a smart, disciplined player, you are losing EV in every dominating situation by not possessing every extra chip that is made available to you.

Shane

[DougBrennan]

My thoughts echo Kurn's here. It won't happen every time, but it's not uncommon to be able to double up at least twice during the rebuy period thanks to the maniacs, and for an extra $10 you can have a stack of 12,000 instead of 6,000.

That's a pretty good chip/dollar ratio.

Doug