Playing Poker – Rebuy Tournaments

Rebuy poker tournaments are different to freezeout tournaments in that guess what – you can rebuy if you lose all your chips. This makes for some “entertaining,” moves in the opening stages, and you must determine your strategy during this phase before you sit at the table. Some prefer to play tight and wait for a big hand in the hope of doubling  up against a loose player – of which there are usually plenty during the rebuy phase. Others prefer to go wild, move all in with any hand and put as many chips as possible on their table. I have seen Daniel Negreanu make so many rebuys that he needed to finish third in the tourney just to break even. He eventually finished sixth, so this strategy can backfire pretty badly if you are not careful.

Bankroll is key here. It is almost impossible to survive the opening stages of a rebuy tournament unless you have the funds and willingness to rebuy at least once. Plus if you are playing too tight and do not catch any hands, you are going to find yourself at a major disadvantage if everyone else at the table has increased their chip stack and you haven’t.

The other thing to consider is what is going on at the other tables. If you happen to find yourself at a tight table when all around is mayhem and multiple rebuys, it is only a matter of time before you are moved to another table where you are massively out-stacked or for a player to come to your table with substantially more chips than anyone else at the table and start pushing everyone else around. Either of these are not good positions to be in. So – you may need to change your strategy to cover this.

My personal preference is to set myself a limit – usually five rebuys and an add-on. This usually allows me to build a decent sized stack without putting myself in a position of having to finish high in the rankings just to break even. Obviously this will vary depending on the cost of the buy-in and my current bankroll. But – be flexible. If things are going on at other tables that suggest there is not a lot of rebuys going on, I will reduce this. If the opposite is true and everyone is going crazy, I might need to up this limit.

Sitting down with the intention of not making any rebuys is almost certainly a mistake. You will need to get lucky early on to survive if this is your choice. And to be honest – you would be better off at a freezeout tournament.