No Limit Holdem – Rebuy Tournaments

Are you looking for a tournament to participate in that allows for lots of play? Insane action and huge pots?  A Rebuy tournament may just be for you.
Rebuy tournaments can provide fast and furious action for any poker junky. It is not uncommon to witness 400 big blind pots in these tournaments. It is the nature of the beast.
This article will focus on various rebuy tactics such as:

• Rebuy hour/Dealing with maniacs
• Post rebuy/add-on period
• The Importance of Stack Sizes
• Patience and pushing your monster hands to the maximum

Rebuy Hour – Fast and Furious

Whether you are an avid gambler during the first hour looking to build a huge stack in the hopes of easily sailing to a deep finish or the conservative type who sits back and waits to attack with premium holdings, one thing is a must before the first hand is dealt. Always rebuy. I cannot stress the importance enough of starting a rebuy tournament with 3,000 chips. If your game plan is to play tight, there is no need to automatically put yourself at a disadvantage of being a short stack. Remember to win a tournament you need to gain all of the chips on the table. To do this you need every edge possible.

You will notice a lot of players making marginal at best, if not complete –EV plays during the first hour. I believe that even though today’s fields are much bigger than in the past, poker tournament fundamentals play basically the same. Tight poker for the most part is winning poker. If you play rebuy tournaments regularly you cannot be profitable if you are ‘spewing’ 10+ units (rebuy’s) per tournament.

In my oppion, rebuy period should still be played for the most part as a regular freezeout. Notice I said most part. One example here is drawing an extremely tight table during the first hour. If you should (and you will eventually) encounter this, you should act the opposite and become the aggressor at the table. However should you be at a regular table with multiple LAG’s  (Loose Aggressive players) you should play your usual tight-aggressive game. The only difference I implement here is I will push my draws (straight and flush draws) much harder then I would if I did not have the option to rebuy. For that reason alone, you can and will build a monster stack more than enough times during the first hour playing just A-B-C poker.

Post Rebuy/Add-on –Back To The Basics

My biggest pet peeve in online rebuy tournaments is players who do not utilize the add-on. Most tournaments offer an addition amount of chips at the first break, usually 2,000 to 4,000 in chips. I do not care if you have 20k in chips, you should always take the add-on.  Remember, every advantage or edge you can take, you must openly accept to be successful in this game.

Now that the mayhem has surpassed and that last hand was dealt you can prepare to pick up pots from players who have not yet adapted to the tighter game. A lot of players tend to forget that you cannot win a tournament in the first 2 hours and therefore have a hard time slowing down after the initial ‘gambling’ phase.
At this point you want to tighten up a great deal waiting for premium hands to play fast. Your stack will be much greater at the current blind levels already then they would be in a faster pace tournament such as a freeze out. This allows the luxury of patience and picking your spots as opposed to the push or fold strategy a lot of players have adapted in the current regular multi-table tournament’s online.

I suggest early on playing straight forward poker. Raise and re-raise your big hands, and try to stay away from slow playing and trapping. With the stack sizes as deep as they are, and on average million’s of chips in play you need to focus on winning the most out of your made hands.  With the blinds low, situations can arise where it will be profitable to mix up your game even more than usual. If a few people limp into the pot and you are sitting on the button, go ahead and call the one big blind with a suited connector, or suited gapper. Remember these hands in general are dangerous and can be the demise of you, so always proceed with caution. Do not be the person who stacks off when they hit top pair, when they hold 89 in the pocket.

Stack Sizes

As in any poker tournament of any form of poker, one of the key factors in your decision making should be ‘stack sizes’. How does your stack fare against the blinds/antes in the tournament? How does you chip stack compare to the other players at your table?

In a rebuy tournament when you fall below the average chip stack, it can be devastating. You may still have 15-20bb but if the other 8 opponents at your table have 35+bb’s you are going to have a challenge ahead. This by no means you are hopeless, it just means you took the dirt road instead of the pavement. Keep fighting, and pick your spots carefully. This is not the time to make an amazing bluff, or a sensational 3-bet with air. General optimal short stack play will work here, and before you know it you will be fighting for your spot at  the final table!

Big Hands- Getting Maximum Value.

One of the most difficult and frustrating problems beginners and even seasoned players have is ‘getting paid’ when you have the goods.
My strategy to this very topic is simple. Always be the aggressor.

For example:

You raise to 1200 chips at the 200/400 level from middle position with 99 and get 3 callers. The flop comes down 974 rainbow. In this hand you flopped the absolute nuts (best possible hand) and you now have to decide how to play the hand. I believe the most profitable way to play this hand is to do what you would do in most cases you missed the flop. Throw out a continuation bet. Your opposition is going to tend to raise you more times on the flop or other streets this way rather then had you checked the flop. Checking the flop against a solid player just may slow him down. He may throw out a tester bet, but if you smooth call or even raise him he is going to think you are super strong, proceed with extra caution  and give it up most times. Now if you CB (Continuation bet) the flop and get raised you have many more options available to you.

Closing

In short rebuy tournaments provide players the luxury of playing for massive payouts while only investing a small amount. As long as you can adapt to playing the tournament with much deeper stacks than usual mult-table online tournaments provide, you will do great.
Goodluck at the tables, and I hope to see you crushing the rebuy tournaments in the future!