How would you approach this tournament?

I know there's been a lot of discussion of how to play freerolls, but I've been playing a regular tournament at a local casino which I would like some opinions on.

It's a low buy in (£5), for which you get 500 tournament chips, with the initial blinds at 25-25, rising to 25-50 after about 30 minutes. In this tournament you may rebuy for another £5 at any time within the first hour, and you may also purchase an add on at the end of the first hour if you so wish.

In a freeroll I would probably just play tight and let the bad players knock themselves out, but in this tournament people are rebuying 5 or 6 times, all the way through the first hour, and then there are still quite a few small stacks playing like lunatics after the break, once rebuys are not allowed anymore. By the time it turns into 'proper poker' the blinds are up at 100-200 or 200-400, so if you haven't substantially boosted your stack to at least about 3000 you're pretty short stacked.

So - should I sit tight and wait for big hands, or should I try to limp in and hit a flop with anything half decent, knowing I can rebuy if it goes wrong?

The secret to rebuy events is to build chips early.

Most of the people in the money in these tournaments play wild and reckless at the beginning. They raise all-in with many hands and will rebuy if they lose.

If you are playing on a budget, I would wait to pick up some quality hands and push them, and especially play solid hands against the 'wacko' re-buyers who are in fact using a good but risky strategy.

rebuy tournys are a bit mad, people are looking to double up early, if you don't mind gambling it up a bit take a move with some marginal hands

specially if you can get in a 3 way all in, leave you with loads of chips and a good position

for the record see you are in southampton, I am just along the coast a bit, which casino is it in and what night is it on, might have to register and pop down

as it happens my name is also Jon

hmmm got me thinking maybe I posted this myself with my other personality

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Eh 'dook? Intentionaly getting involved in a 3 way all-in? With a marginal hand? With that kind of strategy your more likely to find yourself reaching into your wallet for your credit card than into the pot for your freshly aquired chips.

...and if you are serious about winning, do as they do! rebuy like a maniac!!lol
i'd say this sounds like a freeroll, but with a buy-in and lots of rebuys
so early on i'd wait for GradeA hands and see if you can get into a few pots
try to target the people who are rebuying up to 6 times
because obviously 500 chips is nothing to them, as they can just rebuy
punish em with your AAs or KKs or AKs and build your bankroll like that
and if you're not catching those kinds of hands, i can't help ya there except by saying try and get lucky or try with the AQs or QQs or other pps
gl at the tourney

It's at the Grosvenor on mondays and thursdays, there's also a £10 pot limit event on a tuesday and I think a £50 freezeout on a sunday.

Cool I have tuesdays off so might have to pop over on a monday, got some poker playing friends in soton as well see if i can drag them along.

I think you have to join the casino 48 hours in advance, otherwise somebody will have to sign you in as a guest.