The "Pro" Rebuy Strategy?

I've been thinking lately about playing more rebuy tournaments. My usual strategy is to rebuy in the beginning, and take the add-on, hoping to be in for 3 buy ins. I've read before that this is one of the better ways to approach such a large & loose field. After reading up on some of the wsop rebuy events, I began to think more about playing smaller buy ins, but rebuying much more. I am very comfortable when making it deep into a tournament, but I find sometimes that I can only make it to the middle stages. So, instead of playing a $5 rebuy and being in for $15, would it make sense to try a few $1 rebuys and playing ultra aggressive early, to try to gain a large stack?

I think with the smaller buy-in rebuys you get what you pay for. I play 5k $1 rebuy on UB 3-4x a week. It's very loose early on & premium hands get busted quite a lot. If you hit gin a few times though & add the 6000 dbl chip add-on at end of rebuy you can easily be in top 50 of 800 or so after the rebuy ends giving you a decent shot at getting deep into this tourney.

I played with a guy the other night who rebought 18 straight times I thought " wow nuts" but he won most of those rebuys back after break when people thought he was still playing LAG & he had "switched gears".

He wound up coming in 3rd for a cool $450 so I guess that strategy worked for him.

Good Luck to you whatever road you travel

There seem to be 2 thoughts on rebuy strategy these days.
1) play ultra tight and try to pick off a loose player or 2 to get a larger stack. This requires you to do an initial rebuy and then max rebuys if you lose so that when you win you get maximum payment.
2) play ultra loose and the odds are that you will hit some suck outs. Even if you pour a lot of chips onto the table you can get lucky to win them all back (you can't lose every hand) and even if you don't win them all back you can win them after the rebuy period is over when you change gears. The big problem with this tact is if you get moved from the table you poured all the chips into before you get a chance to win them back.

well if i play a rebuy its the 6k guarantee on full tilt and i allways tell myself to play very tight early and not rebuy becouse everyone else is playing loose and i only did this once and i seemed to do very well......

I know this may seem like a crazy Idea but, Have you thought about just playing your game? I mean play the tournament the same way you would a non-rebuy event. It seems to me that if you invest a smaller amount they ratio of invested to received would be greater. I have played in a lot of "rebuy" events but I do not rebuy or take add ons. Yes you can win those playing YOUR game.

I played a rebuy last nigth.
Made it deep into the game.
Did not make the money, however i did not rebuy or add on.
I came 35th out of 200
I lost to a coin flip i had AQ he had A10.
You guessed it , 10 on the river
If i had won the coin flip,it would have put me deep in the money.
So i guess i did it COWBOY'S way.

wooo said:

I played a rebuy last nigth.
Made it deep into the game.
Did not make the money, however i did not rebuy or add on.
I came 35th out of 200
I lost to a coin flip i had AQ he had A10.
You guessed it , 10 on the river
If i had won the coin flip,it would have put me deep in the money.
So i guess i did it COWBOY'S way.

Click to expand...

That's not really a coinflip, you were way ahead if im not mistaken.
He only had 3 outs (3 tens.)

just found this nice little article regarding rebuys I thought might be informative good luck


How Many Re-Buys
Article provided by Full Tilt Poker

Re-buy tournaments are my favorite types of tournaments to play. I am not much of a gambler away from poker; I rarely play table games like craps or blackjack, and I never bet on sports. My tournament style, and overall poker style for that matter, is generally tight-aggressive, but during re-buy tournaments, I use a different strategy that is fun to play and has given me a great deal of success in the past.

That said, there are some things you should consider when you play a re-buy tournament. The first thing to keep in mind is that you have to budget a lot more money for the tournament than just the initial buy-in. I budget for the initial buy-in, two re-buys, and the add on. So, if I am playing a $1,000 re-buy event, I will show up with $4,000. This gives me the opportunity to play the event correctly.
In a re-buy tournament, you can present your opponents with an image that you will later exploit in the tournament. Early on, I will often make unorthodox moves, pushing chips and building a hyper-aggressive image. Then, when the re-buy period ends, I revert back to my normal tight-aggressive style, and I tend to get paid off on all my big hands. The key to creating this image and opportunity, however, lies in budgeting enough money and a willingness to take risks. If you are not willing to invest enough money to make some re-buys and for the add on, then you should reconsider playing the event. You may catch cards and win a lot of pots and therefore never need to make a re-buy, but if you don't at least have that opportunity, than you are at a disadvantage.
There is one important factor in a re-buy tournament that you will have no control over, and that is your table draw. Before the start of a re-buy tournament, tournament directors will post the breakdown schedule for that tournament. This lists the order in which the tables will be broken down as players are knocked out of the tournament. A good table draw has you sitting at a late break table. A bad table draw breaks early. I am always willing to invest more re-buys in a tournament when I am seated at a late break table simply because if I lose those chips, I will have a lot of time to win them back after the re-buy period ends. If my table is scheduled to break early and I donate a lot of chips to those players, I will not have the opportunity to exploit my newfound loose image to win them back.
When it comes time for the add-on, many players question whether or not they should take it. I suggest always taking the add-on unless your chip stack is in the top 20% of chip stacks after accounting for the other players taking their add-ons. This will help make sure you do not find yourself at a disadvantage when the real play starts.
So, if you find yourself playing with me at your next re-buy tournament and you notice that I am gambling it up, be careful! When you call my all in bet after the re-buy period ends, you are likely to find yourself staring down at the business end of the stone cold nuts!