Rebuy strategy by stormswa

[stormswa]

hey guys I didnt do a great job in explaining this in my other thread so im devoting a whole thread just to this subject. Recently I have taken rebuys much more serioulsy and really Its the only tourney im interested in playing right now. See deepstack tourneys favor me because im very good at extracting chips from my opponents and when im sitting on 40+bb stacks im super good at maintaining that. I love playing deepstacked and hate having to be in the push fold mode of 10bb. When you play a rebuy usually (not always) after rebuy period you should be very very deep stacked so I want to go through some of my strategys and how I approach a rebuy in general.

Total Rebuys + Your initial add on

If you dont plan on rebuying or taking your initial add on do yourself a favor and dont join the rebuy, just go play a freezeout. It is pretty stupid not to expect to rebuy at last twice and this means a double rebuy, so for instance if you dont have at least $35 you are willing to spend in a $5 rebuy please dont join it. You will have hands cracked, it happens get over it. If you cant handle the stress of having to have a hand cracked again dont join the rebuy.

Hands to run and starting chips

im going to use pokerstars as a example here, In stars with a immidiate add on we start with 3k chips. Blinds start at 10/20 HELLO can you say tons of big blinds there with that in mind lets go through the hand ranges we want to run.

Paint

if its not raised before us we want to raise with any 2 paint cards, if raised 5bb or less we call and anything over 5bb we fold. If we hit top pair we are going all the way with this hand, in a rebuy you are always going with top pair all the way unless board gets really really scarry.

pair

same thing here and it will become normal through all starting hands, raise if not opened and fold if over 5bb and call with under 5bb. If all unders flop we are going all the way try to get it all in on flop.

suited connectors and gapped suited connectors

same requirements here, if we flop a draw play it by ear. If you think you can see it cheap try to if not try to shove it in. We will most likely get called in multiple places so the hand will pay off.

suited ace

unlike a freezeout we want to see flops and its same requirements, if you flop ace most likely you are going all the way with this also. Flush draw also all the way.

Rag

just throw them away guys K-8, J-4 etc.


To go all in or not preflop

This is up to you really, its up to you if you want to flip or not. Obviously your not going to flip with suited connectors or actually race but with paint and pairs its possible. Ok but if you chip stack gets down to about 2k you might want to just open shove some moderate hands like suited connectors and then if you lose double rebuy. Its a +ev play because you either double up to 4k or more if you get multiple callers or you bust rebuy and start back at 3k.


last hand of rebuy

This is a very very important hand, the most important one of the rebuy. If you are sitting on a 3k -4k stack you need to shove this hand. More if you on lower half of the range, 4k you might not but like 3,450 or so you have to. here is the reason if you happen to win you will have like 6k+ the add on of 2k so 8k if you happen to lose you double rebuy to 3k plus add on to 5k. Now if we just sit on our 3,450 stack and do add on we only end up with 5,450. So as you see shoving here is +ev here in the long run


after rebuy period

ok play this like normal now, the only difference is you are going to be sitting on a very deep stack. Take a orbit or 2 to watch your players to see who is still playing like a maniac and who actually is playing normal. Remember dont think because someone is a shove monkey during rebuy that he will be that way now. Keep in mind the morons that didnt add on or rebuy whole tourney and are sitting on 2,400 stacks are going to be shoving just about anything. Try to pick up their chips because they are bad players that dont understand rebuys so they are shoving real light and it wont cost you that much most of the time to flip with them. Just play normal poker and you should do fine.

 

[PokerProBetZip]

Good post, I will try to apply this to rebuy tournaments. I'm sure everyone should read this because its info.

 

[stormswa]

Good post, I will try to apply this to rebuy tournaments. I'm sure everyone should read this because its info.

yea got the bet amounts to call or fold to off the net from another not as long guide. The 5bb thing because when I play I dont have a set amount I can and cant call, mine goes by my stack and what I Think of my opponents but for starters they need a set abount.

glad you enjoyed it and ty.

if you google rebuy strategy there are tons of guides out there, take a little bit from every guide and make your own style. Maybe then we wont have so many people complaining about no skill in rebuys and will understand them a little more.

 

[Dragnet]

This is a great post. I knew you had to be more aggressive and loose preflop in the rebuy period but I've never read a strategy before so this is really useful.

I'm guessing though that you need to have good deep stacked poker skills after the first hour otherwise this approach is -ev with the extra buyins. I've seen a lot of players lose their entire big stack within half an hour of the break because they're still in rebuy poker mode. Conversely, there are those who don't have the experience of the big stack and can't use it effectivley, myself included. Most times I have won MTTs is from a position of being shortstacked for most of the tournament.

I've been thinking of playing more rebuys though to learn more skills in being deep stacked so this is great

Cheers

 

[stormswa]

This is a great post. I knew you had to be more aggressive and loose preflop in the rebuy period but I've never read a strategy before so this is really useful.

I'm guessing though that you need to have good deep stacked poker skills after the first hour otherwise this approach is -ev with the extra buyins. I've seen a lot of players lose their entire big stack within half an hour of the break because they're still in rebuy poker mode. Conversely, there are those who don't have the experience of the big stack and can't use it effectivley, myself included. Most times I have won MTTs is from a position of being shortstacked for most of the tournament.

I've been thinking of playing more rebuys though to learn more skills in being deep stacked so this is great

Cheers

im thrilled that it helped you, I just watched a friend of mine use this strategy in a $1 rebuy and ended rebuy period at 10k in chips. He got unlucky about 3 hours into the rebuy to get outkicked but he was card dead most of the period after the rebuy.

yes after the rebuy period ends you need to alter you strategy, right after rebuy be careful who you are raising and pay close attention to stack sizes and who is willing to reshove on you. Just play normal poker, you can play a little looser seeing you will be playing with 50-100bb stacks.

the hands i mention above are only for rebuy period not after, do not play these hands same way after the rebuy period has ended. During rebuy period position means nothing after though it means everything just like normal poker.

 

[KingCurtis]

well to be honest i tried to play a 3.30$ rebuy on pokerstars.......obviously i did not want to rebuy or add-on because i only had like 20$ in my account that i won from a poker players alliance freeroll.....anyway i did well i made it past the add-on and rebuy time which is the first break and i was a little under average in chips.......once again no add-on or rebuy....but then the blinds were higher and i was being chipped away.....i was so mad i played almost 2 and ahlf hors for nothin.....but now thanks to this post i understand that i should have not even played due to my bankrolll and the fact that i ddint rebuy or add-on could have helped...thanks for the strategy gl in the rebuys

 

[OzExorcist]

I've got a question: I don't play many rebuys at the moment (don't have the bankroll for it) but I plan to in the future once I'm properly rolled.

Anywho... say we've coin flipped our way to double the starting stack (or double the added-on starting stack: 6000 from the 1500) and it's still inside the rebuy period: what do we do?

Do we stick to the original strategy of raising more than we usually would, taking top pair all the way to the end, and run the risk of ending up back at the starting stack?

Or, having got our wish of doubling up, do we tighten up a little and look to play more premium hands knowing that people will be calling or even shoving light, and we should be able to have them crushed if we're playing slightly better hands.

Or, to shorten the question: when do we stop coinflipping in the rebuy period?

 

[dwbrown7680]

I'm a huge fan of rebuy's myself (Pokerstars 35k guarantee win ), and pretty much agree with everything Storm said. I pretty much have the same goal and ideas in that first hour, plus you can usually get a pretty good idea of what the bottom payout is going to be based on the entry fee and the number of players.

Say for instance, we're playing a $5.50+R on PStars; we can generally expect the bottom payout to be in the $35-$40 range, so I view this as my cap for spending on rebuys. I'm not saying I wont break it, but I don't like having to go past it if I dont absolutlely have to.

As far as what we're aiming for during that 1st hour....everytime I play my goal is to have at least 10k chips by the end of the break so that I have 12k after the add-on and i'm looking at 100/200 blinds with a 25 ante. So we apply the rules stated above till we can reach/break this number. From this point I usually settle down but still use my stack size to my advantage when I see +EV plays or easy pickups, etc.

Lots of people tend to frown on these rebuys, but if you apply the guidelines stated above and then play solid poker from the 1st break on, you'd be surprised how easy it becomes to either:

A) Cash and make a small profit at minimum
or
B)Cash and be surprised at how you just turned your $35 into $200, $500 or more with more ease than you thought possible.

Don't worry about being one of the chip leaders at the first break, because the 25k chip advantage he may hold at that moment is small in comparison to the 10-12 mil chips that are in play. Just aim for your goal and let your poker finesse take you the rest of the way.

 

[TheJace]

I'll second the question of at which point do we stop coin flipping? I've been wondering the same thing my self.

 

[stormswa]

simple answer, stop coinflipping when you comfortable with your chipstack. I usually like to have about 8k-12k going into the second hour. After you get the chipstack you like you can either just sit out (which I dont like) or just play like it is the 2nd hour.

 

[TheJace]

So starting with 3k you like to end with 8-12k?

 

[dwbrown7680]

Anywhere in the neighborhood of 8k-10k at the break is just fine, this gives you the 10k-12k after the addon and you have 50-60BB's to play around with starting the 2nd hour. Of course this is only a suggestion, like storm said stop coinflipping whenever you feel comfortable with your stack.

 

[stormswa]

So starting with 3k you like to end with 8-12k?

yep somewhere around there.

we are talking about just the rebuy period Jax not the whole tourney lol.

Anywhere in the neighborhood of 8k-10k at the break is just fine, this gives you the 10k-12k after the addon and you have 50-60BB's to play around with starting the 2nd hour. Of course this is only a suggestion, like storm said stop coinflipping whenever you feel comfortable with your stack.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^