The value in rebuy tournaments

Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 18 December 2008 / Leave a Comment

Rebuy tournaments provide some of the most lucrative action for good tournament players.

This is for a few key reasons. Firstly, the ability to rebuy gives a good player numerous shots at building a large stack - very important for later when the tournament reverts back to a regular format

Secondly, numerous bad players don't even bother continuing to rebuy if they bust early - a terrible strategy and one which basically gives them zero chance of winning, meaning lots of dead money in the prize pool. Lastly, the money in a rebuy is much more concentrated than in a freezeout tournament. As the percentage of the prize pool paid is done on entrants, all those rebuys make the prize pool much larger and more concentrated - great news for any player who understands the importance of playing for the win.

When playing rebuys it is crucial that you understand certain key things. The most important is to have a bankroll large enough to allow you to not only rebuy with impunity, but to feel psychologically ok rebuying with impunity. There is nothing worse than feeling you are losing more than you are comfortable with in a rebuy - you will frequently be losing buy in after buy in with nothing to show for it. Coupled with this is to find a playing style that you are happy playing in the rebuy period.

Many pros advocate a hyper aggressive in the rebuy stages, constantly shoving their stack around in a desperate attempt to secure as many chips as possible. Others seem to play a tighter style in rebuys, trying to pick up a few pots from the maniacs with solid holdings (Jon 'pearljammer' Turner< and Chris 'Moorman1' Moorman are good examples of this style). Although the exact optimum style is a matter of great debate, no one disagrees that you should be gambling considerably harder than you normally would in the rebuy period - it is simply too much of an advantage to have a decent stack when the rebuys end.

Most players that enter the low stakes rebuys simply do not understand these key principles and provide a huge amount fo dead money for a good player to hoover up.

Gamble hard, play within your roll, build a big stack and attack those concentrated prize pools.

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