Re-buys. Good or Bad?

[DomEast]

Hello AAll,

I have just recently started looking at buying into tournement play rather than ring games and sit n go games and was looking to capitalize on the guaranteed sums given in some tournaments.

I found some great looking offers such as $750 guaranteed with $2 buy-in top 50 paid min entry 50. At the time (15 mins to go) there was only 43 players signed up and so I registered straight away. If I finished 50th (as long as at least 50 signed up anyway) I got back $7.50! I could not go wrong!

By the time the tourney started it was up to 94, but what the hey I can survive 44 people easy. Just got to play tighter than I would do in a freeroll. So there I was playing tighter than ever taking down the occasional pot and then I finally got the stone cold nuts and took out one of the players.

AV IT!

Then he was back, with full chip count and what's all that about! I Looked at the culling stature and only two people had been knocked out. My god. This was going to be hard. So I started playing super tight and after an hour I really did need that 5 min break!

Nearly having a nervous breakdown, I reached the break and was offered an 'Add-on'. I did not know what this was so I declined and continued to play after the break, just hoping to slip into the 50th spot.

I saw people getting knocked out and was finally thankfull that these zombies were not raising from the dead! Within an hour I was looking out of shape and we had culled it down to 53 and was just basically posting and folding just to get 'cash-back'.

I was knocked out right on the 50th position and actually breathed a sigh of relief. Smoked a cigarette and had a beer. I have been at final tables before in freerolls, but nothing has ever prepared me for that gruelling first hour.

Welcome to the realm of RE-BUYS!

Now I have been playing two and a half years and lost quite a lot in the beginning as you're typical fish, but after the initial anger I honed losses to my learning curve and have been getting steadily better to a stage that in ring games I usually walk away up and with sit n go's get a money finish or finish on the bubble . Freeroll tourneys are a bit hit and miss depending on the alcohol intake.lol.

I entered this re-buy sober as a judge and calm and happy with life. A lot can happen in two hours! Unreal. I had regressed to feeling like a fish all over again. My rule book of calling with anything just to see a flop (and rake points) had to be completely reworked and I was lucky to get the money finish.

I look back and think...... Now we are talking poker! I did love the adrenaline rush, the cold sweats of making plays and It was great. I have entered five of them now and have five money finish's , without using the re-buy button.

My theory is this:-

If you need to use the re-buy button you should not be in tournament play. I appreciate that the site needs to make up the 'guaranteed' sum and that is a good way of doing it ( I do posess a good business accumen). I swore to myself to use the re-buy only if I get a bad beat and by bad beat I mean calling an all-in with a premium hand not calling an all-in with AA post flop with flushes and straight draws aplenty. That is not a bad beat, that is bad play.

I do use the add-on if I am not in the top ten chip leaders as this will give you an advantage if you run in to someone with a higher chip count and you can double it up. Hell that add-on can and will win the tournament for you if used wisely.

Oh and the tourney listing did not say Re-buys, but it is a French site and the word I think they used was 'Petante'. Yet elsewhere on the site it does state 're-buys'?

I hope you find this interesting and for those of you reading this and thinking..... Novice. Sorry, but we all have to break our 'big money tournament' cherry somewhere. lol. I have tasted the devils apple of REAL tournament play and want more!

Take care All and happy fishing.

Dom

This novelle is Copyright Dominic Eastell 2006. lol.

Whare's the sodding copyright button on the keyboard?????

[Dazzler69]

i personally dont like re-buys very much, you really have two options in the first period. You can either play real loose and hope to double up and if not just re-buy, however this can get real expensive if you dont limit yourself. Or you can play supertight and take some pots here and there and wait till the tournie moves to the freezeout stage. The things with add-ons as well is I read somewhere that it is only worth spending the money on the add-on if it is going to at least double or even triple your stack.

p.s. what's novelle??

[DomEast]

Hello,

A novelle is a short story type piece of literature. As my posts have a tendency to be long I thought I would add that at the end as a bit of a joke.

This is one of my shortest posts.lol.

Take care,

Dom

[Dazzler69]

oh right, i thought it might be a typo or something lol

[Cerealkiller050]

I absolutely HATE rebuys and addons. I think freezeouts really show who is the best kind of tournament player, not relying on going all in a thousand times before you finally win and get a semi big stack.

but thats just me

[jrazza]

I agree with Cereal, freezeouts do show the real skill players, however re-buys always offer the opportunity of great rewards, something that could be life changing in effect.

[JimG]

I always take the mindset that in a rebuy tournament the real tournament does not start till after the rebuy and ad-on period has ended.
Personally my goal when playing a rebuy tournament is to have a minimum of 8x the starting chips when the first break has ended. I'm shooting for 15x.

I have a few opinions which are contrary to the OP’s insights. It’s just a matter of a difference of opinion so no disrespect at all.

If feel if your not willing to spend at least 6x the entry fee don’t even bother playing the tournament. In the beginning you need to take gambles to try gaining chips for when the real tournament starts.

If at any point I feel that I’m going to have a difficult time reaching a minimum of 8x the starting chips by the break then I’ll decline to rebuy. Example 10 minutes left to rebuy period ends and the rest of the table has tightened up and began nurturing their stacks.

At the point I’ve reached 15x the amount of rebuys I’ll play very tight and nurture my chips until break: I do make one exception to this rule, If the rest of the table is not playing tight I will take advantage of this and build my stack during the final 10 minutes of rebuy periods and take some gambles against the short stacks looking to get back into it.

[Alchera]

Agree with Jim. Be prepared to put in at least 5-6 times before the break to try and get at least 5-6 times the initial chip outlay. Otherwise you are pushing shite up hill for the rest of the time as blinds are getting bigger and peeps with higher chip counts are putting you in positions where you have to fold more than you may want to.

I enjoy the 1 dollar rebuy games! Great as a tilt valve and fun to beat 5 others out of a massive pot with pocket 4's hehe. Lower limit re-buys is where you will see a massive amount of bad beats due to the fact that more people are willing to put there chips in - even when -ev for the pot.

[JimG]

Good post.
Yeah I love using rebuy tournaments to get the Tilt out of my system.

[mikka]

good for me but sometimes it is very expensive