Rebuy tourneys

I’ve been playing the 2500 Rebuy Royal tourney a lot lately since it’s been introduced, and loving it. But the more I play, the more questions I have about the best re-buy strategy in this type of tourneys.

  • They always start with 1500 chips for each player, but I immediately add another 1500. It seems to be working fine for me so far, but as a strategy is it good?
  • How many times should one re-buy into the game before giving up? As these are more expensive than the 500 rebuys, it ends up costing a lot if one rebuys a lot into the game.
  • At the end of the rebuy period, almost everyone tops up with another 2000 chips. Is it always worth it?

These tourneys are great fun but it’s easy for players to get sucked into the game and end up paying much more than a high stake entry fee and much more than the prize is actually worth. I was wondering what everyone’s thoughts about this are, and if anyone has any advice or experience they can share.

Thank you
Maya

Yes, having more chips is always a better strategy than having less.

You should rebuy as often as you can. If this ends up costing more than you can afford, find a less expensive tourney.

Yes, having more chips is always better than having less.

Don’t the rebuys go to the prize pool? If they do, it invalidates your point, if they don’t, you should never play that kind of tournament. I suggest playing loco bingo until near the end of the rebuy period, then playing real poker after that. Well, as real as free chip Royal gets anyway. :slight_smile:

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I second everything SPG said, adding

The add-on is almost compulsory not because it is more chips but because it is a better deal than the standard rebuy. Add-ons are normally more chips than the rebuy gives you for the same price.

Rebuying before the first hand is an interesting thing. Being the first player (or only) to do it seems to be -EV because you do not double your expected return from the tournament, but generally having maximum chips available to call on when you need them is long term good strategy.

The rebuys do go to the prize pool, yes

Rob

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Thank you @SunPowerGuru and @Chasetheriver for the advice. I wasn’t aware that the rebuys go to the prize pool. It makes much more sense now. Many thanks.
Maya

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Hey Rob, I have a question regarding the timer. When a player is knocked out of the tourney during the rebuy period, they get 20 seconds to rebuy. Shouldn’t the timer stop for 20 seconds? I ask because the 20 seconds are taken out of the rebuy period which shortens it for others. This was especially obvious at the end of the rebuy period one time; I was waiting to shove all in and rebuy if I lose before the rebuy period ends, but then a player was busted out, and there were only 20 seconds left to rebuy. That player left but we still had to wait the whole 20 seconds, which made us reach the break and couldn’t play as I had planned anymore.
Thanks, Maya.

Hi Maya, Unfortunately pausing the tournament timer on the table where the players are thinking about a rebuy would throw the tournament table out of sync. The rebuy period of 30 minutes for a table might extend by several minutes. Each table would have a different amount of 20 second extensions. When a player moves from one table to another, they could move to a table with a significantly different amount of time left to rebuy.

Some of the players who use up the 20 seconds probably just closed the game without clicking No and don’t realize the negative impact they had.

So, sorry not something which would remedy this annoying situation

Rob

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It makes sense. Perfectly understandable. Thank you Rob.
Maya

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most impressive!

speaking of rebuys, I’d like to see one for hold-em that has a larger buy-in, say a 50k buy-in with unlimited 50k rebuys for the rebuy period, now that would be a gas! Could be expensive…could be lucrative, lol.

I like tourneys but the rebuy tourneys can be very annoying.

I played a tourney recently and one of the players re-bought a 5K stack 10 times and went all in 10 times until he finally won a hand.

I asked him if he thought that was a good strategy since his chances of getting to the big show was slim and if he did he would probably lose more than he paid in chips to play.

Of course that got him and others upset but it is a fact that players relying on all ins don’t fare well in a big tourney and he was blown out when the rebuys ended. I know because I made it to the big show with no rebuys and he was not there.

Now I am not against a rebuy if you hit a bad hand and get wiped out right away but if you are rebuying more than you are likely to win in a tourney is that a good strategy?

Your thoughts?

There’s some great advice in this thread:

Rebuy Tourneys

i sometimes play them to get away from high stakes i normally play and dont care about the few chips of re buying and will go all in until i have a hefty amount of chips then play serious poker til the final table and final showdown. having the high chip leverage after the re buys end gives u an extreme advantage over the other players if u stop re buying after u hit big pots and play serious the rest of the way after. so if u dont care about profit/loss and just wanna win the tourney then i say go for it, works most often for me.it makes the game more fun too during the re buys when your used to playing more serious all the time on high stakes. its a good way to unwind for a bit.

yes the re buys go towards the prize pool so u can make back ur rebuys or some of them if u place well.

Maya,
even tho I did that 500 thread long ago… try this…
Not only could it be said you’re playing “smart bingo” but you can also think of it as 3k blinds. Play seriously from hand 1 this way…if @ any point you’re in a situation where losing the hand will leave you with less than 3k chips, then shove… don’t just call/raise, should you lose the hand you will just start the next one back with your 3k. This is also why starting with 3k is a great move. I agree with everything @floridajetski said, I also play the unlim rebuy MTTs for mostly pure fun.

If you are playing the 3 rebuys variety, My strategy is taking the 1st rebuy @ the start to give you the xtra chips, then if you bust out do the dbbl rebuy then… you only get 1 rebuy that way in effect, but you maximize the effectiveness of your rebuys.
Sassy

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ya it worked for both of us on b roll builder tourneys sassy, i just didnt wanna give my strategy out to all the others lol, we had good times and always were at the final table together :slight_smile: