Advanced Poker Advice: Re-buy Tournament Strategy

by Jose Severino | Oct 2 2007

Re-buy poker tournaments are my favorite. One of the main reasons is because I have seen up to one-third of the field gone after the first hour of re-buys. Most people that register in re-buy tournaments register with the intention of not re-buying or making add-ons. In my opinion, this is the worst strategy for playing. In fact, you should not even play a re-buy tournament if you are not willing to re-buy or add on. Here are some questions that people often ask me about re-buy tournaments:

Should you re-buy at the start of the tournament?

First of all, you should always make a re-buy in the first hand of a tournament. You will maybe see two or three players at your table making a re-buy as well. A lot of players think that if they double up in the first couple of hands, they will have the same stack as the people who did the re-buy at the beginning of the tournament. This may be true, but they are missing the big picture. If you re-buy at the start of the tournament and then double up with one of the players that also re-bought at the start, you'll have quadruple the stack of players that didn't re-buy.

Should you re-buy infinite times within the first hour of re-buy, or should you just give up and leave the tournament?

If you are going to play a re-buy tournament, you should commit to play for at least an hour. Like I said before, don't play a re-buy tournament if you don't have enough money to make a couple of re-buys or even an add-on.

Which strategy is best to play during the re-buy period?

Many players use different strategies for re-buy tournaments, and there is plenty of room for argument about the pros and cons of each strategy. In my opinion, the best strategy is to play mega-aggressive during the first hour of re-buys. In the first couple of rounds, if I don't see a raise behind, I just go all-in pre-flop whenever I'm in the blinds or sometimes from the button.

I do this with any two cards, and I always show my hand. Of course people will eventually start catching on, and they will start limping monster hands like A-A or K-K. By this time, you may or may not have been called, but you definitely would have built your image as a loose/
donkey/aggressive player. This is very important. After a couple of rounds, start slowing your rhythm, and whenever you get a monster like A-A, play them exactly like the rags you were showing before. This will hopefully get you a lot of chips. The main focus is to finish the re-buy period with double or triple the original stack you started with.

Should you always add on?

You should always make the add-on. Strong and solid poker players should make add-ons, because they know how to play a big stack and they certainly don't mind a couple more chips even though they might already be the chip leader in the tournament. Weak or amateur players should also make add-ons, because they need more chips to feel comfortable playing and to have a shot at winning.