Julia
wins $160,525 in Blackjack
When it comes to discussing strategy for poker tournaments, some of the biggest disagreements have to do with rebuy tourneys. How should you play these events? They are interesting for a number of reasons, most of which have to do with the way that people play during the early parts of the tournament. For online poker, rebuys are typically limited to the first hour. This means that during that first part, you can be a little bit looser and play the game with a little bit more reckless abandon. Especially for low buy-in tournaments, you will find that everyone around you is going to be doing the same thing.
But the question remains: should you rebuy in these tournaments if you bust out? The answer is unequivocally yes. As you learn poker, you will learn how to play various tournaments. This type of event rewards people who rebuy because the prize pool is going to get larger and the number of places is going to be the same. There are basically two reasons why you should always rebuy in a tournament of this nature. The first is that it gives you more freedom to build a big stack in the early going. The second reason has to do with the value associated with the tournament prize pool.
In a rebuy tournament, your poker strategy should be to take multiple shots early. You should be jumping into pots and raising with big aces and with medium to big pocket pairs. Never lay down a good hand before the flop, because getting a big stack is valuable. If your tournament offers unlimited rebuys, then you should be prepared to buy in at least five times. Though it probably won't take this number of rebuys that should be a number that is in the back of your head. This way, you can try to double up a couple of times early and take over the table as you move towards the first "real" hour of the event. The rebuy hour is a different animal, because everyone will be playing like loose cannons. It's worth your money to match their play.
Honestly, the best way to play rebuy tournaments is to keep buying in and take your shot at the final table. People who play poker for a living play this way, and they aim to get to that final table, where the prizes are going to be inflated. The huge number of buy ins that the tournament will receive will make it so that you can really make some big money by placing in the top few spots.
