Thursday, July 27, 2006

Rebuy!

What is the deal with PokerStars allowing you to rebuy when you are all in, then adding 1500 chips to your stack whether you win or lose? I don't play rebuys very often, but this seems silly to me. I guess it would make more sense if they charged a vig on rebuys, because they'd make money every time someone pulled this cheat.

The consequence was a player at my table going all-in on every hand just so he could rebuy 10 times in a row. He lost a few of those hands, but that didn't slow him down. Eventually his plan worked and he had a ~10K stack to try and bully the table with. Fun!

When I witnessed this, I decided my entry was a mistake. I should have followed the example of my brilliant friend SirFWALGMan and just abstained. At least I was only in for $5.50 when I realized my error. Even with no rebuys and no add-on, I managed to make it about an hour and a half into the tournament (after being ridiculed by Iggy upon arrival at his table.)

My game and rebuys just don't mix. I am not able to make the adjustment necessary to play that type of game. I'm sure there's a calculation you can make to determine what hands make the most sense to play within the parameters of the "rebuy mentality" but I haven't considered it enough to know what they are. Maybe it's a weird combination of what you might play in a cash game at a very loose table. But what about when you build a pretty good stack of 8 or 9K in chips, only to get stacked. Is it worth rebuying and only getting 1500 chips? That seems like such a letdown.

Rebuys are a skill this player just doesn't have. And since I'm not willing to work on it, I may never get that skill. And I'm okay with that.

7 comments:

Jordan said...

People seem to have gotten very riled up about the Rebuy concept, either loving it or hating it. In the end, the way to play a rebuy tournament is not so different from how to play any other tournament. As you mentioned, you didn't even rebuy and you did fine, albeit, not moneying. Simply put, play well, watch your table and play accordingly. If someone is playing like an all-in monkey, trap them. If you bust, rebuy or don't.

I think as a whole, we all try to "adjust" our game too much. In the end, just play good poker and you'll be fine. That said, I intentionally played like a push monkey because I was just looking to have fun. But overall, just playing good poker is the way to win.

AlCantHang said...

"brilliant friend SirFWALGMan"?

oh my. Unfortunately I was unable to continue reading the post after that point.

Rebuys suck, but then again, so do I.

Just jokes Waffleman, just jokes.

Unknown said...

Watch an $11 Stars rebuy tourney. Depsite "looking donkey-ish" by pushing any two its a very simple concept... get lots of chips on the table to take after the rebuys are done.

Of course its more profitable to already HAVE those chips in your stack. But, having them in play actually increases your chances on winning when reverting to "solid" poker after the rebuys have ended.

DuggleBogey said...

The difference being when I doubled up after the first break.

In a normal tournament I would have been near the average stack. In this tourney I actually got laughed at "look at the small stack!"

Wes said...

You guys were actually taking that tournament seriously? Next time, just mash the rebuy button while pushing in every hand. That is some entertainment, especially when 83o cracks KK.

slb159 said...

Ah, a push monkey. I sat out for that very reason. Oh, and I suck as well.

TripJax said...

Yeah, this was about fun for me. I sucked, but had a blast...