How to Approach Re-Buy Tournaments

The crazy action in re-buy poker tournaments caused me to avoid them for a long time. But if I want to become a proficient online poker specialist then I decided that I should research how to play these types of tournament. Re-buy poker tournaments are one of the most fun and action packed online poker games you can play. You are guaranteed a good game providing you are prepared to buy back in and one bad beat does not mean the end of your poker tournament.

There are things you must be aware of in order to do well in these types of tournament. Having a solid grasp of poker poker strategy will help you gain big stacks during the initial period of the tournament where the chips really do fly around.

During the Re-Buy Period

The action is fast and furious during the re-buy period. As players can buy back in there is less risk with pushing a marginal hand. Your range for making pre-flop raises should either be widened or tightened depending on your own plans for the tournament. If you are one of the crazy re-buying players then you can widen your range of starting hands and go for the double up that will earn you a large stack.

With many opponents playing loose at this point there are plenty chips to be won. With a starting stack of $1,500 players can aim to increase that to $8,000 or more if they are lucky enough to get good hands. Raises by your opponents should mean less and you will see large pots in relation to the smaller blinds more often as the aggression is the either win or re-buy.

That said, many players have won re-buy tournaments having never had to re-buy playing tight in this stage of the tournament and picking off other players bad moves. You should play these tournaments, however, with a willingness to re-buy at least once or twice to take into account the ferocity of play in the early stages.

After the Re-buy Period

Immediately after the re-buy period ends you should see an immediate relaxing of intensity in the way the poker tournament is played. Players now have the added pressure of potentially being eliminated so they must be more careful before risking their stack. You need to make that adjustment also in that the raising range will instantly become more in line with the normal expectations in relation to the blinds like you would see in a freezeout poker tournament.

There will be some less experienced poker tournament players that have gotten on a roll during the re-buy period and will still be pounding the pot and be raising aggressively. It is probably best to avoid these players without a very strong hand. Their range is probably quite wide and they are using a poker strategy that as soon as the rebuy period ended was a mistake. This makes them attractive as a weak player but also dangerous because they are creating big pots.

The key re-buy poker tournament concept to bear in mind is that once re-buys end it becomes a freezeout tournament played in freezeout conditions. Some players will have huge stacks that you might not see in a freezeout but they will normally go quiet for a few levels sitting on their lead. These entertaining tournaments can have big prize pools because of the frenzied re-buying that takes place early on in the tournament.

This makes re-buy poker tournaments fun to play in and potentially lucrative!

By Malcolm Clarke

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags: online poker, poker, poker tournament, re-buy poker tournament