Re-buy Poker Tournament Tactics
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Texas Hold’Em poker tournaments with re-buy structures differ during the early stage from fixed fee tournaments. Some poker players make a big re-buy right away and start the tournament with a monster stack, while others start with a much smaller chip stack that is the standard starter for the tournament. The big stacks can start off bullying small stacks, even wiping out all a player’s chips within the first few hands.
It’s good to plan ahead before you sit down at a re-buy tournament. If you are unsure, ask the floor manager how the re-buy options work. Is there a limit to how many chips any one player can buy? Once you understand how the re-buy works, then decide how much you are willing to risk. Generally, the more re-buys that take place, the higher the prize money. The prize pool is not determined until the re-buy period is finished. Once you have decided how much you are will to re-buy, then you must consider two factors: Do you re-buy from the start and try to bully the other players with a big stack right away? The one danger is that another big re-buy stack will challenge you, take your chips and end your tournament early - unless of course, you keep re-buying, making your tournament fee costly.
Another tactic is to wait as long as possible for the re-buy period to end, and replenish your chips then. This allows you to get a feel for the other players while you only have a small stake at risk. If a big stack attacks your small stack, you can only lose a few poker chips. At this point, you can decide if it the table is worth a re-buy, or if you’re better off choosing another game.
