Poker Rebuy Strategy

The main question on poker rebuys that you will probably want answered is should you rebuy? Quickly followed by if so – how often should you rebuy?

Firstly what is a rebuy? It’s a stage in a poker tournament where players are allowed to buy more chips to add to their stack. They don’t necessarily need to be low on chips or out of chips, anyone can choose to rebuy if they want to.

The good thing about a rebuy period for all players is the tremendous increase in pot size that you see taking place. If you are in a good position and don't need to rebuy, the fact that so many players have bought their way back into the game should not bother you too much. You were good enough to be in front of them before the rebuy period so the chances are that you will be good enough to stay in front of them.

Normally for any particular tournament they will come in the form of single or limited rebuys, or unlimited rebuys and can be used either to buy your way back into a tournament that you’ve dropped out of, or simply to bolster your chip count.

When deciding whether it’s worthwhile rebuying into a tournament you need to consider several factors.

1. The quality of your opposition
Were you among the better players in the game? Could you look at the way your opponents played and see that it should have been them who went out early and not you? In that case you should buy your way back in and get on with the game. However if you have seen that the standard of opposition is better than you, there is probably little point in carrying on.

2. Were you unlucky to be knocked out?
Were you knocked out of the poker tournament by a bad beat where you held the best cards and used the right betting strategy only to find you lost out to a lucky break your opponent got on the river? A rebuy is certainly in order here too.

3. Are you within sight of your opponents chip counts?
If you rebuy and get sat 1500 chips, is it going to be enough to give you a chance against the chips your opponents are holding? If you are too far behind you will probably get blinded out before you get the chance to land a winning hand and your rebuy will have been in vain.

4. Do you WANT to carry on?
Have you still got the mental desire to get back into the game and start over again? Or has your early exit left you dispirited and feeling that you should just leave well enough alone and try your luck another time?

The very knowledge that players can rebuy back into the game often influences their game plan to a great extent, especially when there are multiple or unlimited rebuys. In this instance there tends to be a bit of a betting frenzy in the early stages as there is an opportunity to get back in even after losing an all-in.

(This tends to defeat the purpose of an all-in, although it is still good for the player who wins as they will get a good chip boost).

The other side of this type of play however is that a few players can break away with chip stacks which put them in extremely strong positions in the latter stages of the tournament. It is often the case that if you want to stay in contention you need to make some similar plays to keep up with the leaders, or else the blinds will catch up with you and you’ll be out.

Probably as with most things in poker, the biggest consideration with rebuys is value. If you consider that the rebuy fee is worth it in terms of the chance you have of progressing, then you should consider a rebuy.