About shaniac:
Shane “shaniac” Schleger is one of the most successful online poker rebuy tournament players. According to thepokerdb, since Jan 1, 2006 Shane has north of $500,000 in cashes in the PokerStars $109 rebuy — widely regarded as the toughest tournament online. While recording those cashes Shane has recorded an approximate ROI% of 85% earning him a profit of north of $200,000. This makes him one of the premiere online rebuy players and we’re happy to have him share some of his thoughts on rebuys with Poker News Daily.
When it was announced that the World Series of Poker (WSOP) would abolish rebuy tournaments, there was a slight but noticeable uproar about the elimination among aficionados of this form of poker tournament. Before getting into the specific strategic elements that make rebuy tournaments unique, I would like to re-state my strong feeling that getting rid of rebuys for a tournament series like the WSOP is a big mistake, since rebuys are both one of the most skill-oriented forms of tournament poker (yes, sort of an inherent contradiction) as well as one of the most fun. Still, rebuys remain a vital and very popular form of tournaments in the online poker universe, so it’s worth taking a look at some basic precepts for playing rebuys in order to minimize the exposure to your bankroll while maximizing your expected value (EV).
During the peak of online poker tournaments (two or three years ago), there was a prevailing tendency among regular rebuy players at all buyin levels to employ a maniacal gambling style during the rebuy period (which is to say, the time period in a tournament—usually the first hour in an online event—when players may buy more chips after busting their original stack). As far as I know, there has never been any mathematical proof that employing such a strategy increased a players chances of winning to a degree that would offset the cost of rebuying repeatedly. Certainly, the underlying goal was to build a large stack during the time period when busting out of the tournament is impossible, but in reality those maniacal tendencies probably reflected nothing more than a raw desire to gamble. That said, there are certain situations where playing a maniacal style during the rebuy period has value. One involves an awareness of table dynamics while the other relates to bankroll utility.
Regarding the first concept, there are certain opponents, and certain table dynamics, in which presenting yourself as a maniac-rebuyer can pay off handsomely. This requires being aware of how the players at your table are playing and also having a sense of your table image – otherwise expressed as a rough idea of how players at your table perceive you. In other words, if your opponents think you are going all in several times in an attempt to blindly gamble and generate a stack, you can often get paid off with big hands by some of your opponents’ marginal holdings. This is obviously more complicated than it sounds and requires the ability to make reads and have an understanding of the rhythm of the table as well as what your own rhythm appears like to others. Developing a feel for these things requires practice and concentration – as with most of the crucial aspects in poker understanding – and cannot be explained in a simple paragraph or two. Just like getting to Carnegie Hall, the key is “practice, practice, practice.” To wrap up this point about paying attention and making reads during the rebuy period, it is also important to take stock of your opponents’ actions. Some players still employ the gambelero style in rebuy periods, so it makes sense to open up your calling ranges for them. Likewise, some players may find themselves simply on tilt during the rebuy period, and you must open up you calling standards even more to take advantage of this.
In terms of the second point about bankroll and utility, it is easy to see why, for example, spending an average of $1,100 in a $100+ rebuy tournament that might pay $15-25K for first place will cut down your ROI significantly (if not entirely eliminate the possibility of being a winner in the tournament) and increase your risk of ruin enormously. But how about a $10+rebuy tournament that pays $13K for first and will usually involve a much large field size? Well for a player who is “rolled” for the $100 rebuy, taking many gambles and rebuying dozens of times has a marginal effect on his bankroll and is clearly worthwhile since he has not noticeably increased his risk of ruin and ROI considerations become less critical. Furthermore, since the variance in such a tournament is so high, it is often worth it to take extra gambles in order to try and build a stack, because that stack will greatly increase your leverage against the weaker ten-dollar players, after the rebuy period is over. I think this point is true even for good players who are not rolled for $100 rebuys, but play $10-$30 rebuy tournaments as their mainstay.
All of this leads me to one important point about rebuy tournaments: the advantage that skilled players have after the rebuy period is over. In particular, the fact that the tournament post-rebuy period is played with much deeper stacks than its freezout counterpart. Deepstacked poker is universally known to give an advantage to good players, especially ones with postflop skills.
In addition to deep stacks, another reason that skilled players will have an advantage in rebuy stems from the reads that they might pick up on their opponents. These reads come from factors such as their rhythm and, most importantly, the possibility that players are not correctly adjusting to the play in the post-rebuy stage. It may happen, especially in turbo rebuys, that a player caught up in the momentum of tilt, or stack-building, is still playing too loose, and this is where poker skills can help a player capitalize on some of the more marginal situations that arise in every poker tournament. Needless to say, it is crucial to take stock of yourself during and after the rebuy period in order to not become one of the players that you yourself are trying to take advantage of.
The last point that has to be made about rebuy-period strategy is a simple one, yet one that players sometimes fight against, which is the “add-on,” or the last rebuy available to players in a rebuy tournament when the formal rebuy period has ended. If the add-on awards a “premium” for the same dollar amount, it is always correct to purchase it, and taking your add-on (even if your stack is already very healthy) will never be a big mistake. For example, PokerStars offers players 2000 chips for the addon and only 1500 for the rebuy, and both cost the same. Some players try to determine a point at which taking the add-on is unnecessary, but they are putting themselves through needless mental strain. Whether you have 3,000 chips or 30,000 chips, “taking the add-on” can never be too much of a mistake when it is being offered at a premium. I will always take the add-on (or double add-on when available) even in tournaments where there is no premium offered (like the now-defunct WSOP rebuys), since I believe part of the point of playing in rebuy tournaments is to buy every chip being offered in order to use the deeper stack you obtain to your advantage down the line in the tournament.
Best of luck in your future rebuy tournaments.
