How do you play micro rebuy tournaments?

Do you max late reg so that you buy in a maximum of once?

Do you gamble with rebuys and hope to make a big stack early?

Do you play tight because others are so loose?

Hoping for a good discussion

I usually prefer to enter earlier rather than waiting until the maximum late registration. I like having a deeper stack and more time to play, especially because I don’t feel very comfortable when the blinds start getting big too quickly. I also don’t like gambling with rebuys just to build a huge stack early. If I lose a buy-in, I’d rather accept it and wait for another tournament than keep rebuying and hoping to get lucky. As for playing tight, yes, I tend to do that, especially when I see a lot of players playing very loose. I’m happy to let them play a lot of hands and make mistakes. I’d rather wait for a hand and a situation where I feel comfortable than get involved in every pot. For me, patience is probably more important than trying to build a huge stack right from the beginning

Register early and start on time. Play TAG(have some patience) but if I get the chance early to play a few suited connector hands cheap take them chances and hopefully get lucky and double or triple up with one of them suited connector hands. Or maybe a can into a hand cheap with a small pocket pair and nail trips to double up.

I typically don't ever rebuy. I honestly with there were a lot more freezeout MTT's and late registration being longer then an hour is just garbage in my opinion. Re-buys and late registration lasting a long time is just terrible for rec/hobby players who typically don't rebuy. Not only are most rec/hobby players out skilled they're also out bankrolled as most can't afford as many buy-ins.

Cheers!!!

I usually prefer playing tight early and letting the loose players make the mistakes. I’m not a big fan of gambling with rebuys just to build a huge stack, unless the tournament structure really rewards it.

Be in your seat on time because in the early going there are some big scores to be had. If you sit down late, you will miss out on those. The players with the biggest stacks at the end of the rebuy period will have a big advantage after things settle down into normal poker. If you sit down late you will not be one of those big stacks.

Play tight, call when strong. There will be a lot of loose shoves and with a little luck it will be some of the easiest money that you ever made. If you take a suckout, you can always rebuy too.

You can essentially treat the rebuy period as bounty hunting.

In micro rebuy tournaments, I try not to gamble too much early unless I have a very strong hand or a good spot. Since many players are loose during the rebuy period, I focus on playing solid poker and taking advantage of their mistakes. I usually take the add-on if it's good value, and after the rebuy period ends, I switch to a more standard tournament strategy. bankroll management is also important because multiple rebuys can add up quickly

as others have mentioned long rebuy periods are ridiculous (yes ,please bring back more freezeouts !). i can't answer the other questions without knowing more about structures . if you get 10 big blinds at the last instant a super late entry can be +EV since so much of the field will be already out , assuming you are content and skillful with shove or fold play . you will seldom go deep but a min cash may be relatively easy to achieve . never do that in a bounty or PKO format though !

If it's a $2r/a consider it a $10 buy-in.
When I first started playing online poker I treated rebuys as if they were freezeouts. I'd hope to double or triple up from some loose players (the ones who inevitably were building huge stacks after being willing to make multiple rebuys) but more often than not, it didn't go that way and I'd end up complaining about rebuy tournaments. (because I didn't know how to play them)

How I play them depends on the table I'm on. If there's some other players on the table who are mixing it up, willing to get the chips in the middle and rebuying a lot, I will do similar. Making multiple rebuys doesn't mean you're donking off those buy-ins,... because most of the time those buy-ins are just going to increase the number of chips floating around the table you're on (provided you're not getting moved frequently which often isn't the case... depends on tourney and depends on site a bit).

tldr, the goal is to BUILD A STACK! Start early & be prepared to rebuy!

This is not to be confused with 're-enter' which seems to be far more popular by the online poker sites these days... so they can ding you for a tourney fee every single time. How I play 're-entry' tourneys. It depends.

Poker Orifice said:

This is not to be confused with 're-enter' which seems to be far more popular by the online poker sites these days... so they can ding you for a tourney fee every single time. How I play 're-entry' tourneys. It depends.

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R+A tournaments are basically extinct. PokerStars have a few left like a $1.1 game here and a satellite there, but neither GG Poker, ACR Poker or 888 Poker have any at all. So most likely OP dont even know, what a R+A is, and he is thinking about re-enter tournaments, which is the vast majority of both online and live tournaments these days.

And in that case the answer is, that the option to re-enter should mean nothing for our strategy, unless there is likely to be an overlay, in which case we should be more willing to gamble, since chips won will be worth more than chips lost. But apart from that re-entering and thus playing the same tournament twice is no different from playing two similar tournaments, and it should mean nothing for our strategy, if re-enter is possible or not.

If re-enter is possible, I will take it, if I would also have late registered to the same tournament. So if the tournaments has bounties, that are already in play, like a traditional KO or PKO, then I will probably not re-enter, unless I bust very early from some kind of cooler like running KK into AA. But if its a standard tournament without bounties, or a mystery bounty event, where the bounties are not yet active, I might re-enter down to a starting stack of maybe 30BB.

Its depends also on, how my total session is going. If I am feeling a bit tired and have plenty of other tables running, I might choose to focus on those rather than re-entering. If the way, I busted, makes me a little tilted, then I will definitely not re-enter. And finally I am less likely to re-enter on big sites like PokerStars and GG Poker, that have so many tournaments, that you can almost always just buy into the next one instead and start with a full stack instead of starting short.

hardongear said:

I honestly wish there were a lot more freezeout MTT's and late registration being longer then an hour is just garbage in my opinion.

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skaterick said:

as others have mentioned long rebuy periods are ridiculous (yes ,please bring back more freezeouts !).

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The thing is, that when sites actually offer such tournaments, demand is not there. 5-6 years ago 888 Poker introduced a series, which they called "The Classic". 100BB starting stack, 1 hour late registration, no re-enter allowed. They commonly ran with an overlay despite modest guaranties, so one by one they were taken down again.

If such more traditional tournaments are to have a chance, then people asking for them in forums need to put their money, where their mouth is, and show up in numbers. Otherwise sites will continue to offer tournaments with unlimited re-enter and late registration all the way down to 10-15BB, since this create larger fields and earn them more rake.

If the rules allow a rebuy right at the start of the tournament, do it. A big stack gives you an advantage over those who entered with a single stack.
If you've lost your stack, buy in immediately. Don't wait for the next hand.
At the end of the rebuy period, always take the Add-on. It usually gives you more chips for the same amount of money, which can significantly increase your stack before the tournament freezes.

fundiver199 said:

The thing is, that when sites actually offer such tournaments, demand is not there. 5-6 years ago 888 Poker introduced a series, which they called "The Classic". 100BB starting stack, 1 hour late registration, no re-enter allowed. They commonly ran with an overlay despite modest guaranties, so one by one they were taken down again.

If such more traditional tournaments are to have a chance, then people asking for them in forums need to put their money, where their mouth is, and show up in numbers. Otherwise sites will continue to offer tournaments with unlimited re-enter and late registration all the way down to 10-15BB, since this create larger fields and earn them more rake.

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Yep and all it shows it how stupid the majority of rec/hobby players are. They play/vote against their own best interests. On the bright side good thing for the majority of players being complete morons. Poker will never die and for smart players and people you will always be able too be winners even when with all the disadvantages in game speed and formats.

Cheers!!!