I changed the way I play rebuys after watching Chris Moorman (a young poker pro who ranks very highly in terms of tournament winnings in the UK) in action.
I play the $3 rebuys on Stars to sat in to the Sunday Million occasionally, and must say that there"s a way to play them to do well consistently.
To start with, you don"t look at it as a $3 tourney. Look at it instead as a $30 tourney. From the start, play like a donk. Shove in with pretty much any two cards, best done on the flop. You"ll win a few pots uncontested usually, but someone will call you. You will lose (or outdraw them, which is amusing).
Anyway, repeat that a few times, and then you have a table that is full of chips, full of players on tilt (who are treating it as a freezeout or have limited rebuys in mind), and you will eventually get a big hand and double up. Then you can bully the shorter stacks throughout the rebuy period.
At the end of the rebuy, you will have a decent stack (hopefully, or course it doesn"t always work), and it"s probably cost about 10 rebuys, if not more.
Then you start playing poker. The others at the table won"t recognise this and some seem to forget that the rebuy period is over. Hopefully, you can mop up the chips at your table and then you have an advantage over the players on other tables.
I"ve seen other players do it, and not only is it effective - it"s also jolly good fun!
It does mean that those with the bigger pockets for a rebuy are at a distinct advantage. Playing a rebuy scared (in terms of limited buy-ins) is not the way I"d suggest they"re played. To get the most out of them long-term, I"d recommend playing in rebuys that you can afford to reload 10 times (if not more).
If there are so many bad players in rebuys (as Gordon mentioned), then surely there must be a way to beat them?
