£10 rebuy MTT tactics

Im hoping somebody can give me some advise on how to play in a MTT rebuy tournament. Its played in my local casino once a week and attracts about 80-100 players. The rebuys last for 2 hours (1000 chips for £10). I've played in two of these tournament now but cannot come to any other conclusion than the first two hours are based on luck - if you don't get the cards then you lose - end of story. Most hands go to the river and if you bet its a case of all or nothing on every hand your in. I've tried playing a tight game but even betting on just prime hands doesn't seem to work as someone with a much weaker hand often hits a better hand with the community cards.

So my question really is: Should I just play anything for the first 2 hours and trust to luck and expect to rebuy up to 10 times on the night. Then if I get lucky and get a decent stack of chips I can tighten up a bit or should I just play prime hands. Have any of you out there played in these types of tournaments and had any success? Any advise is appreciated.

Thanks.

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So my question really is: Should I just play anything for the first 2 hours and trust to luck and expect to rebuy up to 10 times on the night. Then if I get lucky and get a decent stack of chips I can tighten up a bit or should I just play prime hands.

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Basically, yeah. Maybe not 10 times ... but expect to rebuy a few times for sure. Look for good drawing hands and that type of stuff. Your goal should be to come out of the rebuy period with a nice stack. Being willing to gamble in the rebuy period, but maybe not quite as much as the other gamblers, giving yourself better odds to double / triple up. A preflop all in call with AJ may be a good idea. TT would be even better. J2o, eh, maybe you can wait until next hand, eh? Take some chances when you think you likely have the best hand. Don't be afraid to get involved in a preflop coinflip or call an all in with a flush draw after a couple people have went in in front of you, or call an all in with top pair and a king kicker, etc.

If you can acquire a very nice stack during the rebuy period, which you usually should be able to do if you're taking enough chances and are willing to rebuy when they don't work out, then you can tighten up a lot and wait the rebuy period out. Sane play will resume, and you'll have a nice start on all the players that were playing tight during the rebuy period, and then use your stack to your advantage.

Thanks for the advice Michael. I know it seems like common sense to just bet on fairly decent hole cards - but when you see people going all in on 72o and winning or I throw away 76o and 345 comes on the flop I get a bit disheartend. Anyway, I think I am playing much too tight at the moment and will try to loosen up a little - if I win then good - if not then oh well - thats poker! I have come to the conclusion however that this format of hole'em should be called poker roulette!

How many people are seeing these all-ins ? Is it heads-up or multiway ?

If it's on average 4 people all-in change you're hand selection to fit it. I have a list at home of hand rankings by opponent. Post how many are roughly seeing the flop and I'll give you a list of the top 30 hands...

There are usually at least 3 to 4 players in the all in situations. Occasionally there's a head up situation but not often. Sometimes the whole table goes crazy and there are up to 7 players all in on one hand. I often get dragged into a heads up where I have TPTK but more often than not my opponent has better - just bad play on my part and I know I should lay the hand down but I feel I have to take a risk to get anywhere.

For info, there are usually around 80 - 100 players at the start of the tourny split between tables of 11 players.

Expect to rebuy, set yourself a limit and get out when you have reached that limit, $10 rebuy I will usually limit myself to $100 for the tourney and usually make it to the end of the rebuy with avg or better chip stack with this strat:

Try all in preflop with any pocket pair 9 or up. Move that up to JJ or better if your callers are landing the marginal calls with like KJo and the likes.

Avoid starting the all in with anything but your high pocket pairs, this will help you later in the game when rebuys are finished and you want to steal blinds.

Call preflop all ins with Aces with K-10s kickers.

Post flop you'll want to limp whenever possible with you regular tight played hands and push all in when the flop is rainbow with TPTK, two pair and call all ins with flush draws (K up) and openended strts if your feeling lucky and not drawing against a paired or flush board.

You have to take chances in rebuy tourneys, Luck plays more of a factor in rebuy tourneys but don't let that stray you from your regular tight play style and pay attention to who is calling all in with marginal hands and push them in when you get a chance and avoid pushing all ins with other rocks at the table.

last rebuy MTT I played I folded almost every hand until the last 5 minutes and got 3 dominate hands dealt to me. AA, AKs and QQ and went from 3k - 15k chips with those 3 hands against nutty all in'ers trying to take advantage of the last few minutes in the rebuy.

Thanks for all the advice. I've got another tourny a week on Sunday so I'll try and put some of it into practice. I've decided to limit myself to £50 worth of rebuys and chance my cards when the odds are in my favour - 'cause playing like a rock just doesn't work. I'll let you all know what happens.

{Moved from Hold'em Strategies}