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Rebuy tournaments are well known for crazy, very aggressive and sometimes extremely loose players. Many tournaments require you to be restrictive as to what you will be willing to put your chips on the line for , where as a rebuy is sometimes the exact opposite. This is due to the option of reloading your chips and always getting that second chance to make a run for it. Players looking to win a rebuy have no hesitation to put all of their chips up for grabs in turn of doubling up.

The aggressive plays can make a conservative strategic player at odds with himself. I know many times I would bust out and not quite understand the concept of why people play the way the did, or how they could even make the calls they did. My mind set was that of a regular tournament which ultimately is bound for failure. Rebuy players will and should have a bankroll to sustain quite few buyins. I have seen some players who have lost and bought back in well over a dozen times and continue to keep buying in till the rebuy period is over. They are looking to double up and fast. Doubling up and having chip leader over your opposition means you have more control over the game and the players. This is not to say that you should be calling allins with any two cards against any player. You still need to keep your basic theories in the back of your mind as they do play relevance to this game the same as others. The only difference is the aggressiveness.

In a rebuy tournament play your strong hands hard and only strong hands. Your up against players who only want to double up. How they do this is not important. Maintaining a strong starting hands at least will put you in position to play with odds and the numbers involved leaving you with more wins than losses. You need to be prepared to bust out and buy back in if need be (why bankroll management falls into place) If there is an all in and you have a premium starting hand don’t hesitate for one second on calling. Rebuys are still filled with the same maniacs as all other games and if the odds are with you than place some trust in those numbers. In a ten handed game the odds of you holding an A and another player at your table being dealt one is a 75% chance. Players are willing to risk it all in a rebuy with any A or better yet low pocket pair and are under the assumption that it will not be beat. If your hand holds an A with a strong kicker than call. Odds are in your favor and yes you may lose and need to buy back in, but rebuys are considered making ballsy moves earlier on to help you progress further when the first hour is up. If you can double or even better triple your stack early on you will than have the leg room to select your hands and your opponents.

After the first hour is up you will be given an opportunity to buy back in. If you are in the top 10%in chip stacks than the option to do so may not be relevant for you. However if you are sitting average or slightly below average it would be to your advantage to do so. Once the rebuy period has ended you will want to go back to basics, don’t let this fool you into believing that the fundamentals of poker have returned for everyone remaining. Those who have played like maniacs and pushing with any tow cards will indeed continue to play the same way. This is where you tighten up your play and let them bust each other out. As the game progresses it will result in a basic tournament with same strategic plays at hand. The maniacs and overly aggressive players will have been knocked out and the solid players will prevail.

In conclusion players who are conservative and play with the basic principals of poker need to adapt to this entirely different style of game. You may think that the majority of these players are idiots and nothing more than a person as skilled as a freeroller but this can in fact be the opposite considering maniac, loose aggressive play is in fact a recipe for success in a rebuy tournament.

The Gap Concept is a familiar term made popular by top selling poker book author David Sklansky. Simply put the gap concept means a player needs to have a better hand when calling an opening bet than opening the bet themselves. The gap is the difference between the opening bet and the player calling. The gap widens or narrows dependant upon opposition and what you are up against.This is a fundamental for online poker tournaments as well as live play.

An example would be if you are sitting in late position with pocket 3′s and it is checked or folded to you. You would want to make the open bet. Why? Without an open bet in play already you can be fairly sure that your opponents hands are weak at best.

Now your only decision when doing this is what the blinds will do. If they are aggressive players they may call. This hand may not be a very strong starting hand but in late position with no raises ahead of you it can be promising, if someone before you opens obviously you would fold. Applying this theory needs to be done after you have evaluated your opposition.

The “gap” applies differently based on tight players as it does loose players. With tight players you will have a wider range of hands to call with and the opposite for loose opponents. If a player raises in early position you should assume that they will have a strong hand to do so. Most players know and understand position and you don’t normally want to go off and start making bets in early position without seeing how the rest of the table responds to their cards. This is why we can assume that they have a fairly decent hand to make opening bet. This can range from AK,AQ,AJ,AA,KK, QQ, JJ to call any of these hands it is imperative that your hand be of equal or greater value.

This can become very difficult with online poker especially with smaller buyin tournaments which is why we find this theory more common in buyins that are above the $50 mark. Small buyin tournaments only will bring you players who have yet to learn position or pot odds making this approach completely over their heads. They will assume that their pockets or AK is unbeatable and will risk all their chips in hopes of doubling up, with little to no conception that someone else at the table has them dominated. Understanding and respecting an opponents bet will allow you to think with more caution and react with knowledge.

Step into my classroom and take a seat. We won’t mess around, and we’ll get straight to the point. You want to play some Texas holdem, but you don’t know much more than the fact that it’s played with a standard 52-card deck. Truth be told, it doesn’t get much more complicated to play the game. Mastering it, on the other hand, will take some time. Now that you’re in the know, let’s get you into some action.

Texas holdem is played in three popular varieties: limit, pot-limit and the world’s most popular version, no-limit. Game play is the same in each variety, yet poker strategy and betting rules become the variables. The breakdown is as follows:

-In limit holdem, bets cannot exceed a predetermined maximum amount.
-In pot-limit, the maximum bet increases with the size of the pot. As the pot grows, so does betting potential, yet no single bet can exceed the amount of the pot.
-In no-limit, all bets are permissible. Just as the name suggests, there is no maximum limit to the betting amount.

The Deal

The dealer will begin the game by placing a dealer button in front of the player to their left. The action will always move to the left in any poker variety. The player to the left of the dealer button will post what is known as a small blind, and the next player in the action will post a big blind. These are basically antes, or bets placed before the hand begins, insuring that there will be some action.

After the blinds are posted, the dealer will deal two cards, facedown to each player. These cards are known as your pocket cards, or hole cards. They will be the basis of your first bet. At this point, a round of betting follows beginning with the player to the left of the posted blinds. You may equal the bet (call), raise the bet or fold (quit). After all bets on the table are equal – equaling at least the amount of the large blind – play will continue and the dealer will offer the first of three community draws.

The Flop

Three cards are placed face up in front of the dealer, and all players at the table share these cards. Again, a round of betting takes place, this time beginning with the individual who posted the small blind. This player may choose to check (pass) their bet to the next player in the action. If the action is checked, the next player in line has the option to check as well, and that option continues until a bet is placed. Once a bet has been placed, any player who has checked the action must at least equal the largest bet to stay in the game. Once all bets are equal, play continues.

The Turn

A fourth community card is added face up to the flop, followed by another round of betting in the same vein of the previous round. Once all bets are equal, play enters the final community draw.

The River

A fifth community card completes the deal. From these five community cards and your two hole cards, you are going to build the strongest five-card hand. A final round of betting takes place followed by a showdown for all the remaining players. The showdown is just as the name suggests. All players show their cards in the same order that they played, and a winner is declared.

There you have it, the basics of Texas holdem. After each hand has been completed, the dealer button will rotate one player to the left, and thus the blind posting responsibilities shift one player to the left as well. You’re now ready to get into some online poker action, class dismissed.

We’ll start with a quick definition of tilt for those of you lucky enough not to know what it is. Tilt is when a persons emotions take over and irrational play is the common side effect.

It’s usually all brought upon after a player takes a ‘bad beat’. Players see that it has taken them patience and strategy to get the stack they had in front of them, with most if not all of it taken away from them in seconds. The mind then looks to regain the amount lost as quickly as possible in anyway it can, players will start to call hands pre flop with hands they shouldn’t and usually wouldn’t call with pre flop getting them in to bad situations.

Another side effect you only really see at lower level play is the allin play, which is basically when the player who has just taken the bad beat presses ‘Allin’ every hand no matter what cards they have looking to double up.

The question is, can we avoid tilt and if so how?

Tilt can be avoided but it takes a strong disciplined player to do so. Most of the professional poker players do have their own ways of dealing with tilt whether it be stand up and leave the table for a few minutes, or just counting to 10 in their head. I personally need to leave the table and take a small break if anything like this happens, and it’s easy to do so online.

After you’ve taken your bad beat and your emotions have taken over (usually represented by compulsive vulgar language) this is when you need to become the disciplined player you need to be successful and hit the ‘sit out’ button. Take a little break, go make yourself a drink or just go for a little walk around the house, take as long as it takes for you to be back to your normal self where you know you’ll be playing your normal poker. This may sound stupid but the effects it can have on your game are second to none.

Whilst taking your break, try to remember the last time you caused a player to take a bad beat, this may make you feel better, but the thing to remember is, if your poker strategy is good enough you will prevail in the long run, and that’s what you need to keep telling yourself, because it’s true.

During any tournament or game of poker you never want to become to familiar with your surroundings where you loose control of where it’s going. Players need to be able to adjust to every situation that come there way either intentional or not. Full Tilt Poker has lots of players that do this. You have to become in tune to not only the game itself but your players along with the speed of the game. Players who are able to do this inadvertently will have a much easier task of controlling their own game along with the tables. Here are some tips for areas you need to keep watch of as well as how to turn it into your own advantage.

During a regular MTT, Sit N Go or even a heads up match focus has to be something that you maintain. Sure easily said but often players are watching much more than their cards and not paying attention to what they themselves are representing at the table. Easily you can become subdued by other distraction or even the game itself if it’s not fast paced and wind up in a very predictable rut. These can occur without even realizing that you have lost your aggression, your drive and instead have fallen weak to your opponent. To win any game you have to be able to be 100% in tune with it, your opponents will pick up your weakness and being predictable is as easy to see as any.

If a player decides to take the game into full action and raising and reprising hands you will need to bring your game play down a level and keep it in quality control. By this you should than only start calling with premium hands until he slows down as well. What you are doing here is forcing him to eventually play your game by winning pots and taking his chips. If the opposite holds true where you notice a player who is overly tight, than pick up your speed and steal some pots.

Vary your own speed throughout the game. Start off as tight and allow your opponents to see this until they follow suit. Than begin to loosen up and win some uncontested pots till they pay mind to this. Keep the swing of tight loose image throughout the game while staying one step ahead of them. A good time line for when its time to switch gears again is based on how long it took you to figure out your opponents. Based on that you should be switching it up. Make sure you don’t become predictable doing it

Always note when your blinds will be increasing. Players who can prepare themselves for an increase in blinds will have a better idea of how many BB they have left and can adjust the game to play with it