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[J-Dub]

I'm in the unfortunate situation where I have a job that literally does not allow me to play in California Casinos we're affiliated with. That pretty much leaves me playing the Bicylce Casino in Bell Gardens. There's a tournament there every Friday at noon that I frequent as often as possible.It's a $20 buy-in for 200 in chips. Once you're down to $200 or less you can add-on 800 in chips for $20 more (no brainer, why they don't just start it at $40 for 1000 is beyond me). The first hour is unlimited rebuys $10 for 400, $20 for 800. At the end of the first hour everyone can add-on 500 more for $20, and that's the end of rebuys and add-ons.I've been making it a policy to never pay more than $60 for that day (the initial buy-in and the first and last add-ons). I make it to the money about 3 out of 5 times. To boot, it's a headhunter tournament, so every player you knock out (that hasn't already been knocked out once) you get $5 cash. I typically earn $10-20, thus reducing my overall cost if I do end up out of the money.My question (finally) is how would you play such structures. Would you go nuts like some people and try to double up as often as possible in the first hour so you go in to the second either down, or way up? Or do you play like me, safe, so you go into the second hour with about 50-100% more than you started? The blind structure is fairly typical, by the way, starts at 10-15, and goes up every 20 min or so. 150-180 players on average.

[holman3rd]

J-Dub said:

I'm in the unfortunate situation where I have a job that literally does not allow me to play in California Casinos we're affiliated with. That pretty much leaves me playing the Bicylce Casino in Bell Gardens. There's a tournament there every Friday at noon that I frequent as often as possible.It's a $20 buy-in for 200 in chips. Once you're down to $200 or less you can add-on 800 in chips for $20 more (no brainer, why they don't just start it at $40 for 1000 is beyond me). The first hour is unlimited rebuys $10 for 400, $20 for 800. At the end of the first hour everyone can add-on 500 more for $20, and that's the end of rebuys and add-ons.I've been making it a policy to never pay more than $60 for that day (the initial buy-in and the first and last add-ons). I make it to the money about 3 out of 5 times. To boot, it's a headhunter tournament, so every player you knock out (that hasn't already been knocked out once) you get $5 cash. I typically earn $10-20, thus reducing my overall cost if I do end up out of the money.My question (finally) is how would you play such structures. Would you go nuts like some people and try to double up as often as possible in the first hour so you go in to the second either down, or way up? Or do you play like me, safe, so you go into the second hour with about 50-100% more than you started? The blind structure is fairly typical, by the way, starts at 10-15, and goes up every 20 min or so. 150-180 players on average.

Wow, 3 out 5! That's really, really good, especially since these are rebuy tourneys with lousy structures. Congrats. As for how I play differently, I'm much more willing to push small edges early in the tourney. In other words, if I have AK earl in the tourney and get re-raised all-in, I'll probably call b/c I can rebuy. I don't necessarily open up my starting hand requirements too much, but I definately play my hands a lot more aggressively post flop. Still, I'm certainly looking for more opportunities to limp with marginal hands in position (e.g., low suited connectors). The implied odds are so much higher during the rebuy period b/c so many players are gambling it up.Not sure if that helps, or if my example was meaningful, but for whatever it was worth...