To Rebuy or Not to Rebuy?
Written by Tom L | Friday, December 19th, 2008
To rebuy or not to rebuy? That is the question that is plaguing WSOP officials at the moment. Both sides have their arguments, but if they decide in the negative then WSOP 2009 will not have any rebuy events.
To rebuy or not to rebuy? That is the question that is plaguing WSOP officials at the moment. If they decide in the negative then WSOP 2009 will not have any rebuy events.
There are compelling arguments both in favor of and against rebuys as WSOP Communications Director Seth Palansky informed a poker news portal. On the plus side, rebuys are fun and increase the excitement level. In normal tournaments players recover their buy-in by merely cashing. But in rebuys they increase their investment levels dramatically and have to finish pretty high up in the list in order to break even. The more a player rebuys, the higher he has to finish, the more aggressive is the betting and the greater is the resulting adrenalin flow. In prize pool tournaments rebuys pump up the pot. On the minus side, rebuys often degenerate into I have a bigger pocket than you kind of scene rather than I can play better than you. WSOP does not want to hand a bracelet to the richest player therefore Palansky says. “…we are questioning their [rebuys] place in the World Series of Poker.” He added, “The bracelet and its prestige are of paramount importance to us and we want to ensure that anyone who does win a bracelet does so because they played the best poker throughout an event.”
Rebuys were not always a part of WSOP. In fact, the first rebuy event was held as late as 2004 with a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event. There were five rebuy events in 2005, four in 2006, six in 2007 and five in 2008. A look at some of the rebuy events of WSOP 2008 demonstrates the high risk-return function of rebuy events. In the $5,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball with Rebuys (Event #18) Todd Brunson invested $140,000 in rebuys. He needed to finish in 4th place to break even. In trying to do so he did not even cash. On the other hand in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys (Event #28) Daniel Negreanu invested $85,000 and finished 7th winning $129,000. But the best performance in a rebuy tournament was from Layne Flack in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys (Event #34). With an investment of $33,000 in rebuys he finished first and collected $577,000 and his sixth bracelet. The rebuys inflated the prize pool by 53% in this event.
Daniel Negreanu is passionate about rebuys. In WSOP 2006, in the second $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em With Re-Buys (Event #34) he purchased 48 rebuys. He would go all in without looking at his cards and then on losing pull out a thousand dollars for the rebuy. He raised his investment to $49K and figured nowhere in the money list. WSOP officials will consult the Players Advisory Council before deciding and Negreanu is a member on that council. This is what he had to say. “I am 100 percent against rebuy tournaments at the WSOP. They are fine for other venues, but not for a bracelet. Frankly, it gives players like me an unfair advantage in terms of winning the Player of the Year award.”
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· Written by Tom L · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
