Re-buys and Top ups.

**Donnie Payback** · 03-01-2011

Hi guys,

Would really like some help with this and some opinions.

Im pretty new to poker and have been playing with a group of friends, at first I was obviously learning from them and taking their word for everything but they are no experts so recently I have been reading up on stuff and looking at other sources for information which is natural I guess.

When I first started playing with my friends we all payed £10 to buy into the game and could buy back in for £10 within the hour, after that it no re buys were allowed.

This made sense to me.

We played at the weekend and I was clearly chip leader by a distance 5 minutes before the cut off. A few short stacked players went all in with the obvious intention of re buying before the cut off.

We paused the game whist people payed for their re buys but some of my friends were saying that they also wanted to pay to top up..

Im not really familiar with top ups to be honest! but it seemed weird to me that we all started with around 6000 chips, buy the time re buy limit approached I had around 1100 chips.

Now a few people were re-buying 6000 chips and topping up another 6000 chips which took them above me as chip leader! I also had the option to top up even though I didnt really feel the need to do so.

I know they have just paid another £20 into the pot for the privilege but surely it makes the last hour of my play kinda pointless?

I understand that re-buys make sense as you dont really want people sitting around not being able to play but the top up thing seemed a bit weird to me.

Is this a standard thing?

**JImmy Mac** · 03-01-2011

I guess what you guys call "top offs" we call "add ons". When you see tournies advertised they will sometimes look like this.. $100 NLH R&A meaning that you can rebuy anytime before the designated time as well as "add on", that is, buy a certain amount of chips even though you have not busted out. If you don't see the R&A listed than you can assume that it is a "freeze out" and no rebuy or add on is allowed. I personally dislike R&A's but some people like them. At the very least in a home game everybody should be made aware of the rules and terminology before they begin....good luck

**Donnie Payback** · 03-01-2011

Thanks for the advice.

So if someone payed £30/$30 to enter a tournament and received say 9000 chips... if they wanted to "add on" how much would they pay and for how many chips?

Seems crazy that an add on would be the same price on the entrance fee and you receive the same 9000 chips you got at the start.

Do they pay say £10/$10 for say 1000 chips more?

**Jarr3tt88** · 03-01-2011

Addon chips are usually more Example. Tournament buy in for $10, you get 1,500 chips. Addon you receive 2,000 chips for the same price. Rebuys are typically allowed for the starting amount of chips and less (so you can double rebuy if you wanted). Add ons are only once after the rebuy period ends (usually an hour or the first few blind intervals)

**KnightofNarg** · 03-01-2011

Did the blinds/antes go up too? It's usually standard to allow an add-on since the blinds are going up, making each chip worth less, so they need to add-on to be level with the blinds.

Does it make it pointless? No. Essentially everyone else has bought it for £20-30+, where you only bought in for £10. They also make less when they do place, since they also put in a larger share. If the lowest paid place is £25, you'd have made £15! But if someone who re-bought/added on got £25, they'd still be out for £5.

**Donnie Payback** · 03-01-2011

Cheers Knight,

That makes perfect sense.

We usually have 6/7 players paying £20 each to enter.

Should we be setting 2nd and 3rd place prizes?

Also would you suggest doing top up period after the re-buy cut off?

Like maybe 20 minutes afterwards once the blinds have gone up again?

**KnightofNarg** · 03-02-2011

With 6-7 players paying out first place is fine, you could add a second though. You want to be careful though, as you don't want to stretch the prizepool out too far. I attended a game where they based how many places paid based on the number of rebuys, and not how many people played. This created an issue where the lower paid places received barely any money, less than half their buy-in. Re-buying wasn't worth it more than once as sometimes people LOST money even if they placed first.

Yeah, I would suggest a top up period after the re-buy cutoff. This is going to eliminate a lot of the last minute shoves before the rebuy ends, they wouldn't have to double or bust to regain their chip stack.
The top-up should be a one time opportunity, you either top-up when the re-buy ends or you don't, end of story. Allowing a period where people could top-up at any time would create a lot of confusion and slowdown, as well as getting into the cashbox more than necessary.

**JImmy Mac** · 03-05-2011

It depends on the tournament structure..it is always a good idea to read the details of the tourney before you play..if its a home game you can structure it anyway you want as long as everybody knows and agrees with the rules.

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