Rebuy/Add-On Tournaments

Most poker tournaments are Freezeout tournaments where players are immediately eliminated when losing all their chips, but there are poker tournaments where this is not the case.
In Rebuy tournaments and Rebuy/Add-On tournaments players are allowed to buy more chips, if they lose their starting stack.

In a Rebuy tournament the period where rebuys are allowed is usually the first hour of play. During this period players can buy a new stack of chips the same size as the starting stack, if they should happen to get busted.
After this period players can no longer rebuy, and the remaining part of the tournament is played as a Freezeout where players are eliminated if they lose all of their chips.

To rebuy in a Rebuy tournament a player must pay a fee equivalent to the original buy-in of the tournament, and for this fee the player instantly receive a new stack of chips.

The number of rebuys allowed is normally infinite, but you should always check out the tournament information, as there are on occasion restrictions to the number of rebuys allowed.
In the tournament information you will also learn if the tournament allow you to rebuy even if you haven't lost every single chip in your stack. Some poker rooms won't allow you to rebuy until you are flat broke, but some will let you rebuy as soon as your stack gets smaller than the size of the starting stack.

The option to buy more chips during the tournament loosens up the game a lot. Players will take more and bigger chances with mediocre hands, since they can always buy more chips if they lose. Weird all-ins and huge bluffs are frequent during the first hour, and some players take it to the extreme going all in on basically every hand.
If they double up – great! And if they don't, they'll just rebuy and try again.

An add-on is an extra chance to buy chips after the rebuy period is over. It's an option to top up your stack given to all players in the tournament and not just those short on chips.
Usually players are allowed to buy one and only one add-on during the first break, and just like the rebuys an add-on costs the same as the original buy-in. Normally buying an add-on will give a player additional chips equivalent of the starting stack, but in some tournaments the add-on will buy a player more chips than that.

A lot of risky all-ins lead to lots of players losing their chips early on. This again leads to lots of rebuys adding extra buy-ins to the prize pool.
In Rebuy tournaments the prize poll will as a result go up significantly during the rebuy period, and that adds to the value of the tournament. For this reason playing Rebuy tournaments can be very rewarding if you manage to take advantage of the ultra-loose play and pick up a healthy stack early on.


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