When you play in a re-buy tournment it is much harder to bluff and push people off of their hands. Unless you are willing to do a lot of re-buying yourself, play tighter as people will tend to chase hands since they know they can always buy more chips. This is especially true at a charity event where people have a few drinks and chalk it up to the money going to a good cause. I found that out in a recent charity event with a very high buy-in. If people seem to be very loose with their money stick to playing quality hands.

Enjoy your wins! Everybody talks about their bad beats. Just as in life people tend to focus on the negative. Learn for past play mistakes but take the time to remember and bask in your wins.

In a 10 handed game there is a 75% chance that someone else holds an Ace. If you have a low kicker, be very careful especially if there has been a raise or you are in early position.

When the action begins pre-flop you should be looking at the other players at the table to see if you can pick up a tell or body language that will give you a clue as to what your competition is holding. Don’t look at your cards till the action is on you. If you do sometimes when you have a good hand you will give away your strength my looking at your chips stack or making a premature motion in anticipation of betting or raising. Don’t worry about taking the time you need. People will wait for you. Pay attention to others as they are paying attention to what you are doing.

Someone asked me last week what the average winning Hold’em hand was and I had to look to Phil Gordon’s Green Book Audio Book to find the answer. The Average winning Hold’em Hand is 2 pair. Thanks Phil.

This one bares repeating. It is the start of cold and swine flu season and lets face it poker is a dirty game. Bring some Purell or other hand sanitizer with you and avoid touching your face . Also best to stay away from finger food. Ask for a fork even if you look a little strange cutting your pizza at least until someone invents antimicrobial chips.

Before going All-In it helps to know some key Statistics like we saw in Poker Pro Magazine:

Pocket Pair Versus Two overcards -55% Chance of winning
Pocket Pair Versus One overcard -69% chance of winning
Pocket Pair Versus Higher Suited Connectors -50% Chance of winning
Pocket Pair Versus Lower Suited Connectors -77% Chance of winning
Pocket Pair Versus Lower Pocket Pair- 82% chance of winning

If you are playing in a re-buy tournment home game set the rules upfront and make sure that they make sense. A good rule of thumb is to allow re-buy when someone is at felt or has less than 20% of the original starting chip stack. Also no more re-buys once you are down to final payout positions. You do not want people buying their way in to the money.

If you are on a losing streak sometimes you just have to walk away from the table. Many people go on a mission to win back what they lost but sometimes it’s just not your night. Take a break, change tables or call it a night. If you try too hard to win it back you usually wind up losing more especially if you are on tilt. Poker is a game of continuity so you will have a chance to get it back later on.

Many of you have writen about the appropriate re-buy schedule. A few options :

Option 1 - only players who have less than a certain amount in chips can rebuy. They can get a full stack at full price or a half stack at half the amount of whatever level you begin with. Usually the requirement for this option is to have less than 20% of the original chip buy left. So if the original buy is 2000 in chips rebuy would be allowed if the stack is under 400. You can pick the number. Some games require players to have zero chips left.

Option 2- Anyone can rebuy/add-on for a full amount regardless of stack size. You may want to limit this rebuy/add-on to 1 per person. Some games only allow rebuy the first hour or before the final 4 players are left seated.