Thoughts Regarding the Maniac Rebuy Strategy

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The rebuy tourney is not a sprint, it is a marathon. It takes almost 4 hours to get to the bubble. At that point blinds are 2000/4000 and 200 antes. The maniac strategy will work only for someone who is a good player to begin with. A weak player who gets lucky in the first hour and accumulates 40K in chips is no more likely to make the money than a solid player who slowly increases his stack round by round. Near the bubble, a 40K stack can be lost in one or two hands.

I loosen up in the rebuy period somewhat, but I still want to win showdowns against a maniac, so I loosen up on the gap principle. But, I prefer to take advantage of the maniacs since on average I will go in with a better starting hand once I have identified who the maniacs are.

Being observant at the table, you can see the subtle ajustment the quality players make when throttling back on the maniac style. Plus, I look up the players (in real time) to see who is a "good player" maniac and a "donk" maniac.