I played in this Party 5+1 beta rebuy tourney tonight. One thing I have to say for Party is that, for all the complaints I have heard from others and made myself, they really did pay attention to much of what players on the cruise had to say. Rebuy tournies was one thing that people mentioned in the open air sessions hosted by Mike Sexton and many of the Party people.

I guess the one thing that irritated me about their rebuy tourney was that every five dollar rebuy, you have to pay a dollar vig. This was new to me after playing rebuys on Stars and in B&M casinos. Seems pretty hefty to me.

Playing during the rebuy period, the following hand came up.

Seat 1: DirtyByrd0 (1175)
Seat 2: elrod03 (1030)
Seat 3: Macula99 (1655)
Seat 4: deepchip (705)
Seat 5: kraka69 (1860)
Seat 6: radosweden (3220)
Seat 7: Sinistral (3170)
Seat 8: Hero (3330)
Seat 9: ROYAL8FLUSH (1065)
Seat 10: ineedtofold (840)
kraka69 posts small blind (10)
radosweden posts big blind (20)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Jh, Th ]
Sinistral calls (20)
Hero calls (20)
ROYAL8FLUSH calls (20)
ineedtofold folds.
DirtyByrd0 folds.
elrod03 folds.
Macula99 calls (20)
deepchip folds.
kraka69 calls (10)
radosweden checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ts, Tc, 2c ]
kraka69 checks.
radosweden bets (20)
Sinistral calls (20)
Hero raises (80) to 80
ROYAL8FLUSH folds.
Macula99 folds.
kraka69 folds.
radosweden raises (120) to 140
Sinistral calls (120)
Hero calls (60)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 9c ]
radosweden bets (175)
Sinistral raises (3010) to 3010
Sinistral is all-In.
Hero folds.

First, what do people think of my call on the flop? Should I push here to charge flush draws the max? And does anyone call this all-in? Sinistral claimed to have the flush after he folded (he mucked of course) and radosweden claimed he had the case ten. I feel like there are situations in the rebuy period where you can make looser calls, but with the bet and the all-in before me I feel like calling for nearly my entire stack can’t be correct, rebuy or not.

Here’s another thing I’m wondering about rebuys. By the last five minutes of the rebuy period, I had built up my stack to around 6000 chips, far above the average. I was dealt AK in the small blind and raised it up. I got called by the big blind who was making many loose calls. The flop came with two spades, all low cards. I bet out and he called. The turn was my ace, a diamond. I bet big and got called again. The river was a third spade. I checked and my opp put in the rest of his chips. He had me covered by about 500 chips. I ended up calling because he had been aggressive with marginal hands on several hands. He showed KsJs for the flush, and I was down to 500 chips with five minutes left in the rebuy period.

Is this a call I should be making earlier in the rebuy period, but not when I only have five more minutes to go? I had a healthy stack before this hand and would have had an edge after the rebuy period. The all-in shove on a flush board – how often can I give this guy credit for the flush? The more I think about it, the more I think I should have folded my TPTK. Any comments?

Overall I hope Party keeps doing rebuy tournies. Party players seem unfamiliar with the format – in particular, no one seemed to realize you could rebuy right at the beginning. I was the only person at my table who did so, and in the tourney stats I observed that only 90 people out of 735 rebought in the first five minutes. I’m sure they’ll catch on quickly, but for now it’s a nice edge.