By the halfway point of a rebuy period you should have a fair idea of the table conditions (unless you’ve just moved table) and also how your stack is doing. You shouldn’t be so much concerned with the average stack or how your stack compares to others at the table, more so how you’re doing against the blinds and antes. What you should be aware of is how big the blinds will be during the first level of the freezeout period (check the tournament lobby) and also what stack you’ll have should you bust on the last level of the rebuy period and have to double rebuy and add on. Take the $5 buy-in $1,500 guaranteed rebuy at 5.20pm on PKR.
Should you bust on the last hand of the rebuy period in this tournament and then take the double rebuy and add-on, you’ll start the freezout period with 4,400 chips and the blinds at 150/300, leaving you fairly short-stacked. If you’ve got a decent stack of say 8,000+ then I’d recommend slowing down to protect your stack while picking on those who are in the same boat. The risk/reward ratio can get skewed at this point, because while getting a monster stack is great, the risk of losing your big stack status and becoming a short-to-medium stack is mostly not worth the risk.
Attacking the scared stacks
If you’re yet to get a stack together you should be doing everything in your power to do so, as there’s the safety net of a 4,400 stack should you fail. At this point there will be a lot of players sitting on a 15-20 big blind stack. These stacks have more to lose than they do to gain, and three-betting all-in against them can be a great way to pick up a lot of chips. Ideal stacks to attack are those in the mid to big-stack territory who don’t want to take the bus to short-stack town.
Many narrow-minded players argue that rebuys are more akin to bingo than poker, but the fact that rebuys play far deeper-stacked than freezeout tournaments for far longer means they are, in my opinion, a greater test of poker ability.