while i'm not the best person for advice on rebuys..
(in fact, i'm not the best person in any area of poker! but i'll just pretend to offer expert advice due to my moderator status. everyone thinks moderators are great at poker so)
I will give you some small tips i've picked up from rather more successful rebuy players i know of:
1. be prepared to spend atleast 4~5x the rebuy amount. honestly, no point entering rebuy tourney if you aren't going to spend 4x the buyin.
1.5: if you've spent spent 4~5x already and 3 quarters of the rebuy period ended, i'd suggest you give up, you won't have enough time in the rebuy period left to get enough decent hands to build up your stack...
although i'm sure many people will disagree with me on this point...
2.If the site allows, rebuy as soon as the tourney starts, so your starting stack doubles. this way you won't be behind from the others who are doing it.
(ie if you pick up a good hand, u want to get maximum value off it.)
(this "double rebuy" can be seen in
Pokerstars and a couple of other sites)
3. seeing as it is rebuys there will be a lot of loose all ins, if 3~4 people are all in, it's sometimes worth giving it a stab with low suited connectors such as 45s or 56s.
4. once your stack reaches about 4~5x the rebuy amount (assuming it's a site you can't "double rebuy"). if it's a double rebuy, try to build it up to about 7x if you can. then tighten up loads.
5. once you maintain a big stack while still in the rebuy period. only call all ins with AA,KK,QQ... not so sure about AK.
6. near the end of the rebuy period, if everyone has decent amounts (eg atleast 2~3x the starting amount, then it's a sign that people will start playing normal poker ... so play normal poker.
7. always add-on. despite your stack. the only reason you shouldn't add on is when at the end of the rebuy period, you have your original buy-in amount or less. basically saying to yourself that you've given up on the tournament.
otherwise, always add on!
"why when it only increases my stack by 20% or less?"
because every chip counts!
it gives you room to make a mistake, by the amount of chips that other's added on for.
think of it this way,
while it may increase someone elses stack by 50%, or even 100% and it's only increasing yours by 20%,
your M and his M is increasing by the same amount.
it's hard to explain. and i'm bad with words. so just take it this way:
always add-on!
after all, you are playing to win. it doesn't matter how much you spend seeing as you'll be getting your money back when you win.
thus, getting as much help from the chips will make it easier.