The Add-On: The Easiest +EV Decision in Poker
An add-on is a one-time chip purchase offered to every player at the close of the rebuy period - regardless of your current stack size - usually at exceptional value relative to its cost.
A Chip Purchase Open to Everyone, Not Just the Short-Stacked
An add-on sits at the very end of a tournament’s rebuy period and works differently from a rebuy itself. While rebuys typically require your stack to have dropped below a certain threshold, the add-on is offered to the entire remaining field regardless of stack size – the chip leader and the player on fumes both get the same offer at the same price.
Because the add-on is universally available, almost every player who is still in the rebuy period takes it. Skipping it usually means voluntarily playing with fewer chips than the rest of the field for no real benefit.
Why Add-Ons Are Almost Always Worth Taking
Add-on pricing is typically set to favour the player heavily – the chips you receive are often worth meaningfully more in relative terms than what you pay for the rebuy itself. A tournament might offer an add-on of 10,000 chips for the same price as an initial rebuy that only granted 8,000, simply because the operator wants to incentivise universal participation at this specific moment in the structure.
The practical takeaway is straightforward: in almost every rebuy tournament, taking the add-on is close to a default correct decision, not something to weigh carefully hand by hand. The rare exception is a player whose bankroll genuinely cannot support the extra cost – but for anyone with sufficient bankroll already committed to the event, declining the add-on is usually leaving value on the table.