In this paper we propose an adaptive bitrate (ABR) algorithm that selects the video rates by observing and controlling the playback buffer. In a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) adaptive streaming session, buffer dynamics largely depend on the chunk sizes. First, we present the algorithm that selects the next video rates based on the current buffer level, while considering the upcoming chunk sizes. We aim to exploit the variation of chunk sizes of a variable bitrate (VBR) encoded video to optimize the tradeoff between the video rate and buffer underflow events while keeping a low frequency of video rate changes. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, we consider three scenarios: (i) the video flow does not compete with any cross traffic, (ii) the video flow shares the bottleneck link with competing TCP traffic, and (iii) two HTTP clients share the bottleneck. We show that the proposed algorithm selects a high playback video rate and avoids unnecessary rebuffering while keeping a low frequency of video rate changes. Furthermore, we show that the proposed algorithm changes the video quality gradually to guarantee the user's viewing experience.