How to play knockouts. Rewards for busting Rewards for your own bust in poker

Tournaments for real men - Knockout Poker! Knock your opponent out of the game - get a prize for his “head”!

Tournaments with cash rewards for knocking out are also called: bounty and knock-out(knockout). They are very different from all other game formats and attract participants who cannot live a day without competition and the opportunity to tell friends about their victory over a celebrity or boast about the number of “games” they have knocked out.

The essence of knockout tournaments is not just to win the hand, but to “remove” as many opponents or a specific participant from the game as possible. That is, deprive the opponent of his stack. For example, if there is a checkmark next to the name of Negreanu or Vanessa Selbst, it means that the “hunt” is on them, and it is their chips that should go to you. The level of rewards (bounty) here is different - from a few dollars to several thousand, there are also knockout tournaments with growing non-fixed prizes.

Knockout Games at PokerStars

In the room PokerStars There are 3 types of knockout tournaments:

With a fixed prize - bounty. A certain additional monetary reward in this tournament awaits the player who contributes to the elimination of the participant with the tag. “Game” is marked on the website with a graphic symbol of a target. The size of the bounty can be found out by hovering the cursor over this target. Most often, you need to knock out a celebrity from the Stars team, for example, Cristiano Ronaldo or Neymar (these athletes are not currently members Team PokerStars Sports).
Eliminating any Team PokerStars Pro. All members of the team of PS professionals are marked with the Red Pike sign. The reward is for any of them who is currently participating in the game. Of course, knock it out Moneymaker or Negreanu much more difficult than a layman from Team PokerStars Sports.
Reward for eliminating any participant. A prize awaits each player who sends his opponent away from the table.

For each of the knock-out tournaments on PokerStars there is a special icon so that players do not confuse the structure when choosing an event. Black cross - knocking out everyone, black target - fixed reward for a specific player, red target - removal of a T member eam PokerStars Pro.

Multiple Knockout Games - Knockouts

Every time a participant in a knockout tournament walks an opponent home, he receives money. The most accurate hunter, who is left alone in the tournament, receives a big prize for himself.

The structure of the buy-in for such a tournament is complex - the first part goes to the prize fund, the second goes to the rake, and the third goes to the knockout fund. The fee for participation in such tournaments is higher, but there are also more opportunities to win additional prizes. If you eliminated several opponents and were eliminated yourself before reaching the prize zone, your pocket will still not be empty.

Games with increasing knockout prizes - progressive Knockouts
Progressive knock-out tournaments are a version of regular Knockouts without the “tasty” bounties for shooting celebrities. In these games, the more opponents you remove from the tables, the higher the reward for your “head” will be.

For example, in a tournament there is a minimum reward of $10 for knocking out a participant, and the increase for this action is 25%, then with each new “victim” the prize for the “hunter” increases by $2.50. Moreover, this $2.50 goes towards the reward for the winner. That is, the poker player remaining in the game receives $7.50, and the prize for himself is already $12.50.

In the text, these numbers only confuse beginners! If you do not understand the principle of forming rewards in tournaments with increasing prizes for knocking out, here is a more clear sign.

The prize fund of each tournament includes payments to the winners (from 1st to 3rd places) and a fund of payments for knockouts. Having made a knockout, in other words, having won all the chips from your opponent, you immediately receive a prize, the size of which depends on the size of the buy-in. In progressive knockout tournaments, the payout for knocking out a player depends on how many knockouts he has made. With each new knockout, the price for knocking out increases, the winner of the competition receives a reward for himself.

Buy-in for knockout tournaments

Sit and Gos of the Knockout Poker format are held with various buy-ins, including for play chips. Cash competitions have 8 buy-in levels:

$1 – number of participants: 36;
$3 – number of participants: 6 or 24;
$5 – number of participants: 6 or 24;
$10 – number of participants: 6 or 18;
$11 – number of participants: 90;
$25 – number of participants: 9;
$30 – number of participants: 180;
$50 – number of participants: 9.

In addition to S&G knockouts, regular multi-table knockout tournaments for various limits are available daily in the room. There are even more of them in the new MTT schedule on PokerStars, which came into effect on April 24th.

Daily and weekly tasks

Sit and Go Knockout participants can complete daily and weekly challenges to receive special prizes.

Daily quests

Make 4 or more knockouts in one day, and then you will become the owner of a ticket to the All-in Shootout tournament with a guaranteed fund of $10,000. These competitions do not require registration, they start on April 24 in a daily format and will last until May 14. Starts at 18:58.

Weekly quests

Get 12 or more knockouts in one week. Then your winnings will be one ticket to a multi-table tournament, which has an added prize pool of $50,000. Competition dates are April 30, May 7 and May 4 at 20:30.

Knockout Poker tournaments are available in the PokerStars game client “Quick Seat - Knockout Poker” tab, as well as in the “All Games - Knockout Poker” menu.

For a deposit of $15 or more, you will receive 5 tickets to Sit & Go tournaments with a $1 buy-in. To receive the bonus, you must enter the code “KOPOKER2016”.

Let's look at how we could adjust our strategy for bounty tournaments. Having bounty prizes encourages more action than you might see in a standard tournament. With bounty tournaments becoming more common in poker, it would be a good idea to learn how to play these types of tournaments effectively. If you take the right approach to them, you will have many opportunities to make a profit.

In general, a bounty tournament is no different from a regular tournament, except for one thing: when you eliminate your opponent, you not only take his chips, but also receive an additional reward. As a rule, this is a cash prize that does not depend on your final place.

This format is popular among new players because even if you get eliminated early, you can still leave the tournament empty-handed as long as you eliminate a few players. Even if you didn’t make it into the prize zone, but scored three or four bounties, the tournament can be profitable for you. Bounty hunting is therefore a worthwhile endeavor, and it's not hard to see why the action at the table becomes more intense when a tournament includes a bounty.

Check the tournament structure

It is worth noting that some tournaments provide rewards for eliminating only “special” players. Sometimes, tournaments place a bounty on a professional's head to encourage players to become more involved in the draws and to add a show element to the tournament. But basically the bounty prize is awarded for knocking out any player. In any case, read the rules so you can take big risks only to find out later that there is no prize for the eliminated player.
Read also: Before you start playing, figure out what part of the prize fund is allocated to bounty prizes. In some tournaments, such as K.O. Poker on , it is 50%, in others - only 20%.

But just like in a regular tournament, your main goal remains to finish in the top 3.

Let's Play!

In bounty tournaments, players are more likely to play speculative hands because they can receive between 20% and 50% of the buy-in if they can eliminate their opponent. This makes every player with a small stack a tempting target, but it also suggests uncharacteristic mistakes by players who are caught up in the pursuit of bounties. The game will be looser than in regular tournaments, which means more tight spots, more bad beats, and more opportunities to win money (literally) with strong hands. Be prepared to take action and you won't be disappointed.

More fish

In regular poker tournaments, it is difficult for amateurs to make it into the prize zone, but in bounty tournaments they have a good chance of at least getting their buy-in back, even if their tournament life does not last long. An experienced player with a good understanding of tournament strategy can take advantage of the mistakes that amateur poker players inevitably make. They may forget that if folding looks like the right decision, they should fold. The desire to receive “prizes without a prize zone” attracts more weak players than usual, but at the same time there is more gambling. This can add easy chips to your stack.

Attacking short stacks

Short stacks are not just short stacks, they are treated as ready-made bounties, and players will focus their attention on getting prizes for knocking them out. And you must be prepared for this. You'll see a lot more players in the hand and a lot more callers when short stacks decide to play a hand.

You will have more opportunities to squeeze with a strong hand because the range of hands of your opponents in the pot becomes wider. They will be distracted by the fact that the short stack is in play. Knowing this and playing a little tighter can help you win big in these multiplayer games.

Nothing more, Mr. Check

In a situation where someone has gone all-in and there are still two players left in the hand, it is common to make a checkdown in the hope that one of the players will eliminate the opponent who was all-in. Don't expect such courtesy - when a bounty is at stake, the prize is not shared. This is one of the nuances of a regular tournament that does not work in bounty tournaments.

You as a short stack

After a few of your plays go wrong and you become the short stack, you may feel like you are being watched. And you'll be right. You've become a target, so keep that in mind when you're thinking about moving all-in in an attempt to steal the blinds. Players will call with weak hands more often than usual, even if the poker software questions their decision. Obviously we can't play too tight and if the right thing to do is to go all in with a strong hand - do it, but be prepared for bad beats and disappointment.

However, if you get strong hands, you can expect a handsome reward. Your opponents will make easy calls, so you have three streets to increase value with a strong hand because your opponents think more of you as a bounty than something you can play.

Maintaining Your Stack

You have to provoke your opponents by staying aggressive and never feeling safe enough to sit for long without getting involved, waiting for a strong hand and letting your stack get depleted. Keep growing your stack as there is always plenty of opportunity to do so.

Participation in bounty tournaments means action, action, action. This format is not for the faint of heart. If you like action, you'll love this tournament structure.

If knockout tournaments haven't become part of your regular schedule yet, you're seriously missing out. Today, this format is both the most interesting and the most profitable of all tournaments on the Internet.

Knockouts are played like regular MTTs, but with one feature: part of the prize pool (usually from 20% to 50%) is paid for knockouts - the opponents you knock out. There is a price set for each “head”; knocked out a player - received money. It seems to be not nuclear physics, and yet knockout tournaments firmly hold the position of the most profitable on the Internet. Even highly profitable players often play them with huge mistakes! Obviously, correctly calculating your actions taking into account the influence of the bounty is not at all as simple as it seems at first glance.

There are several types of knockouts, but three of them are the most popular. In Super Knockouts, 50% of your buy-in goes towards the regular prize pool and the other 50% you pay to the player who knocks you out. So a $100 superknockout is essentially a $50 buy-in MTT where you get $50 for every opponent you knock out. Standard knockouts are played in the same way, but a knockout usually costs 20% of the entry fee, which significantly reduces their significance. For quite a long time, these two options dominated the market, until someone came up with the bright idea of varying the bounty amount. This is how progressive superknockouts (Bounty Builders on PokerStars) appeared. In a $100 buy-in tournament like this, the total prize pool is still worth $50, but every time you knock someone out, you only get half of their bounty - $25 - and the prize on your own head goes up by the same amount and becomes equal to $75. The player who eliminates you at this stage will receive $37.50 and add the same amount to his bounty, and so on. Now this is the most popular format and certainly the most exciting, since bounties at a later stage grow to very serious proportions.

It seems simple. It's pretty clear that in a standard knockout, bounties have little to no value, and it's rarely beneficial for us to chase them. In superknockouts you need to take more risks, because bounties make up half of the prize pool.

This is reasonable and not too far from the truth. And yet this is only a small part of the overall picture.

Basic mathematics

Most amateur players think of bounties as real money. When an opponent with a shorter stack moves all-in, they see the amount they could receive if they win. This is the wrong approach because tournament poker is different from cash games. We must carry out our calculations in tournament chips, and not in monetary units. To make the right decisions, we need to know how many chips each bounty is worth. Fortunately, this is not at all difficult to determine.

At the start of the superknockout, your stack is 3,000 chips, and you paid half the price for it. The other half is bounty; therefore the bounty is worth 3,000 chips.

In a regular knockout with a starting stack of 3,000 and a bounty equal to 20% of the buy-in, the value of the reward for the eliminated opponent will be equal to 750 tournament chips.

In Progressive Knockout, the calculations become more complicated. In a regular PSKO, the initial bounty costs just over 1,500 chips. Why a little more? Because the winner of the tournament also receives a bounty for himself. Of course, at the early stage of the kilofield this “slightly” can be neglected, but closer to the end this feature will definitely have to be taken into account.

Imperfections in Basic Mathematics

The above is a starting point for mathematical calculations in knockout tournaments, but nothing more. The main reason you probably understand is the ICM model: in tournaments, chips won are always worth a little less than chips lost. Without ICM, your stack will eventually be worth more than the first prize in the tournament, which is obviously absurd.

On the other hand, calling slightly looser than "mathematically" has its own hidden advantages, which are especially pronounced when you are playing with a short stack. Here's a good example:

They throw everything away before the button. Button (stack 8bb) goes all-in. Small blind (10bb) – fold. We're in the BB with an 8.1bb stack contemplating a hand slightly weaker than a borderline call on the push-fold charts...

If we throw away the cards, then after this hand our stack will become the shortest, and our “bounty equity” will drop to zero - the shortest stack is not capable of knocking anyone out of the tournament.

If we call and win, we not only get a bounty for the player on the button, but we also beat the player on our right who is playing in push-fold mode. Since we have position on him, our chance of isolating him and competing for a bounty is higher than others, and this also needs to be taken into account when making the initial choice between calling and folding.

The main faces of the participants in knockout tournaments

In fact, I could write a book about the recurring mistakes in tournaments with bounties, but in this article I will focus on the most common one - the inability to adapt to the stage of the tournament and calculate the cost of each bounty. The ability to mentally estimate the approximate value of each bounty in tournament chips gives an immediate advantage over not only the field as a whole, but also over many winning regulars!

Let's look at an example where a loose call is completely justified.

Superknockout for $100, starting stack 3,000, blinds 150/300/30. Before the player in the small blind folds everything, he bets all-in for 3,000. We're in the big blind with a stack over 3,000.

Answer the question: what is the size of the bank?

The correct answer is 6,570 (ante, our big blind, the small blind's stack and his 3,000 bounty chips).

We have to pay 2,700 for a 9,270 pot, meaning we only need 29.1% equity to call correctly. Without the bounty, the required equity would be 43%.

Now let's look at another example where a loose call would be a real disaster.

Superknockout with $100 buy-in, final table bubble, 10 players remaining. Blinds 15,000/30,000/3,000. Everyone folds to the small blind and he shoves all-in for 300,000 (10bb). We are in the BB and our stack is bigger.

In this example, the bounty value is still 3,000, but now it is only one ante - practically nothing. For a correct call we need 43.7%, and without a bounty – 43.9%. It is unlikely that 0.2% can seriously affect the calling range.

And yet, time after time, I see people make loose calls at this stage, trying to get a bounty for their opponent, simply because they see the real money price tag. They are so blinded by the $50 reward that they are willing to make a mistake that could be twenty times more expensive.

Another common face of knockout tournament participants is that they get confused about the size of the bounty in progressive superknockouts. This is written in the rules, and I have already talked about it, but it obviously wouldn’t hurt to repeat it again: you only get half the amount that is indicated under your opponent’s avatar! The other half is added to your own bounty, which you also claim as long as you have chips.

Loose calls

I am repeating myself again, but repetition is the mother of learning. At least 95% of the field in any multi-table bounty tournament is calling shoves too loose in an effort to get rewarded. You should always be prepared to be covered wider than necessary and adjust your pushing ranges accordingly.

Playing too tight at the start

As often as people make wide calls, they also often play too tight in the early levels. It's really interesting why most MTT players guard their stacks so jealously early on, only to trash them with a monster call a few hours later.

Risk aversion early in a tournament is a big deal because the impact of bounties is much greater in the early stages - 3,000 chips are more valuable at 50/100 blinds than 5,000/10,000. Losing even a small portion of your stack early in a tournament can be a very costly mistake if it leaves you unable to knock out your opponents. With a short stack, you are only fighting for half of the prize money.

Let's say you have a flush draw at one of the early levels, but your opponent pushes all-in, giving you no direct chance to call. However, if your stack is larger and you qualify for a bounty, calling will almost always be profitable. And even if the decision is borderline, you should always take into account how many chips you will have after folding. I'm usually willing to take the risk that if I pass, I'll be the shortest at the table, but if I get there I'll be able to cover most of my opponents. The difference in future bounty equity usually justifies a decision that would not be entirely accurate if the tournament ended immediately after this hand.

I emphasize that you should not take this to the extreme and resort to crazy bluffs to immediately grab the lead. Yes, with a short stack we are only fighting for half of the prize pool, but when we are eliminated from the tournament, we lose both.

Overestimation of dynamics, excessive leveling

This is more common in high buy-in tournaments. I recently came across a post by a very strong player in which he discussed what he found to be a very difficult decision in the $1,000 buy-in Progressive Super Knockout.

Late stage PSKO for $1,000, bounty for Hero – $5,500. After a series of folds, Hero (27bb) raises to 2.1bb with AdJd on the cutoff. The button folds. Small blind (100bb, very strong regular) 3-bet to 6.1bb. The big blind (45bb) folds. How to play Hero?

I've been staring at this question for quite some time, trying to figure out what I'm missing. Why has this topic become the subject of heated discussion that has not stopped for several weeks?

I flipped through a few pages. A surprising number of players recommended folding. The second most popular proposal was to call with further play postflop. Only a few offered push.

Why? Because they thought the small blind's range was incredibly strong because we had a big reward and he would have to call our shove with his entire range.

A great example of how crazy knockout tournaments can be. It's easy to get confused when playing two different games at the same time. This can happen to anyone, no matter how good they are technically.

In the example above, I wouldn't hesitate to go all-in, and here's why:

1. Villain could have 3-bet a worse hand for value and should now call with Kx Qx or Ax Tx.

2. We may well see a fold. If I were the small blind, I would definitely add full bluffs to my 3-betting range, counting on tight folds from the cutoff.

3. Finally, we have a hand in the top 5% range in the cutoff with a 27bb stack, damn it!

While knockouts add a new dimension to regular tournament play, it's worth remembering that we're still playing poker and there's no need to overcomplicate things. First of all, we must play good tournament poker. Sometimes you have to deviate from the standard, but there is no need to obsessively strive for this in any situation. We will play most hands the same way, with or without a bounty, and we shouldn’t get carried away with absurd adjustments, driving ourselves into the trap of endless leveling.

Progressive Superknockout – Final Table

In any progressive knockout format, the last player - aka the winner of the tournament - receives a bounty for himself. Having eliminated the last opponent, you will receive the full amount for both him and yourself.

Consequently, the payout structure of progressive knockouts and especially superknockouts is always heavily skewed towards first place, and it is important, with all due respect to ICM, to strive to play to win.

Let's look at the following final table:

There are three in the game - rikinhf(1.8 million), apop33(748k) and Noooooooooow(838k). Prizes:

1st place: $481

2nd place: $353

3rd place: $258

What should each player's strategy be?

rikinhd: We have the biggest stack and we see that the bounty for apop33 is quite large. It's good to knock him out before the other player does, but it's important to keep a stack that allows you to knock out any of your opponents.

I'd play pretty normal final table poker - apply pressure, but don't do anything too risky. If we double up any of our opponents, we will lose the opportunity to immediately win the bounty. Not being able to scalp apop33 is an extremely bad outcome. The reward for Noooooooooow is practically meaningless, so doing something stupid in pursuit of it is even less worth it.

So, the format of the tournament in this case will have virtually no effect on my game, but most players in rikinhd’s position would go out of their way to torpedo apop33, not stopping at completely unfavorable placements. Yes, the reward is great, but we are in absolutely no hurry. You can easily grind, taking many small pots.

apop33: a very interesting situation, because due to the bounty our all-in has practically no fold equity. The bounty for the player with the second stack is negligible, so in terms of knockouts, doubling up gives us almost nothing. So I'd try to avoid big bluffs and focus on getting up the ladder: a $95 difference is 19 buy-ins!

But this does not mean that we should play nitty. Finishing second in a progressive superknockout is always a disaster. If rikinhd eliminates the second player, we will receive our page jump, but his stack advantage will increase to 3.5 to 1, and in heads-up we will play for $417.26 (half of the Noooooooooow bounty, the full amount of the other two bounties and the difference between first and second place ). The first place prize is not much more - $481. Therefore, we should not avoid risky decisions, the main thing is not to forget that we have little fold equity...

Noooooooooow: If I were him, I would play as aggressively as possible, especially against apop33. We really need this bounty - the next prize is only $95 higher than the previous one, and for apop33 we will immediately be given $89.73, plus we will go heads-up for $347.16 with approximately equal stacks.

The ICM model still matters, and the $95 page jump should not be underestimated either, but I would still start playing aggressively for the win, not being afraid to take risks, because a knockout will give us not only a bounty and at least second place, but also about 50% equity from the remaining $347.16. Increasing the likelihood of this event is more important than simply climbing the tournament ladder.

Playing too tight and landing neatly in second place is, in my opinion, a worse mistake than a slightly questionable push that will often send us out third.

P.S: I decided not to cover some of the less popular knockout formats so as not to inflate the length of the article. You can ask your questions in the comments on Upswingpoker or on Twitter - @chuckbasspoker.