Hello, since the knockout tournament format is currently one of the most popular in poker, I think it would be useful for every poker player to know how to calculate the additional value in the pot that arises if there is an opportunity to knock out an opponent from the tournament and at the same time receive a bounty for the eliminated player. First of all, let's discuss the main types of knockout tournaments, which are 4.
1. Progressive knockout – probably the most popular knockout tournament format, which differs from other simple knockout tournaments in that part of the money for the eliminated player goes directly into your pocket, and the other part remains on your “head” and thus the bounties for eliminated players increase during the game. For example, the initial bounty on a player's head is worth $3, and if you eliminate this player, you will get $1.5 directly into your account, and the other part will be added to the bounty on your head, so if the initial bounty was $3, after eliminating this player it will become $4.5. Usually, progressive knockout tournaments are of the super knockout type, meaning half of the buy-in goes to the bounty prize pool, but there are exceptions. By the way, if you win a progressive knockout tournament, you get all the money accumulated on your “head”.
2. Super knockout (non-progressive) – in this format, for eliminating a player, you get half of the buy-in, and it goes directly into your account. For example, if the tournament has an $11 buy-in, $5 goes to the regular prize pool, $5 to the bounty prize pool, which the player who eliminates the opponent receives, and $1 to the rake.
3. Knockout – these tournaments differ from the previously mentioned ones in that the part of the prize pool going to the bounty prize pool is less than half of the buy-in, probably the most common variant is about 20 percent. For example, in a $5.50 buy-in tournament, $4 goes to the regular prize pool, $1 to the bounty prize pool, and $0.50 to the rake, so if you eliminate a player, you immediately get $1.
4. Ultra knockout, mega knockout (usually progressive type) – this type of tournament is very rare, so it doesn't even have an exact name. These tournaments usually take place during the Winamax series and one daily on the PokerStars.fr platform. The essence of these tournaments is that the regular prize pool is very small or non-existent. For example, in a $10 buy-in tournament of this type on Winamax, $9 goes to the bounty, $1 to the rake, and there is no regular prize pool. On the PokerStars.fr platform, in the Hitman tournament with a $10 buy-in, $8 goes to the bounty prize pool, $1 to the regular prize pool, and another $1 to the rake.
As an example of where to find what part of the prize pool is regular and what part is bounty, I added a screenshot from the PokerStars room bounty tournament lobby. The red-marked areas show how much money goes where. In other poker rooms, you can also find this information in the tournament lobby section.
And the essential thing is what impact the bounty has on your game. So, if there is a situation where you have the opportunity to win all of the opponent's chips and get the money for their head, you need to add a certain amount of chips to the existing pot, and we will discuss what that amount should be and show you how to calculate it. Actually, it's very simple, we just need to know what part of the regular prize pool the amount received for the eliminated player constitutes. As an example, we will take the numbers from the screenshot of the tournament above, so it is an $11 progressive knockout tournament, which means that $1 goes to the rake, $5 to the regular prize pool, and $5 to the bounty. However, in a progressive tournament, after eliminating a player, we will only get $2.5, so the calculation should look like this:
2.50 (the amount received “in the pocket” after eliminating a player) : 5 (the part of the buy-in going to the regular prize pool) = 0.5, we get that after eliminating a player we will get half of the regular prize pool buy-in, then we take the obtained number and multiply it by the initial chip amount, in this case, 5000, so it turns out 5000 * 0.5 = 2500, so if we have a situation where by calling the opponent's all-in we will get their head, we add those 2500 chips to the pot and only then calculate how much equity we need in the pot.
A few more examples:
Tournament 4 to the regular prize pool. 1 bounty, which we get immediately in the pocket, initial chip amount 5000.
1 : 4 = 0.25, 5000 * 0.25 = 1250, so we get that we add 1250 chips to the pot if there is an opportunity to win the opponent's head by calling their all-in.
Progressive knockout tournament 5 dollars to the regular prize pool and 5 dollars to the bounty, but the opponent we are playing against has already eliminated four players with initial bounties, so their head is worth 15 dollars, and if we eliminate them, we will get 7.5 dollars in the pocket, initial chip amount 5000.
7.50 : 5 = 1.5, 5000 * 1.5 = 7500, so in this case, we would add 7500 chips to the pot.
By the way, when playing progressive knockout tournaments, if we win the tournament, we get all the money on our “head”, but at the beginning of the tournament, the chances of winning it are so small that we ignore it and do not include it in the calculations. Also, if you have a progressive knockout tournament final table, the ICM factor is lower than in regular tournaments because the money jump between first and second place is very large (because by winning HU we get our head and the opponent's directly in the pocket), so often a higher risk pays off in the long run. If you don't know what the ICM factor is, you can find a video about it in the video section on www.pokeriomokykla.com.
