Knockout Tournaments are a type of PLO poker event in which each player in the game is assigned a cash prize. As a result, every time a player removes another participant, they are awarded a financial bounty that is set for each event! Along with the buy-in amount, this format features a bounty component. When a player is knocked out of a tournament, he pays a bounty amount (determined by the rules) to the person who knocked him out.
Progressive knockout tournaments, or PKOs as they’re known, have grown in popularity in recent years. The advantages of knockout tournament are that these events build on the premise of regular knockouts by including escalating bounties, making them a lot of fun to play.
However, such a structure necessitates certain strategic modifications, therefore in this post, you’ll discover everything there is to know about PKOs as well as some basic methods to assist you get an advantage over your competitors.
When you knock out a player in a typical bounty, you get their bounty as well. That amount is directly added to your cash balance online, however in live games, you’ll earn a special reward chip for each player eliminated.
Once you’ve busted or the tournament is ended, these chips can be swapped for cash.
All bounties are yours to keep, regardless of how many people you eliminate along the way, and the most any player can win by eliminating you is a single bounty.
Advantages of Knockout Tournament PLO Poker
- In a 9 or 10 player sit ‘n’ go event, the advantages of knockout tournament is that the payout structure will be roughly 50 percent for first place, 30 percent for second place, and 20 percent for third place. Even if you don’t finish in the top three places in a knockout (KO) poker tournament, you can earn. This is because when you knock out a player in this tournament, you immediately win a percentage of the prize pool. Normal and turbo knockouts are the two types of knockouts.
- Even if you don’t have a long run, collecting bounties can help you make a decent profit.
- The late phases of the competition are given less attention. This keeps the event entertaining from beginning to end.
- Even though this is not a standard tournament format, knockout games are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- The format tends to attract recreational players, which increases the chances of a large prize.
Why Are Knockout Tournaments So Popular?
- Everyone wins: Unlike other tournament types, knockout poker tournaments allow every player to leave the table with some money in their pocket, regardless of where they finish the game. When you eliminate any opponent from the game, you gain the added benefit of winning money. This is an excellent way to increase your bankroll regardless of whether you win or lose the game.
- Larger Prizes: When playing a Progressive Knockout event, one of the knockout tournament forms, when the game reaches the final table, the bounties awarded can be substantial, sometimes exceeding the real prize pools. This is why progressive knockout tournaments are so popular and effective at gauging user attentiveness.
Which Strategies to Use for PKO
Knockout PKO tournaments are a popular type of knockout tournament in which players are rewarded for removing opponents.
Here are some ideas for increasing your victory rate:
Don’t Bluff the Player Who Has you Covered
- Remember the golden rule and advantages of knockout tournament: most players are attempting to pick up bounties far too hard.
- These advantages of knockout tournament games are, by definition, substantially looser than traditional PLO poker games. Players frequently make weak calls and shoves in the aim of stealing someone else’s bounty.
- In a shark tank, a little stack is like a bleeding fish. People crowd around a small stack like hungry animals in a knockout bounty. To acquire your reward, they’ll flatten your raises and call your shoves wide.
- If you’re a small stack, this means:
- People will not respect your thievery.
- People will disregard your c-bets.
- People aren’t going to respect your shoves.
Instead, you could:
- Steal from other little stacks that aren’t covering you.
- For maximum value against bounty hunters, tighten up, play powerful hands, and shove with top pair or better.
- Don’t allow yourself to get a tiny stack early in the tournament by making poor decisions.
Play for the Final Table Because all other Wins are Bonus Money
- Everyone else is putting in far too much effort to obtain a bounty. They frequently give up their chance at a long run in exchange for a little reward. As a result, you’ll see a lot of folks popping early. You may often reach the money without winning many huge pots if you play a good, disciplined game.
- The following are some of the benefits of making it to the bubble with a healthy stack:
- With your bets and steals, you have good fold equity, so you may steal relentlessly by threatening to collapse the lesser stacks, putting yourself in a better money position. With a larger stack, you can cover more players and, as a result, collect more rewards.
When you reach the final table, keep in mind that first place is far more valuable than any prize. Earlier in the poker tournament, a reward is worth a lot more in terms of your predicted tournament win. Later in the tournament, the difference between seventh and sixth place might be worth ten bounties. As a result, it’s not worth squandering chip leads on riskier bounties.
Use Smart Aggression
The big stack’s job in any tournament is to leverage fold equity and the threat of elimination to sneak into the bubble with a massive stack. Knockout tournaments are no exception. The objective remains the same: steal your way to a large stack and stack other players when your range is good.
You should be bullying people with smaller stacks than you by constantly pressing the button. To grind up your stack, use late position steals and re-steals.
Similarly, wait for good value hands before placing a value bet. People don’t fold enough, as we stated, and big stacks are more likely to chase bounties against you.