Playing Knock Out MTT vs normal MTT

Hi everyone,

I normally play MTTs and some 90man-SNGs, but I would like to try out the Knock Out MTT's. Does anyone have experience with these? how much is the strategy different from normal MTT's? Is there really a big difference? and what about the progressive knock outs?

I don't have much experience in these, but few things I know:

- in normal KO's bounties don't add much to your winnings.
Ofc it's nice to get some, (after a few you're kinda freerolling) but the chips you gain are more important.
One thing to keep in mind though, there are loads of players really chasing bounties, so expect to being called pretty wide by some players.

- in progressive KO's it's kinda different story because the bounties add up.
All I can say is you have to balance your play regarding getting chips and trying to knock people out.
The bounty you have on your head and the bounties of other players and the chipstacks, all together are important in your decision making.

For example, you knocked out several players, so you have a nice bounty on your head.
However, after a cooler you get shortstacked.
Now you're the perfect target to a lot of players because they want to score that nice bounty.
You can expect to be called really wide.

Otoh, if you just made a big stack, without knocking out someone, you're bounty is still low, while you're dangerous to other players, so a lot of players will get out of your way unless they have the goods.

Hope this helps a bit.

My first big tournement I have ever played was a knockout tournement at full tilt poker. Because I won a ticket to a 100k knockout tournement for about 13$. Normally I am used to take the money for the ticket, but this tournement have sounded very interesting to me.
I think you have to be very careful that you don't call cards with crap just because you have more Money and are interested in the bounty. I for my part have lost without to take only one bounty. All in all I think that they are even more interesting than normally tournements and in my opinion many players don't really concentrate on winning the tournement rather they want the bounty and are more careless than normal and that's your chance to win.

usually in these tournaments, you need to beat 6-7 players to return money for the entrance. if I doubled in the beginning of the tournament I am looking for coinflips with shortstacks until i get 6-7 bounties. if i loose coinflip i'm starting to play care again to double up my stack. as soon as i get 6-7 KO's I forget about knockout and play like normal mtt. its allow you to ipmrove roi

Aside from knock outs and bounty difference, the places paid at normal MTT have more, compared to Knockout MTT. Meaning, you have to go deep at knockouts.

u would call short stacks with very bad hands in KO mtt)

Thx guys for the responses so far.

At least from what I saw Bounty tourneys are pretty populair.

I've played a few and done fairly well. I don't know if my observations are proper strategy or not but...

if you make it to the final table, you will naturally have accumulated quite a few bounties along the way. If you aggressively pursue bounties, you will be less likely to make it to the final table, and less likely to accumulate future bounties. So what does that mean in practice? Basically, play the same game that would normally get you to the final table, but with a few caveats.

Be less likely to bluff as people call wider and looser in these things.

Be slightly more willing to play speculative hands like small pocket pairs; so if you'd normally fold your 33 in mid position to an early position raiser, be a bit more willing to call (especially if you have the raiser covered) as the value of the implied odds, PLUS the value of the bounty make set mining more profitable.

In general I think these are good tournaments because players are making more errors than normal. more errors by the field means more equity for you.

missjacki said:

I've played a few and done fairly well. I don't know if my observations are proper strategy or not but...

if you make it to the final table, you will naturally have accumulated quite a few bounties along the way. If you aggressively pursue bounties, you will be less likely to make it to the final table, and less likely to accumulate future bounties. So what does that mean in practice? Basically, play the same game that would normally get you to the final table, but with a few caveats.

Be less likely to bluff as people call wider and looser in these things.

Be slightly more willing to play speculative hands like small pocket pairs; so if you'd normally fold your 33 in mid position to an early position raiser, be a bit more willing to call (especially if you have the raiser covered) as the value of the implied odds, PLUS the value of the bounty make set mining more profitable.

In general I think these are good tournaments because players are making more errors than normal. more errors by the field means more equity for you.

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+1 with everything she said. I wish Bovada had more knockout tourneys. I have never done a progressive tourney, but they sound nice. Would like to try one.

Until I get a little deeper in the tourney I like to look at the bounties as a bonus and play it like any other MTT.

If you are playing knockout Mtts you got to get in deeper in order to get into the money paying position.But many players also tend to make mistakes by calling an all-in by the shorts stack with a poor hand in order to chase the bounty.Maybe you can take some advantages from it.

I have a love hate relationship with bounty tournaments. It's nice that you can knock out a few players and essentially be free rolling. But the bounties make people a little bit crazy. Actually more than a little bit.

I remember the first one I played in. It was a $5 + $5 that I won entry into. Right off the bat, I couldn't believe what players were going all-in with in an attempt to knock someone out and get their bounty. I tried my best to play my normal tight aggressive game, waiting for quality hands then raising to get the limpers out, to try to see the flop with as few players as possible. No matter how hard I tried to play my normal game, I continuously found myself being put all-in. I would raise with something like A-Q. After flopping top two pair, I would bet 2/3 pot and then be raised all-in by some guy holding A-6 or some such silliness. The bad part is that every time it happened the other guy would have me covered. So I would end up getting doubled up, but the other player would be left with one or two big blinds. The next hand, when they went all-in, I would get dealt something like 8-2 off.

To make a long story short, I made it to the final table without managing to collect a single bounty. But as I always say, you can't win a tournament without knocking players out on the way, which I proved by knocking out five of the other players at the final table on my way to victory. The five bounties that I collected, plus my own added up to a nice little $30 bonus, on top of the first place prize money.

For the most part though, I avoid bounty tournaments, except for one that plays during my prime playing time. Because this one takes place in between a couple of other tournaments that I play, a lot of the other players participating in it are familiar with my tight/aggressive, non bluffing (as far as they know) playing style. I believe this limits the amount of craziness that I am subjected to. I'm happy if I can pick up enough bounties to cover my buy-in, but always prefer a deep run and a top three cash to bounties.

IntenseHeat said:

...the bounties make people a little bit crazy. Actually more than a little bit......I continuously found myself being put all-in.

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So I tried one and actually had the same experience as you described here.
It's a lot more bingo-like than normal MTT. Since I don't like those type of games, I am going to leave it as it as for now. Better to concentrate in improving my normall MTT game.

Thx a lot guys for all your replies!

I would rather play a knockout multi table tournament. More ways to win! Like some of the guys say, you Gotta be a little careful it make some players lose. LOL