I've only played in a few bounty tournaments. I'm not a big fan of them because of the way a lot of players react when they see a player on a short stack.
For instance, the first time I ever played a bounty tournament, it was only because I won an entry through a freeroll. Some players were constantly shipping it any time they thought they were ahead. Other players were shoving and calling off on draws. I played how I play, raising pre-flop with strong starting
hands, betting two thirds of the pot post flop, avoiding putting myself at risk by not putting myself all-in. I won a lot of decent sized pots and built up a nice chip stack.
The play was already insane, but every time a player went all-in it got even worse. There were always multiple callers, all hoping to collect the all-in player's bounty. The smaller their stack, the more players would call. It was actually very frustrating to cripple a player, leaving them on a short stack, and then when they went all-in, six of the eight other players at the table would call. Half of the time, it seemed like the other players were calling with complete garbage, just to try to pick up that player's bounty. So imagine you win a big pot, leaving a player with 5xBB. They wait a few hands for cards decent enough to go all-in with. And because so many players called in hopes of collecting a bounty, they end up winning a 35xBB pot and are right back in the game. Not to mention that if one of the callers connected, then they would re-ship. And then others might call off with drawing hands.
It was so ridiculous that I just tried my best not to get caught up in those situations. And the few times that I did manage to get my chips in good against an all-in player, they would end up drawing out on me. I did manage to stay high up on the leaderboard though. I made it to the final table without picking up a single bounty. However, once at the final table, I did manage to take out six of the nine remaining players and collected a total of seven bounties, including my own.
After seeing how crazy the play was in that first bounty tournament, I made it a point to avoid them, only playing them when I won an entry. Of course, back then most sites still had plenty of freezout tourneys on their schedules. In fact, they didn't even call them freezouts. They were just tournaments back then. So there were plenty of other options to choose from. There was no need to put myself through the stress and frustration of dealing with the maniacal play associated with bounty tournaments. But I do know first hand how hard it can be to pick up even a single bounty.
