Bounty Tournament Strategy

If you’ve browsed the Carbon Poker tournament section before, you have probably seen our bounty tournaments. These tourneys are always fun because you get a bonus just for eliminating other players. Unfortunately, the bounty wrinkle throws a lot of players off, and they play horribly as a result. If you think that your bounty tournament game needs a little work, check out our poker tips for bounty tourneys.

Tip #1: Use the Bounty Amount to determine your Strategy

All bounty tournaments are different since some pay out 25% of the prize pool for bounties while others pay out 100% of the pool for bounties. In the end, the amount placed on the bounties will heavily affect how you should play the tournament. For example, if the bounties only make up 25% of the prize pool, you’ll only be getting $5.50 per bounty in a $22 buy-in tournament; in this case, you should focus on finish while merely hoping for bounties on the side since it’s not worth risking your tourney life just to eliminate somebody. On the other hand, 75% bounties would pay $16.50 per bounty in a $22 buy-in event, and this would require you to focus more attention on the bounties.

Tip #2: Keep a Big Chip Stack or risk busting Out

Short stacks are a marked target in these tournaments since it’s much easier to get a bounty off of a player with 200 chips rather than someone with 2,000 chips. This is why it’s important to keep a big chip stack at all times, or risk busting out to get there. If you merely try to survive, players will call you frequently, and worse, you won’t be able to bust anybody else out.

Tip #3: Target Small Stacks

This is kind of an obvious tip, but one worth mentioning nonetheless. Small stacks should be your primary target – especially in tournaments with big bounties. As mentioned before, small stacks are the easiest to bust out, and they’ll increase your chip stack as well. Just remember that you don’t want to be the person who knocks someone down from 1,500 chips to 150. Instead, you want to be the player taking that last 150 chips….and the bounty.