Bounty poker tournaments are all the rage right now in both online poker rooms and in major land-based events around the world. What are bounty poker tournaments? How do they work?
Most commonly, a bounty is a feature in some poker tournaments that rewards players for eliminating another key player. It’s generally reserved for bigger name players online, or in smaller charity and home-based events, but it has been seen at events like the WSOP and WPT as a bit of side-action with people being rewarded by a sponsor for eliminating players that are believe to be the among the best. There are also poker tournaments in which players receive an additional bounty for every other player they

eliminate on top of the chips won.
In these bounty tournaments, the buy-in structure of the tournament requires each player to pay an additional amount for their own bounty chip, or token. This bounty chip is carried by the player throughout the tournament. If the player is eliminated, the bounty chip is handed off to the player who eliminated them. The bounty chips are cashed in, usually for the amount each player paid for the bounty chip. The winner can usually cash in their own chip.
Another common variation involves online poker tournaments, where a player becomes more “valuable” as they work their way through the game and you’ll receive an additional bounty amount from their elimination from the tournament.
Bounties can greatly affect how a tournament is played. A player with a smaller stack will declare that they are all-in and other players may find themselves more likely to call that bet because they want that player’s bounty amount. Many pros alter their play greatly when engaging in bounty tournaments, simply because there’s going to be more people willing to go the matt to take them out, either through bluffing or just thinking that their hands are better than the pros.
Many online poker rooms regularly host bounty tournaments to engage their professional teams against their player base, which offers a great chance for non=pros to test out their tournament poker strategy ideas on the felt. For instance, UltimateBet hosted a massive event in 2009 where players were rewarded with a hefty bonus for beating Phil Hellmuth. “Beat The Brat” saw thousands of players competing for their chance to take on the man who’s won the WSOP more times than anyone else with only a few getting a shot at the man himself. Check to see if your poker room offers them: it’s possible that you can end up winning even more than bragging rights with some good play!