Popular Poker Tournament Formats - Part 3: Mystery Bounty Tournaments

[CRStals]

In this learning series of popular poker formats, we focus on one of the fastest rising types of tournaments out there: The Mystery Bounty!

If you are unfamiliar with Mystery Bounty tournaments, these are essentially bounty tournaments but instead of a fixed or increasing bounty, as found in knockout or progressive knockout tournaments, Mystery Bounty tournaments divide the bounty pool into prize amounts that players draw from to find out their prize. Like prize structures you typically see, there will be many min prizes and only a few top prizes – but this allows a player to effectively get one bounty and win the top prize in a tournament.

Not All Mystery Bounty Tournaments Are Alike
We have preached this through many of the articles already in the learning series but must stress it again here: you need to understand how the format works for the tournament you are registering for BEFORE registering in it! Online, the formats are generally going to be awarding a bounty immediately upon knocking someone out after the money bubble has been reached. This means that KOs before the money bubble net you no money and play much like a traditional poker tournament would. After the money bubble is when things change – as you’ll see.

Mystery Bounty Tournaments however can have very different set-ups:

• Every bounty is awarded cash
  You don’t often see these types of tournaments anymore, but they have occurred live – and online – where every knockout will award the player a bounty of unknown amounts. These usually will have many minimum bounties to be won and will usually be less than the initial buy-in. They also usually will allocate more of the overall prize pool to the bounty pool to boost the top prize which is going to be less than what you would see if bounties were awarded after the money bubble was hit because of the number of bounties available. These tournaments also don’t typically allow late registration because they need to award bounties immediately but if you can find one set-up in this manner, they can be a lucrative way to earning a lot of cash by knocking out a bunch of players early on if you get lucky.
• ITM bounties are awarded cash during or after the tournament ends
  This is the most common type of mystery bounty tournament you’ll find these days where the tournament must get into the money to start awarding bounties. Online the bounties will be automatically awarded once a knockout occurs, but live tournaments will give you the option to pull your bounty envelopes once you achieve a knockout, once you are knocked out, or after the tournament is over. We will explore this topic more shortly in terms of the ideal time to pull your bounties.
• ITM bounties are awarded cash ONLY after the tournament ends
  You typically see this happen in the Triton series mystery bounty tournaments where they will bring all the players who won a bounty onto the stage after the tournament concludes and have them pull all their accumulated bounties once after another. The advantage here is that the variance is removed in terms of when to pull your bounty envelope, so it all comes down to the luck of the draw.
• ITM bounties are awarded cash BUT specific amounts are reserved for the final table
  These are becoming more common in the tournament world where the organizers will set aside envelopes only to be won by those at the final table. The reasoning behind it is that they don’t want the top money earner to be someone who lucked into the money, won one bounty, and pulled the top prize, finishing well back of the final table finishers. This also builds excitement as it guarantees a top prize still available for those that navigate the field and make it to the end.

Mystery Bounty Table Dynamic
As you have figured out by now, there are more unknowns when playing a mystery bounty tournament when a bounty is involved. Referring to the last lesson we posted on knockout and progressive knockout tournaments, the expected ranges players will play change when money is involved:

• Players that have large chip stacks will tend to be more aggressive when a bounty is potentially up for grabs, expanding the range they will call, and typically take a more aggressive approach to shoving or playing a hand fast. They do this to discourage the possibility of others getting involved by having their bounty put at risk, but, consequently, potentially give odds to other players to call the shove, bringing more bounties available into a hand
• Players that have a smaller stack will be more apt to putting their bounty on the line with premium hands knowing they are likely to get called by one, or more bigger stacks. This increases the potential that they will double up or more with more players involved, and, knowing that aggressive players will call wider for a bounty.

The thing about a mystery bounty though is that the amount of the bounty is not known when the hand is played: it could be a minimum amount or, if they are still in play, the top prize – or many other amounts in between. How the tournament structure is set-up now potentially changes the above comments about hand ranges:

When the top prizes are still in play, players may become even more aggressive when aiming for a bounty, knowing that the possibility of a huge score is out there, and call or push even wider to win.

Consider this:
You hold 7/2 off-suit but have twice as many chips at the table as anyone else. Two short stacks end up getting it all in ahead of you, and action is folded to you. Do you call or fold?

• In a standard tournament, you probably would never think to call.
• In a knockout tournament for a minimum, bounty, you may be enticed to call, depending on how much the bounty is.
• In a PKO, you very well could call knowing how big the two bounties on the line are worth.
• In a Mystery Bounty, knowing that the top bounties are all still out there, this now becomes a very interesting call.

You will need to make an Average Bounty Value calculation to help make your decision.

Average Bounty Value Calculation Formula: Total $$ in Bounty Prize Pool / Total # of Bounty "Envelopes" up for grabs This calculation will be an important tool to help you determine when to take risks, or not based on the average bounty up for grabs.

Here’s why, with our example expanded out:

• $22 Mystery Bounty tournament, 50/50 split between prize pool and bounty pool
• 100 players entered, 15 make the money
• 10,000 starting chip stacks
• The bounties are only awarded after the money is hit
• The tournament has 15 players left thought
• The bounties amounts are as follows: $250, $150, $100, $80, $70 x 2, $50 x 2, $40 x 2, $20 x 5 (total $1000 bounty prize pool)
• No bounties have been claimed yet

Your 7/2 off-suit has roughly 10% equity against two suited over cards (let's say, AK of diamonds) and an over pair (say, pocket nines).

But, because all 15 bounties are in play, the Average Bounty Value is currently $66.67 ($1000 bounty pool divided by 15 bounty envelopes = $66.67 average bounty size).

You have two bounties available to you, meaning that the average bounty value should you win is going to be:

• Bounty #1: 15 bounties with a $1,000 prize pool = $66.67 average bounty
• Bounty #2: Let's say you pull a $20 bounty with Bounty #1. This now means that 14 bounties are left with a $980.00 prize pool = $70 average bounty
• This gives you a potential win of at least $40.00 – with an average expected win of $90.00 ($20 pulled for the first, $70 average bounty left for the second pull)
• Getting just 10% equity means the hand’s expected value long term to you is $9.00 – almost half of the tournament buy-in. In chips though – this equates to 66,670 chips (we’ll go through this calculation in the next section) meaning that your pot odds increase by 66,670 chips at this point.

If you have a large enough stack that it will not affect your ability to hunt future bounties, then it makes sense to call off with almost ANY TWO cards in this circumstance. Your potential profit in this spot is just too good to pass up the opportunity to take one, or both bounties even with so little equity provided it does not hurt your chip leader standing at the table. This, above all is the most important fact about mystery bounty tournaments: you MUST have a stack to go after the bounties; just squeaking into the money will not be good enough to challenge for the top prizes.

Think of it this way: you play a poker tournament to win the top prize, but in order for you to position yourself to be eligible to go for those top prizes, you have to have more chips than anyone else in your hand; because when the all-ins start, you want to be the one to go after maximum value – and being your table’s chip leader is the best way to do that.

Mystery Bounty Average Bounty Value / Chip Value
The previous example touched on the average bounty value concept and how that equates into chip values. We will expand on that now with a second, more involved example:

The Scenario:

• This is a $1,000 buy-in tournament that lasts two days.
• Mystery bounties come into play on day 2, after late registration ends.
• $300 of the buy-in goes to the bounty prize pool and $650 goes into the tournament prize pool.
• 1,000 players register for the tournament
• Starting stack is 10,000 chips
• 700 players are eliminated on Day 1.
• 300 players remain for Day 2.

What does this mean?

• The average bounty value available to those still playing on Day 2 is:
  • $300 X 1,000 players = $300,000 bounty prize pool
  • $300k prize pool / 300 remaining players = $1,000 average bounty value
  • $300 bounty / $700 prize pool = 0.43, so the ratio of the portion of your buy-in that is bounty is 43%
  • 43% of the initial starting stack is 4,300 chips – which means that your pot odds increase by 4,300 when you are contesting a pot on Day 1 for a player at-risk, when considering their bounty value in chips.

In Day 2 this calculation gets much larger because now the $1,000 average bounty is in play. To determine how your pot odds change:

• Take the average bounty value and divide it by the initial buy-in that went into the prize pool
• Take that and multiply by the initial starting stack

Putting that in practice:
$1,000 / $700 = 142.85%
142.85% of 10,000 chips is 14,285 chips

That means that in a pot in Day 2, a bounty is worth 14,285 chips to your stack; so when you are contesting a pot for a bounty, your pot odds GO UP by that amount.

In our previous example, $10 went to the bounty pool and $10 went into the prize pool, putting the Average Bounty Value at $66.67. Working this out, $66.67 / $10 gives us 6.667 and that x 10,000 chips gives 66,670 chips added to your pot odds.

This calculation is extremely difficult to do real time because it is usually NOT CLEAR what the leftover bounty prize pool is when they are in play. You will have to make educated guesses to determine what your pot odds might be if you decide to go after a bounty, and just how much wider calling can be for players in a position to contest for your bounty.

You may also realize that the amount of money that goes into the prize pool matters. In our first smaller tournament example the prize pool split was 50/50, which had a GREATER impact on your calling range and pot odds versus the second example where 30% went to the bounty pool. Again - these are all calculations you MUST know going into a tournament so you can learn to do some of these calculations quickly and in real time to make correct decisions.

When Do You Collect?
If you are playing in a live mystery bounty tournament, you may have the option to collect any bounties at any point during or after the tournament. So, when you have the option, when should you pull?

There is no right or wrong answer here - so long as the biggest bounties are available.

• On one hand, pulling them as soon as you win a bounty means you will have the pick of any amount still available, giving you a shot at the biggest prize, albeit potentially with longer odds to find it if few bounties have been claimed.
• On the other, waiting to pull could increase your odds of finding the top prize, provided someone else doesn't beat you to it.

In my opinion, keep the control in your hands and pull your envelope as soon as you can to give yourself a shot at finding it. If you wait and tine it wrong, the big amounts might be found - which alters the math we just went through on how to adjust your pot odds. But waiting could greatly increase your chance at finding the big money if others go and miss.

If the biggest bounties have been claimed, and only the smallest amounts are left, my suggestion would be to not worry about them and focus on winning the tournament. There is still substantial prize money to be won, and if the bounties are not in play, focus on your game and pull your bounty later.

At the end of the day, understand what's available still and go with your gut.

Final Table Bounties
The other variations that these tournaments are seeing is the reservation of bounties for the final table. This is to ensure that the players that progress the farthest in a mystery bounty tournament can play for the most amount of money, and not have the top prizes claimed before the tournament gets to that point. To compensate, some bounties will be withheld for the final eliminations.

How does this impact you? Your calculations to figure out what your pot odds are needs to exclude these amounts and bounties because they are not available to you at that moment. Likewise, they need to be excluded when you calculate the average bounty value. This will reduce the amount of chips a bounty will add to your pot odds calculations. You will also have to consider the impact of getting to the final table and having access to those final bounties, which will shrink your push or call range when a bounty is in play.

Mystery Bounty poker tournaments add an interesting twist to poker tournaments, giving players the ability to hit a top prize simply by eliminating one player. This creates a lot of action when a player risks their tournament life and a bounty goes up for grabs, giving the player an opportunity to win top prizes in the opening of an envelope. There is no telling what changes we will see to this format but given the popularity, specifically from the wsop where millionaires have been made at the pull of an envelope, these tournaments are not going anywhere! Making things harder for players to study is the limited amount of material that exists today, but it should only be a matter of time before more poker pros put out training guides and materials on how to study for these tournaments!

Be sure to check back in next week when we conclude our series on popular poker formats with Multi-Day Tournaments and a blurb about Charity Poker Tournaments. Make sure to subscribe to our CardsChat Learning Poker Thread Series Index, and turn your notifications on.

 

[najisami]

Wow Cheris!! this one is worth reading a few times , and that's what I intend to do. Already 1:05am here, so tomorrow I'll have to come back to it. I'm already impressed by the way we should look at the "Mystery bounty" tourneys, especially the ones that only take effect when ITM . I've played a few of those, now I realize why I had no success .

 

[Goggelheimer]

Question ist why do you divide the $1000 average bounty by $700 and not $650 that went into the price pool?

• This is a $1,000 buy-in tournament that lasts two days.
• Mystery bounties come into play on day 2, after late registration ends.
• $300 of the buy-in goes to the bounty prize pool and $650 goes into the tournament prize pool.
• 1,000 players register for the tournament
• Starting stack is 10,000 chips
• 700 players are eliminated on Day 1.
• 300 players remain for Day 2
  
  Also here it should be $650 or you made an inital mistake by saying $650 goes to the prize pool.
• The average bounty value available to those still playing on Day 2 is:
  • $300 X 1,000 players = $300,000 bounty prize pool
  • $300k prize pool / 300 remaining players = $1,000 average bounty value
  • $300 bounty / $700 prize pool = 0.43, so the ratio of the portion of your buy-in that is bounty is 43%
  • 43% of the initial starting stack is 4,300 chips – which means that your pot odds increase by 4,300 when you are contesting a pot on Day 1 for a player at-risk, when considering their bounty value in chips.

 

[Tero]

I followed you @CRStals until I didn't...

• Bounty #1: 15 bounties with a $1,000 prize pool = $66.67 average bounty
• Bounty #2: Let's say you pull a $20 bounty with Bounty #1. This now means that 14 bounties are left with a $980.00 prize pool = $70 average bounty
• This gives you a potential win of at least $40.00 – with an average expected win of $90.00 ($20 pulled for the first, $70 average bounty left for the second pull)
• Getting just 10% equity means the hand’s expected value long term to you is $9.00 – almost half of the tournament buy-in.

All of the above makes sense.

• In chips though – this equates to 66,670 chips (we’ll go through this calculation in the next section) meaning that your pot odds increase by 66,670 chips at this point.

Then later you say:

In our previous example, $10 went to the bounty pool and $10 went into the prize pool, putting the Average Bounty Value at $66.67. Working this out, $66.67 / $10 gives us 6.667 and that x 10,000 chips gives 66,670 chips added to your pot odds.

This makes sense.

But when your 72o has only 10% equity how can it equate into 100% of average bounty chip value?
Shouldn't the equity be 10% of (66670+what is on the table) when calculating the pot odds?
You have to ELI5 this.

 

[CRStals]

I followed you @CRStals until I didn't...


All of the above makes sense.




Then later you say:

This makes sense.

But when your 72o has only 10% equity how can it equate into 100% of average bounty chip value?
Shouldn't the equity be 10% of (66670+what is on the table) when calculating the pot odds?
You have to ELI5 this.

The math is definitely different for mystery bounties - let me put together an addendum to the article that hopefully clears ths up