Bounty
also called knockout
A bounty is a cash prize paid immediately for knocking a particular player out of a tournament, taken from a part of every buy in that goes to bounties rather than to the prize pool.
It changes the maths of a call rather than the mood of the table. A call that is marginal for chips can be clearly correct when winning also collects a bounty, because part of the reward arrives whatever happens later in the tournament.
In progressive knockout formats half of each bounty you win is added to your own head, so covering a short stack is worth more than the same chips in a normal event, and being covered is worth less.
an example
your cards
A short stack with 8 big blinds moves all in and you are on the button holding ace ten. The call risks 8 big blinds to win the pot plus a bounty of 25, which is why a hand you might fold in a freezeout becomes a call here.
This example is made up. The real one is in your own hand history: find bounty in your own hands and see how often it came up and what it cost you.
related terms
MTT
A multi table tournament is an event where every entrant starts with the same chips, the blinds rise on a clock, and pla ...
Buy in
The buy in is the amount you put on the table to join a game: in a cash game the chips you sit down with, and in a tourn ...
ICM
The Independent Chip Model, or ICM, estimates what a tournament stack is worth in prize money by treating each player's ...
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Knowing the word is not the same as seeing it.
The full order of play, from the blinds to the showdown.