In a normal KO, an amount (usually half) the player’s buy-in is a bounty on their head. PKOs main improvement over their regular KO opposition is to make the value of the player’s bounty part of the tournament strategy. This format also encourages players with a chip advantage to play aggressively against shorter stacks as they can earn additional EV outside of the chips in play. One of the ideas which most intelligently uses the online format to improve the game is the progressive knock-out.

This is true for novices and experienced players alike. The effects of bounties create an added layer of strategy! PKO tournaments tend to have more action as players are incentivized to knock out their opponents to earn bounties rather than just trying to survive and advance in the tournament. The right strategy in Progressive Knockout tournaments may vary from one stage to another and go through exciting and sophisticated dynamics. For the purposes of this article, we will only be looking at the standard 50% bounty prize pool. Note, some sites such as Pokerstars run PKO tournaments where ⅔ or even the full prize pool are dedicated to bounty prizes. When two or more players win in a split pot the bounty is divided equally across all winners. All about PKO Poker Strategy: How to adapt to Bounty and Progressive Knockout online poker tournaments by Dara OKearney. The remaining half of the bounty is added to their own head for other players to try to claim. In PKO tournaments, when a player eliminates another player, they typically receive a cash prize for half of the eliminated player’s bounty.

In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion of the buy-in goes toward a bounty on each player’s head.

Progressive knockout poker strategy