Bounties and the split buy-in
In a knockout tournament, not all of your buy-in goes into the prize pool: part of it becomes a bounty, paid to whoever eliminates you. This page is about how that split works, how progressive and mystery bounties pool the money, and how the structure changes the event — without re-explaining how to play a pot.
Leg 01A knockout buy-in is split in two
A standard tournament buy-in becomes prize-pool money. A knockout tournament divides each buy-in into two parts: the prize-pool share, which is paid out to the field as usual, and the bounty share, which becomes a prize attached to eliminating a player. The split is usually stated plainly — a "100 + 100" knockout means 100 into the pool and 100 as a starting bounty — and it is the single most important number in the format, because it says how much of the money moves through eliminations rather than results.
| Share | Destination |
|---|---|
| Prize-pool share | Paid out to the field on the finishing order, as normal |
| Bounty share | Attached to eliminations; collected by whoever knocks a player out |
| Fee | The room’s charge on the whole buy-in |
Leg 02Collecting a bounty
A player’s bounty is collected when another player eliminates them. In a plain knockout, the eliminator collects the full bounty as cash. In the more common "progressive" format, the collected bounty is split: part is paid to the eliminator immediately and part is added to the eliminator’s own bounty, so eliminating a player both pays you and makes your own head more valuable to the rest of the table. That second effect is what makes the format a genuine strategic departure rather than just a prize-pool diversion.
- Collected — the eliminator is paid part of the bounty at once
- Pooled — the other part raises the eliminator’s own bounty
- Fee — the room’s charge, taken as usual
Leg 03Progressive knockouts, worked
The progressive paradox is that the extra money is real but its timing shifts. The whole of the bounty share is paid out over the event, but the half that is pooled onto the eliminator’s head is only realised when that player is eventually knocked out themselves. So a player who collects many bounties builds a large bounty on their own head, which other players now have a strong incentive to claim — the format deliberately makes accumulating bounty wins make you a target. The effect is a faster, more volatile event where eliminations pay along the way.
A bounty is paid, but to whom
The full bounty share reaches players eventually, but not all of it reaches the player who did the eliminating right away. Half tends to move forward onto the eliminator’s own head, so the money travels with the eliminator until someone stops them.
Leg 04Mystery bounties
A mystery-bounty event attaches a hidden value to each bounty, revealed only when a player is eliminated. The bounties are drawn from a spread that includes many small amounts and a few very large ones, kept secret until the moment of the knockout so the value of an elimination cannot be known in advance. The attraction is the unknown top prize — the possibility of eliminating a player for an unusually large amount — and the format usually begins with the mystery phase before revealing the remaining large bounties live once the field is short. Structurally it is a bounty event with a randomised payout schedule.
Leg 05How bounties change the event’s shape
Bounty formats distribute the prize-pool money differently: a larger share is paid during the event, on eliminations, and a smaller share at the end. That makes the event flatter in who gets paid, faster in when they get paid, and more volatile in how much any single elimination is worth. It does not change the fee, and it does not change the fact that the field pays in more than it takes out. It changes the shape of the payout and, as a consequence, the decisions that are correct inside the event — which is why the format has its own strategy literature and this desk stays on its structure.
The format taxonomy
Where knockouts sit among freezeouts, satellites, turbos and multi-flight events.
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