PKO
Progressive knockout: half of every bounty you win is cash in hand, half goes onto your own head. Your price grows as you win.
In a progressive knockout, your buy-in splits in two. Half builds the ordinary prize pool; half becomes the bounty sitting on your head. Knock somebody out and you collect their bounty — but only half of it as cash. The other half is added to your own bounty, which makes you a bigger target for everyone left.
That compounding is what makes the format different from a flat bounty event. Early on, every bounty is the same small number and the maths barely moves. By the late stages, a chip leader who has eliminated eight players can be carrying a bounty worth several buy-ins, and the pot odds for calling their all-in stop resembling anything in a normal tournament.
The practical adjustment is that a covering stack should call much wider against a short one. The bounty is dead money that only becomes available if you actually knock the player out, and you can only do that if you cover them — so the extra equity attaches to the player with more chips, not to whoever wins the pot. Against an equal or larger stack, the bounty is worth nothing to you at all, because busting them is not on the table.
The mistake is chasing bounties with the wrong stack. Calling off to win a bounty you cannot collect is a straight loss, and so is treating a small early bounty as if it justified a flip. Work out whether you cover them first; the bounty only enters the calculation after that answer is yes.
FAQ
What does PKO mean in poker?
Progressive knockout. Half of each player's buy-in becomes a bounty on their head, and when you eliminate someone you keep half of their bounty as cash and add the other half to your own. Bounties therefore grow through the tournament.
How much wider should you call in a PKO?
Much wider — but only against players you cover. The bounty is extra money attached to eliminating them, and you can only eliminate a stack smaller than yours. Against an equal or bigger stack the bounty adds nothing to your call.
What is the difference between a PKO and a normal bounty tournament?
In a classic bounty event the whole bounty is paid to the knocker and the amounts stay fixed. In a PKO you keep half and the rest is added to your own head, so bounties compound and the late-stage chip leader becomes an enormous target.