3 PKO Tournament Tips That Will Help You At The Table

Progressive Knockout (PKO) Tournaments have become increasingly popular these days as players get the chance to boost their winnings via the so-called “bounties“. This format is a staple in tournament schedules across the major online poker rooms, including partypoker which run a host of PKOs at a variety of buy-ins.

If you’re still new to PKO tournaments, it’s important to know the basics of the game. In a PKO event, half of your buy-in goes to the overall prize pool which is awarded to players like a regular tournament, while the remaining half becomes your bounty.

In contrast to the traditional knockout tournaments, PKOs involve a progressive element. When you eliminate an opponent, you win half of his bounty, while the other half adds to your own bounty. Meaning the more players you eliminate, the bigger your bounty grows and you eventually become an attractive target for the remaining players.

Three Keys to help increase your earning potential

Here are some tips to guide you as you start your PKO journey.

# Save Your Stack For the Late Stages

When you take part in a PKO tournament, your main goal should be to make it to the final stages of the game because this is where the larger chunk of the money is at stake.

So try hard not to risk your stack during the initial stages of the tournaments to avoid being eliminated early.

# Take Advantage of your Big Stack

Supposing you reach the middle stages of the tournament and you have a huge stack, your opponents will likely stay away from you as they won’t be able to immediately score a bounty if they beat you in a hand.

You can take advantage of this scenario. Continue to build your stack but make sure you do this at the right moment.

# Know When to Adjust Your Ranges

When playing PKO, you can’t stick to the same ranges all the time. You need to modify your ranges especially if you become the shortest stack but with the biggest bounty as the game approaches the final table.

You will now become an attractive target for the rest of the players so be careful. When you move all-in, make sure you have strong cards like KsJh or Ad9c as your opponents will likely call.

Similarly, when in late position and you’ve got hands such as 8s7s, the smartest thing to do is to fold.