the pros and cons of having a bounty on your head.

[JistTheFist 0]

I guess most people know about the promotion that's going on at poker mountain right now where daniel and T.J. have a bounty on there head in all of their sit and go tournaments... If you bust one of them out you win double the buy-in for the tourney... It's a cool idea and also I think is a lot of fun for everyone.anyways after seeing the "shooting stars" WPT and hearing about these bounties on different poker sites the local poker tournament that I play in decided that it would be fun to put a bounty on the ex-champions from earlier months... I was one of them... It is QUITE an experience and now I see the logic behind T.J and Daniel doing it. It really works out to their advantage in the smaller tournaments like a 10 handed s&g format that they do it in. It's very hard to dodge so many bullets but after winning mine I saw the logic behind it... before playing I couldn't see why any player would want a bounty on their head...I thought it just meant that it would be impossible to protect your hands and actually last longer than five minutes... It's also VERY hard to make a read because you don't know if a player is moving all-in cuz he has a hand or if he just has a draw and wants you in there so he can catch and collect the bounty. But after playing in mine I saw all the advantages... here are some of the pros and cons that danny and T.J are faced with in their trials.yes it is true that players will chase their draws for ridiculous amounts: as I was playing I was almost sickened as I saw my fellow ex-champions go the way of the buffalo to ugly calls like 6 times the pot to chase a gutshot... I thought to myself "there is now way I'm gonna survive this, I can't get people to put down hands." but after seeing a few of these I saw the logic behind it...when a man is willing to PUT YOU ALL-IN or Call the all-in when he KNOWS he has the lesser hand it HOPEFULLY will work out to your advantage... you just need a little love from the cards. You see, I had a guy call my (significant) all-in because he was on a flush draw... He didn't have a whole lot more chips than me and we were about a little less than average in the running of the tournament... he told me "I'm not feeling so hot about actually placing in the money so I might as well just hope to get lucky and get my buy-in back"... I managed to keep the best hand and now I was in the top 25 of the chip lead out of 67 people left... it was like a 30-something person jump in spots. it really helps when you start to fall behind in the running:and this would happen all night... people will call my all-in's preflop with 10-7offsuit(no offense danny... I love this hand too... but I'm not so sure it's a preflop all-in hand :wink:) cuz they want to get lucky and get some money back... It worked to my advantage when I start to trail off in the running and pick up KK cuz it would put me right back in the race. people will take shots at you when they actually have you covered in chips and fuel you up so much that soon you can have the lead at your table and start to control the tempo of your table.It is WAAAAY harder to protect your hand when you know you're vulnerable: I was playing in one of the pokermountain s&g's and T.J made an opening raise of 5.5X the big blind... for every other player the normal had been about 3-3.5X the big blind... one of the other players asked "whoa! T.J! why so much?" and I knew the exact reason....he wanted to make sure that all the 78suiteds and pocket 4s and other types of drawing hands that might stay in in the blinds folded... it's much harder to get those draws to lay down when all they need to do is get lucky once to make money RIGHT AWAY... say they had stayed in and he made TPTK but they had four to a flush... ussually a player would make around a pot-sized bet maybe with TPTK maybe even a little more. and the four-flush would USSUALLY (I guess depending on how good they are) but would probably lay down just a flush draw.... but in these s&g's you'll see T.J (I don't know about danny, haven't had a chance ot play with him yet, I really want to though) but T.J and myself maybe danny.... probably we'll make a big overbet of the pot. or just check it to you... there are two trains of thought that make us act like that...1) if you'll call a pot-sized bet, maybe we need to go a little higher to get you out of there, or maybe we can take more chips here, and then move in if you miss on the turn... your draw won't look as good with only one card coming and we might get you to lay down there.2) If you'll call a pot-sized bet, you'll probably call any bet... so I'll give you a look at a free card... if you hit, I can still get out and minimize my damages...if you don't I'm more than content to still be alive in the tourney... even if I have to take a smaller pot because of it.anyways all in all it was a really fun experience and a great twist to the game to make me adapt to a new style I had to learn quick. I would even reccomend that if you play in a monthly home game, pick the most consistent winner and make a side pot for a bounty on him. I ended up in 5th place out of the 72 that started when my aces got cracked with my all-in of 8x the big blind by a 36suited lol...but I still see why they would want to do it... because if my aces managed to hold up I would of had a man-grasp on the tournament and easily coasted into 1st.... so when they're playing a $100 s&g... they're hoping that you will fuel them up, that their hands will hold and when they finish in first... they pay off the 2nd place finisher $200( which is REALLY cool, I don't think any other site pays off a runner-up) and they keep $300 for themselves....I'd love to hear any other stories about other people who have been in bounties (whether they won one or they were one), or any more pros and cons I missed.... also, danny tell us what you think of the tourneys!

[Ed 0]

In the tournament series that I play in, we put a bounty on the previous winner (even though in most cases, the game itself being played changes). It's a fun thing but once the tourney starts, I haven't really noticed anyone actually thinking about it. Maybe that's because it isn't much money at all, but it doesn't seem to affect anyone's play. But yeah, on PM, when Daniel goes all-in, there's more callers than you'll find on WFAN after the Jets lose.

[JistTheFist 0]

But yeah, on PM, when Daniel goes all-in, there's more callers than you'll find on WFAN after the Jets lose.

hhahhaa... classic.anyways I can see what you're saying about no one really playing any differently if it's not a big payout but in the poker mountain setting it's twice the buy-in and in our setting it was twice the buy-in, along with a t-shirt and free entry into the tournament of champions which is invitational only so it was pretty big reward.

[The Ace of Jades 0]

I'm just waiting for Phil Gordon to post up his Implied Bounty Odds. I asked Howard Lederer if he had done that yet, Howard just laughed.

[TheMathProf 0]

Part of that seems to me to be the case, because the situation of the bounty creates a situation where both the hunter and the hunted are +EV when the hunted makes a standard +EV play.