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However hard you choose to pursue the bounty prizes, an awareness of what your opponents are doing will help you make the right adjustments at the right time. With this in mind here are my 5 key strategy tips for online knockout poker tournaments:
Expect And Adjust For Looser Play: Knockouts are fun games, and so attract recreational players with a lower level of poker math / strategy knowledge. Expect to see some ‘crazy’ bets and all in showdowns between surprising hands, particularly in the early stages. Adjustments include a better chance of getting value from your made hands (value betting opportunities) and a lower success rate for bluffs / continuation bets in general. No ‘Cooperation Plays’:
In a normal tournament, particularly when you are close to the bubble, players will ‘check-down’ a hand when a smaller stacked player is all-in. This maximizes the chances of eliminating them, to everyone’s benefit. In KO tournaments the bounty completely kills this move (well, maybe with a couple of exceptions very late in the game). In general you will find players betting dry side-pot regardless of their hand, do not call with junk with the expectation of getting to showdown – it will not happen very often! When Small Stacks Enter The Pot: Small stacks entering a pot can cause a cascade of calls and raises from players trying to win bounties with a huge variety of hands. This will often give you opportunities to ‘squeeze’ forcing the bigger stacks to fold and getting heads-up with the small stacks. If you see a big stack shoving all in a lot with weak hands to catch smaller stacks bounties, then you can look for spots to get all in with them with a card advantage. Stay A Little Above Average In Chips: There is nothing more frustrating in a knockout tournament than winning a big hand, only to miss out on the bounty just because your opponent had you covered by a few chips. Staying aggressive enough to be at least a little ahead of the majority of your opponents for when those big stacks occur will ensure you get paid those bounties as well as winning the chips! The Prize Pool Really Matters: The structure of most knockout bounty tournaments means that 80% of the prize pool is used for ‘standard’ payouts based on finishing position. The big money is still at the final table, so make sure you are not side-tracked from this by the ‘knockout’ battles early in the game. Knockout Poker Tournaments – Best US Friendly Knockout TournamentsWhile Pokerstars.com have the most choice and biggest games, there are some other cool options for knockout poker tournaments. US players should check out the biggest US-facing selection at Carbon Poker, these bounties are bigger (40%+) too – giving the games an extra dimension. You can claim a huge 200% bonus + free $11 SNG token (why not try a knockout SNG!) with my bonus code SNGPLANET. Check out the cool software and soft knockout games at Carbon Poker now! Knockout Poker Tournaments – Best All-Round Knockouts (By A Long, Long Way!)While there are a number of sites running these games, none even come close to Pokerstars in terms of the choice of buy-ins and size. Stars have even introduced 90 player KO Sit N Goes to fill the gap left when these popular games disappeared along with Full Tilt. With awesome software and the best poker loyalty reward scheme anywhere this site is a must-see for anyone who enjoys beating the fish in knockout tournaments! You can claim up to 3 matched welcome bonuses, and see what makes this site so popular for yourself – with Pokerstars.com Marketing Code PSP3108 now!
Further Reading For Poker Tournament FansBest Rebuy TournamentsAlternatives To The Sunday MillionBeginners Poker Tournament FAQ and Guide
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