Two knockout formats have taken hold across both live and online circuits in recent years: the Progressive Knockout, known as PKO, and the Mystery Bounty. Both attach a cash prize to player eliminations, though the mechanics differ significantly, and so does the experience they produce at the table.
For players accustomed to the standard freezeout — where money only changes hands through end-of-tournament payouts — these formats represent a genuine shift in how decisions are made from the first hand to the final table.
How the Buy-in Works
The starting point for both formats is a split buy-in. In a $200 bounty tournament, roughly half the entry fee goes into the standard prize pool. The other half becomes a bounty placed on that player's head. Eliminate someone during the bounty-active stage of the event, and their bounty is credited to you as a separate cash prize, independent of any prize pool finish. The two revenue streams are tracked separately.
That single structural change reshapes how every player at the table should be evaluated. Each opponent is simultaneously a competitive obstacle and a potential source of immediate cash. The calculation around when to call, when to fold, and when to put chips at risk is fundamentally different from freezeout poker.
PKO: The Compounding Mechanic
The Progressive Knockout format builds on the bounty concept by making the prize dynamic rather than fixed.
In a standard bounty event, every player's bounty stays at whatever amount was set at registration. In a PKO, the figure grows. When a player is eliminated, their bounty is split in half. The eliminator receives fifty percent as immediate cash-equivalent credit. The other fifty percent is added to the eliminator's own bounty, increasing what the next person to knock them out will earn.
The effect compounds quickly. In a PKO where everyone starts with a $100 bounty, a player who eliminates their first opponent earns $50 and sees their own bounty climb from $100 to $150. A second elimination earns another $50 and pushes it to $200. Should that player later be knocked out, the person responsible earns $100 in cash-equivalent credit and absorbs the remaining $100 onto their stack.
Players who run deep and accumulate eliminations become progressively more valuable targets. A player carrying a bounty several times larger than the starting figure is visible to the entire table, and experienced players will factor that number into their decisions. Bounty equity is real money. When evaluating a call or a commitment, the immediate cash value of claiming an opponent's bounty belongs in the calculation alongside chip equity.
Mystery Bounty: The Lottery Draw
Mystery Bounty shares the same buy-in split but replaces the known bounty figure with a randomised prize. Rather than receiving a fixed amount upon eliminating an opponent, the eliminating player draws a card, opens an envelope, or triggers a digital reveal. The prize inside could be modest, or it could be dramatically larger — major Mystery Bounty events have offered top prizes of $50,000, $100,000, and beyond, all paid separately from any prize pool finish.
Most Mystery Bounty events hold the bounty mechanic in reserve until a specific point in the tournament — often the start of Day 2, or after the field has been trimmed to the paid positions. Before that threshold, the event runs as a conventional freezeout. Once the bounty stage begins, every qualifying elimination becomes a lottery draw.
The format has proven particularly popular with recreational players. The moment of opening an envelope after a hard-fought elimination, with no idea what the prize will be, produces a kind of suspense no other tournament structure can replicate.
How the Two Formats Differ in Practice
The distinction between PKO and Mystery Bounty is not cosmetic. They produce genuinely different games.
In a PKO, bounty information is largely transparent. A player who has been running deep and eliminating opponents carries a visible number that the table can see and act on. The format rewards analytical thinking — the ability to evaluate chip equity and bounty equity simultaneously and make accurate decisions at the intersection of both.
In a Mystery Bounty, that information is concealed. The quiet short stack in the corner might be eligible for the largest prize in the room, or they might draw the minimum. That uncertainty spreads action across the field in a way PKO does not, and it tends to attract a wider range of player types. For disciplined players comfortable operating in a higher-variance environment, that mix creates its own set of opportunities.
The Practical Takeaway
Neither format is simply a freezeout with a bonus attached. The bounty — whether progressive, fixed, or randomised — is the central feature, not an add-on. Every hand in which an elimination is possible during the bounty-active stage carries a financial dimension that freezeout poker never presents. Learning to weigh that dimension accurately, without overvaluing or ignoring it, is the core skill both formats demand.
