Noun

A tournament in which the prize pool is awarded entirely through bounties rather than based on the order in which players are eliminated.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Bounty-only tournaments are uncommon. The prize pool would be divided up among the total number of players, with each player being assigned a bounty. When any player knocks out an opponent, the player may be immediately awarded the bounty. In other variations, each player keeps all earned bounties in front on them until knocked out. If knocked out, a player must give their starting bounty and any earned bounties to the opponent who won the hand. However, if the opponent who won the hand has previously earned less bounty than the player who is knocked out, the player who is knocked out may keep the difference as a prize. Example: Each player has $10 in bounty to start. Player A knocks out Player B on the first hand, and thus places Player B's $10 on the table, with Player A now having $20. After a few hands, Player A's chip stack has been devastated, and Player A goes all-in. Player C, who only has the starting $10 bounty, calls the bet and wins the hand to knock out Player A. Player C could only take up to the amount of bounty already earned, thus doubling the $10 starting bounty with $10 from Player A. Player A would give $10 of the bounty to Player C, but keep the remaining amount. Thus, the prize pool is distributed as players are knocked out.

EXAMPLE: "Regular tournaments are a lot different than bounty-only tournaments, especially when the bounty is put in front of you instead of paid out immediately. There is a point in a bounty-only tournament in which you may actually want to bust out, if you think you can't win the whole thing but can be busted out by someone who hasn't eliminated many other players."

APPLIES TO: Online and Land-based Venues

RELATED TERMS: Bounty, Bounty Hunter