[qubits]

For some tournaments I use a form of progressive bounties and it's usually a hit. I wanted to share the idea, in case anyone else would find it useful. In addition to an initial chip stack, for a $10 buy-in I also give each player eight $1 coins (scale this to your stakes). When any player is eliminated, the winner pockets half of the loser's $1 coins as bounty earned and adds the remaining coins to his/her own bounty stack. Thus, initial bounties would be $4 on each player. Once one player is eliminated, the winner earns $4 and has a $6 bounty. As a result, successful bounty hunters will have a large bounty placed on their own heads!

At the end of the event, the champion is left with a pile of $1 coins from knocking out other players. Take these coins and add them to the remaining $2 from each player to fund overall awards. With this method, typically half of all winnings will be won as bounties and half will be left for overall payouts. If you allow rebuys, any player that busts out and rebuys should get a new $8 stack of bounty coins (and $2 into overall award pool). If a player adds-on, put the entire $10 into the overall award pool.

It sounds a bit complicated, but people get the hang of it quick. It gets exciting toward the end when some players are worth big money if eliminated, especially if their stacks start to dwindle.

[pkf655]

This is a very interesting concept. One question is are the bountys higher then the tournment payout or do you do a winner takes all. $2 to the winner and $8 to the bounty just seems a little out of whack can you explain a little further. Thanks

[OneMoreYouth]

i agree... i think your proportions are off by a fair margin for the payout:bounty ratio, but thats a GREAT idea. i'll be sure to put it into effect during my next tourney and see how it goes.

[CK15c]

Interesting idea... One thing I notice, once a player goes bust, in a $10 game, they get $8 in coins, and lose $4 by being knocked out. So, the buy-in is actually $6 as they keep $4 for themselves once they're knocked out, correct? I like this idea, but perhaps it would work better with the re-buy option, as when they get $8 more coins, they then have $12 and are worth more without knocking anyone out. Very interesting idea, but I'm sure it could use some tweaking.

I hope that all made sense.

[qubits]

To clarify, CK15c, each player does not get any portion of their buy-in back by getting knocked out. Each entry is paid out as follows:

40% to player that knocks you out
20% to player that knocks out the player that knocked you out
10% to player that knocked out that person
...
20% to overall pool.

However, it is important to point out that the overall pool ends up being much larger than 20% because the winner's bounty coin pile is added to overall awards. Here's an example 8 player tournament:

Initial:
1) Players A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H each with $4 bounty attached

Let's say A knocks out B, C knocks out D and E, and F knocks out G. A gets $4, C gets $8, and F got $4. This leaves:

2) H still with a $4 bounty (8 coins), A and F with $6 bounty (12 coins), C with $8 bounty (16 coins).

Next A beats C and H beats F.

3) A won another $8 ($12 so far) and has $10 bounty (20 coins). H won $6 and has a $7 bounty (14 coins).

Finally A beats H, taking another $7 bounty ($19 total) and 7 coins, leaving him with 27 coins. The $27 is added to the $16 set aside from the 8 buyins, for a total of $43 to be paid out to top finishers.

In general I've found that approximately half of the buyins are distributed as bounties and half is left for overall awards (20% directly from buyins and ~30% from winners bounty coins). Of course ratios could be adjusted to taste, but powers of 2 are convenient and seem to work out well.

[BCR_9er]

Originally Posted by qubits

When any player is eliminated, the winner pockets half of the loser's $1 coins as bounty earned and adds the remaining coins to his/her own bounty stack.

Does this mean you have to pay them right away as opposed to paying them when they're knocked out?

Also, could you do this with 4 bouty chips, or is that not enough?

This sounds like a great idea though. I may have to give it a try soon.

[qubits]

You could use bounty chips and have players redeem them later, if you prefer. Players often ask me to buy back the dollar coins anyway, so tokens would work in a similar manner. The only concern is that 4 chips per player may not be enough. If any player is eliminated with an odd number of bounty coins/chips you have to choose between awarding the odd coin as a bounty prize or adding it to the bounty of the eliminator. Using 8 chips/coins makes this less likely, although still possible. It's a small point, so as long as you have a rule for the situation, 4 coins/chips should be fine. Using 8, this has never come up in my games yet, but if it did I'd probably split the odd coin into four quarters. For a larger buyin it may be more convenient to use 4 or 8 bounty chips instead of 16 (or more) dollar coins, so it just comes down to your circumstances and preferences.