Incentives matter.

Nowhere is that more true than in tournaments. And nowhere in tournaments is it more pronounced than in Progressive Knockout (PKO) formats.

Open the lobby of any major online poker site — GG Poker, PokerStars, or ACRpoker — and you’ll see that PKOs dominate the MTT schedule. Their popularity has extended to the live arena as well, with major brands like the WSOP and WPT building their schedules to include progressive knockouts.

It’s a core part of modern tournament poker and the online MTT economy.

And yet, many players still approach PKOs with a sloppy, laissez-faire attitude or worse, using standard MTT logic.

PKO tournament strategy is fundamentally different because the bounty component alters risk premiums, affecting calling thresholds, and optimal aggression across all stages of the game.

If you want to remain competitive in today’s tournament environment, you need to understand how to play PKOs correctly.

Welcome to BBZ’s Ultimate Guide to Progressive Knockout Tournament Strategy.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• What Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are and how they work
• Why PKOs are often more profitable than traditional MTTs
• The core theory behind PKO strategy (including equity adjustments and bounty dynamics)
• Three key tactical adjustments that separate winning PKO players from the field

What are Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs)?

PKOs are one of the most popular tournament formats in the online poker ecosystem.

In a Progressive Knockout tournament, the buy-in is split into two prize pools. Typically, 50% goes to the main prize pool — awarded based on final finishing position, just like in a traditional MTT.

The remaining portion funds the bounty prize pool (BPP), which is earned by eliminating opponents.

However, this split structure is not what makes PKOs unique. Traditional Knockout (KO) and Super Knockout (SKO) tournaments also allocate part of the buy-in to bounties.

What distinguishes PKOs is that a player’s bounty increases in dollar value each time they eliminate an opponent. As a result, bounty values compound over time — making the game much more dynamic that a KO, SKO or regular tournament.

 

How PKO Bounties Work Before the Money (ITM)

In a Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournament, bounties are not awarded all at once. Instead, each bounty is partially paid out immediately, while the remainder is redistributed in a way that creates future incentives and compounding value.

When you knock a player out, think of their bounty as being split into three parts, even though it is delivered in two steps.

 

Immediate Payout (50% of the bounty)

Half of the bounty is paid directly to your account as cash. This portion is removed from the game permanently, which is why the total bounty prize pool shrinks as players are eliminated.

 

Bounty Increase (25% of the bounty)

Half of the remaining bounty is added to your own bounty. This increases the reward for knocking you out later and represents deferred value that can only be realized by another player. This drives the progressive nature of PKOs.

 

Rolling Bounty Value (25% of the bounty)

The final quarter is set aside as rolling bounty value. This amount is not paid out immediately and instead carries forward until you are eliminated, at which point it is split again. Each time it moves to a new player, it is halved—part added to their bounty, part passed forward—further adding to the progressive nature of PKO tournaments.

 

Let’s look at an example.

 

Example: How PKO Bounty Value Rolls Forward

In this example, you are playing a $109 PKO tournament where 50% goes to the main prize pool and 50% to the bounty prize pool.

 

Bounty Breakdown

• Starting bounty: $50
• PKO payout structure:
  • 50% immediate payout
  • 25% bounty increase
  • 25% rolling bounty value

 

Step 1: You Knock Out Player A

Player A has a $50 bounty.

• Immediate payout: $50 × 50% = $25 paid to you
• Bounty increase (your head): $50 × 25% = $12.50 Your bounty increases from $25 to $37.50
• Rolling bounty value: $50 × 25% = $12.50 Set aside to be passed forward if you are eliminated

Your state after the knockout

• Your bounty: $37.50
• Your rolling bounty value: $12.50

 

Step 2: You Are Knocked Out by a Covering Stack (Player B)

Player B already holds a $37.50 bounty and covers you in chips.

• Immediate payout to Player B: Your $37.50 bounty is paid to them in cash
• Bounty increase for Player B: Half of your rolling bounty value is added to their bounty $12.50 ÷ 2 = $6.25 Player B’s bounty increases from $37.50 to $43.75
• New rolling bounty value for Player B: The remaining $6.25 is added to Player B’s existing rolling bounty value ($12.50), creating a new rolling bounty value of $18.75

 

Step 3: What Happens Next

If Player B is eliminated later:

• $43.75 is paid immediately to their eliminator
• $18.75 is split again:
  • Half added to the eliminator’s bounty
  • Half passed forward as rolling bounty value

 

Why PKO Incentives Compound

In PKO tournaments, bounty EV is never fully realized at the moment of elimination. Each knockout converts part of a player’s bounty into immediate cash, while the remainder is added to your own bounty.

This deferred and compounding structure makes bounty EV increasingly dynamic as the field shrinks, stacks consolidate, and individual bounties grow in size.

Eliminating a player who has already collected bounties is therefore worth more than eliminating a player who has not, because their bounty has already grown through prior knockouts.

Why Play Progressive Knockout Tournaments?

Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments fundamentally change the incentive structure of tournament poker. The presence of bounties—and the way those bounties grow and roll forward—naturally encourages a more aggressive, action-heavy style of play.

As discussed in early PKO literature, the format uniquely aligns incentives across the ecosystem.

All-in confrontations occur more frequently, multiway pots are more common, and wider ranges are often rewarded. Compared to regular tournament formats, excessively tight or passive strategies are more severely punished. The result is a tournament environment that benefits every major participant in the ecosystem: recreational players, poker operators, and winning players.

 

Recreational Players Stay Engaged Longer

In traditional tournaments, less experienced players often need a deep run just to break even. In PKOs, that pressure is reduced.

A single knockout can return a meaningful portion of a player’s buy-in early in the event. This acts as a built-in rebate, slowing loss rates and making downswings less discouraging. Players stay engaged, the game remains fun, and participation lasts longer.

 

Poker Operators Benefit From Sustained Liquidity

Because bounties are paid out immediately, money re-enters the site’s ecosystem rather than being locked up until the end of the tournament. As long as recreational players retain buy-ins, tournaments continue to run.

More entries mean more rake and entry fees collected, while the faster-paced, higher-action nature of PKOs helps keep traffic healthy across stakes and time zones.

But the benefits don’t stop with the host.

 

Winning Players Gain a Larger Edge

By keeping weaker players active longer, PKOs create a wider and more durable opportunity window for strong players. Professionals and serious amateurs are able to realize their edge over a larger sample of hands than in classic formats, where recreational money often busts quickly.

Additionally, PKOs are strategically more demanding. The presence of bounties introduces dynamic incentives that require specialized study—an area often underexplored by other regulars. As a result, PKO tournaments tend to be significantly softer than regular formats, leading to higher long-term ROIs for players who put in the work.

 

A Rarer Case of Aligned Incentives

While poker is inherently close to a zero-sum game, PKOs do a better job than most formats at distributing value throughout the field. Recreational players enjoy faster rewards, operators maintain liquidity, and strong players retain healthy win rates.

That alignment is a major reason why PKOs have become one of the most popular tournament formats online.

Now that you know what PKOs are and why they’re so popular, how do you play them?

 

A Crash Course in PKO Theory

In Progressive Knockout tournaments, many of the strategic adjustments players observe—wider calls, thinner value bets, and increased aggression—are the effects of one core concept: negative risk premiums.

(Before continuing, you should be comfortable with the basics of ICM — particularly bubble factors and risk premiums. These concepts are fundamental to tournament poker and essential for understanding PKO strategy.)

In regular tournament formats, risk premiums are always positive. Because busting has a cost, players generally require more than break-even equity to justify risking their tournament life.

This naturally leads to tighter play and greater general risk aversion.

PKOs introduce a side incentive—the bounty—that can offset, or even reverse, this cost.

When a player covers their opponent, the bounty effectively reduces the equity required to compete for the pot. Once translated into chip-equivalent value, this can create negative risk premiums, where risking large portions of your stack—in some instances, elimination—is no longer a liability. Importantly, negative risk premiums only apply to covering stacks.

Let’s look at a few examples to see how this plays out in practice.

 

Example 1: Start of Tournament – Regular Format Versus PKO.

We begin with a regular tournament at the start of play.

GTO Wizard Bubble Factors — 100bb effective, 100% of a 1,000-player field remaining. Risk premiums are expressed in percentages.

At this stage, risk premiums sit around 1.7%. This is effectively negligible, allowing strategies to remain close to pure chip EV.

Now compare this to a PKO tournament at the same stage, but with slight stack asymmetry.

GTO Wizard Bubble Factors — PKO format, 100bb average stacks, 100% of 1,000-player field remaining. Risk premiums expressed in percentages.

With stack asymmetry in play, we immediately see negative risk premiums emerge for covering players. The most notable example is the Big Blind, who covers the table with a 109bb stack and carries a risk premium of approximately –5% against the other players.

Similarly, the Hijack—covered only by the Big Blind—experiences the same negative risk premium versus the rest of the table.

This has strategic consequences. Most notably, in all-in situations, you need less equity to justify calling – this is sometimes called an equity drop, discount or reduction. Whatever you call it, it’s fundamental to PKOs.

 

Big Blind Defense: Regular vs PKO

To illustrate, we’ll compare BB defense in both scenarios.

GTO Wizard cEV BB v UTG RFI strategy overview – 100bb effective, 100% field remaining in 1000 runner tournament. BB plays a combined 61.6% range (call and 3-bet).

GTO Wizard PKO BB v UTG RFI strategy overview – 100bb average asymmetric stacks, 100% field remaining in 1000 runner tournament. BB plays a combined 65.1% range (call and 3-bet).

Facing a UTG raise-first-in:

• Regular format: BB defends 61.6% of hands
• PKO format: BB defends 65.1% of hands

Moreover, the increased defense isn’t only expressed in more calling.

In the regular format:

• BB 3-bets 43.85 combos
• BB calls 773.5 combos

In the PKO format:

• BB 3-bets 59.55 combos
• BB calls 804 combos

The negative risk premium enjoyed by the covering stack turns previously marginal or losing hands into profitable calls and 3-bets.

This pattern repeats throughout PKO tournaments:

Covering stacks are incentivized to play wider and more aggressively.

 

Example 2: Mid-Tournament Vs Covered Player

Next, let’s examine a mid-tournament scenario with 50% of the field remaining and a spread out distribution of stack sizes.

In a regular tournament:

 

GTO Wizard Bubble Factors — 35bb average stacks, 50% of a 1,000-player field remaining. Risk premiums expressed in percentages.

Risk premiums increase across the board, ranging from 2.1% to 4.7%, reflecting the rising value of tournament equity as stacks consolidate. The table boss (LJ) plays slightly tighter than tournament start versus all positions despite covering everyone.

Now compare this with the same situation in a PKO, using a realistic distribution of bounties.

 

GTO Wizard Table View — PKO format, 35bb average stacks, varying bounty sizes.

Above, you can see the table view relevant to the bubble factor chart below.

 

GTO Wizard Bubble Factors for 35bb average asymmetric stacks, 50% of a 1,000-player field remaining. Risk premiums expressed in percentages.

When we examine the corresponding bubble factors, we see risk premiums diverge sharply based on coverage and bounty size. Against covering opponents—players with more chips than you—risk premiums rise. Against opponents you cover—especially those with inflated bounties—risk premiums continue to fall.

The clearest example is the LJ versus BTN interaction, where LJ faces a –7.6% risk premium. BTN’s relatively short stack combined with a 2× starting bounty makes engaging with them and contesting for stacks especially attractive.

Let’s look at this exact scenario.

 

Why You Call Wider in PKOs

 

In this spot, LJ opens off of 65bb and BTN reshoves all-in for 26bb. We’ll compare the regular format versus the PKO.

GTO Wizard LJ (65bb) v BTN (26bb) and table view for 35bb average asymmetric stacks, 50% of a 1,000-player field remaining. Non-PKO. LJ response to BTN all-in after opening.

GTO Wizard LJ (65bb) v BTN (26bb) and table view for 35bb average asymmetric stacks, 50% of a 1,000-player field remaining. PKO. LJ response to BTN all-in after opening.

If the LJ opens and BTN shoves for 26bb:

• Regular format: LJ calls 26.8%, folding 73.2%.
• PKO format: LJ calls 36.3%, folding 63.7%.

LJ’s calling range expands due to the added bounty incentive and its resulting equity drop, while BTN’s reshove range widens for value. As a result, hands that would be folds for LJ in a regular tournament become profitable calls in PKOs. More on this later.

 

An Important Takeaway

Negative risk premiums are the engine behind PKO strategy. They explain why covering stacks can play wider, call more aggressively, and pressure opponents in ways that would be incorrect in the regular format.

Once this concept is understood, many of the “chaotic” features of PKO play become much easier to understand.

In fact, this is precisely why there’s so much aggression in the earlier stages of a PKO.

 

Bounties as a Depleting Resource

In the early stages of a PKO, bounty incentives are near their peak. Starting bounties represent a significant portion of the buy-in, ICM pressure is minimal, and the opportunity to capture untouched bounties is at its highest.

As the tournament progresses, however, the bounty prize pool steadily contracts. Each elimination removes a starting bounty from circulation, and increasing ICM pressure reduces the relative value of marginal chip gains. While individual bounties grow through knockouts, the total pool of available bounty EV shrinks.

Only at the very late stages does this dynamic partially reverse, as the eventual winner looks to claim the accumulated bounty on their own head.

The two-bar chart below illustrates this relationship: while the main prize pool remains intact throughout the event, the bounty prize pool continuously evaporates as players are eliminated.

 

Bar Chart illustrating tournament stage relationship with main prize pool and bounty prize pool size.

This creates urgency in the early and middle stages. Bounties are both more plentiful and more valuable relative to stack sizes and payout considerations. Failing to compete for them early — for example, through late registration — forfeits a significant portion of the format’s inherent EV.

Although bounties increase in absolute dollar value as the tournament progresses, their relative value becomes diluted by growing stack sizes and mounting ICM pressure. This tension between absolute bounty growth and relative strategic value is central to understanding optimal PKO adjustments.

Let’s now turn to how these incentives translate into concrete strategy.

What You Need to Know to Crush PKOs

In the previous section, we built intuition around how bounties influence incentives and reshape tournament dynamics. Intuition on its own can lead to sloppy, losing play. To execute profitably in PKOs, you need technical tools.

This section introduces two core calculations that every serious PKO player must understand.

 

How to Convert Bounties to Chips

Winning PKO tournaments requires the ability to convert bounty value into chip EV — especially in the early stages. Once converted, this chip value is incorporated directly into your pot odds calculations, lowering the equity required to call in all-in situations.

This is the easiest calculation in your PKO toolkit.

Bounty-to-Chip Conversion Formula

Immediate Payout ÷ Total Entry Fee (excluding rake) × Starting Chips = Bounty in Chips

Example — $109 Progressive Knockout

You enter a $109 PKO where $100 goes to the prize pools (assuming $9 rake). The format uses a standard 50/50 split:

• $50 to the main prize pool
• $50 to the bounty prize pool

Each player starts with 10,000 tournament chips.

The $50 bounty pool is divided into:

• $25 immediate payout (cash you receive upon elimination)
• $25 added to your own bounty

To convert the immediate bounty to chips:

25 ÷ 100 × 10,000 = 2,500 chips

The starting bounty is therefore worth 2,500 chips.

When calculating pot odds — particularly in preflop all-in situations — you add this chip value to the pot. This is where the reduced equity comes from.

In the earliest stages of a tournament, this formula is sufficiently accurate and can meaningfully increase your win rate. It is admittedly a crude approximation, but it is the minimum technical competency required to play PKOs profitably.

As the tournament progresses, however, additional variables must be considered — which we address in the next section.

 

What is Bounty Power?

Bounty Power measures the big blind value of one dollar of bounty at a given stage of the tournament, based on total chips in play and remaining prize pools.

Because prize pools shrink while chip stacks consolidate, bounty values in chips are not static. This is why the simple early-stage bounty-to-chip conversion becomes increasingly inaccurate as the tournament progresses.

Once calculated, Bounty Power allows you to convert a bounty into a big blind equivalent that can be added directly to your pot odds calculations.

Bounty Power Formula

Bounty Power = Total Big Blinds in Play ÷ (Remaining Bounty Prize Pool + Remaining Main Prize Pool) 1

1 Tombos21, “The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments,” GTO Wizard Blog, https://blog.gtowizard.com/the-theory-of-progressive-knockout-tournaments/

 

Example: Mid-Stage Calculation

 

Context

• $215 buy-in
• 1,000 entries
• $200,000 total prize pools
• $100 main pool / $100 bounty pool
• 50% of the field remaining (500 players)
• 35bb average stack
• Pre-ITM

 

Step 1 — Total BB in Play

Remaining players = 500

Total BB in Play = 35bb × 500 Total BB in Play = 17,500bb

 

Step 2 — Remaining Prize Pools

Remaining Bounty Pool = 500 players × $50 starting bounty Remaining Bounty Pool = $25,000

Remaining Main Prize Pool (pre-ITM, intact) = $50,000

Total Remaining Prize Pool = $75,000

 

Step 3 — Calculate Bounty Power

Bounty Power = Total BB in Play ÷ Total Remaining Prize Pool

Bounty Power = 17,500 ÷ 75,000 Bounty Power = 0.233

Each $1 of bounty value is therefore worth 0.233 big blinds.

 

Step 4 — Adjust Required Equity

 

Scenario

LJ must call 24bb to win 54.5bb (excluding bounty).

 

Standard Pot Odds

Required Equity = 24 ÷ 54.5 Required Equity = 44%

 

Now Account for the Bounty

Opponent’s bounty = $50

Convert bounty to big blinds:

Bounty in BB = 50 × 0.233 Bounty in BB = 11.67bb

New effective pot:

Effective Pot = 54.5bb + 11.67bb Effective Pot = 66.17bb

Adjusted required equity:

Required Equity = 24 ÷ 66.17 Required Equity = 36.3%

 

The Result

Without bounty consideration: Required equity = 44%

With bounty adjustment: Required equity = 36.3%

That’s an equity drop of approximately 7.7% — a clear example of the negative risk premium in action.

 

3 Key PKO Tactics

In this section, I’ll outline three practical adjustments you can implement immediately to improve your PKO results while you continue refining the underlying theory. They should be relatively intuitive.

 

1. Always Play From the Start

Unlike regular MTTs — where late registration can increase ROI — late registration actively harms your win rate in PKOs.

Every knockout removes bounty EV from the ecosystem. Players who start from the beginning capture untouched starting bounties, compounding their own value while shrinking the total available prize pool. By entering late, you pay full price for a tournament with less bounty EV remaining.

If you bust early, re-enter only when the tournament is still in its early stages—ideally when:

• The field is large
• Many starting bounties remain in play
• The average stack is still close to the starting stack

In smaller fields, or once stacks have significantly diverged from their starting point, re-entering becomes much harder to justify.

 

2. Play Aggressively — Especially When Covering

PKOs structurally reward aggression.

There is a race to become a covering stack because covering stacks enjoy a negative risk premium and therefore get to realize bounty EV more efficiently.

This requires:

• Pressuring shorter stacks
• Widening value thresholds
• Embracing variance in profitable all-in spots

Once you cover a table segment — especially players to your right — apply relentless pressure.

Conversely, when you are short and covered, tighten your ranges. Larger stacks will correctly get it in lighter against you due to bounty incentives. Your stack-offs will occur with less fold equity and against wider ranges than in a regular MTT.

 

3. Gamble Early, Gamble Intelligently

PKOs make certain marginal stack-offs more forgiving.

In regular ICM environments, thin all-ins torch equity with no redeeming upside. In PKOs, the bounty component often compensates for thinner equity margins.

In traditional ICM: The better mistake is usually stacking off too tight.

In PKOs: The better mistake is often stacking off too wide — especially early.

That does not mean gambling blindly. It means recognizing when the bounty justifies the variance.

Study these spots off-table to sharpen precision. But if you’re unsure in-game, err slightly toward aggression rather than passivity.

Conclusion

Progressive Knockout tournaments are one of the most profitable formats in modern tournament poker, provided you understand them.

If you approach PKOs like regular MTTs, you are playing at a clear disadvantage.

The edge in this format comes from correctly converting bounty value, adjusting equity thresholds, and applying pressure when dynamics allow it.

If you’re serious about improving in PKOs, don’t rely on naked intuition.

BBZ runs frequent PKO-focused seminars led by Jargo “bungakat” Alaväli, where real hands and deep solver work are broken down in detail for serious MTT players looking to gain a measurable edge.

For a complete progression from fundamentals to mastery, the Bounty MTT Course with Ryan “newguy89” McEathron delivers a comprehensive framework for beating PKOs.

And if you want to sharpen your execution immediately, the BBZ Preflop Trainer includes PKO-specific charts and interactive drills so you can train as the covering stack, the covered stack, and every configuration in between.

If you’re not in the BBZ loop yet, sign up here.

We’re also in discord.