Fresh off the heels of the biggest-ever edition of the World Championship of Online Poker, PokerStars rolls right into another massive tournament series.
The latest big online poker festival comes in the form of the PokerStars Bounty Builder Series, set to run Oct. 11-25 on the international PokerStars client. The two-week festival offers more than 200 different events, all of which play as Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments.
The series offers $30 million in guaranteed prize money, including a pair of Main Events with seven-figure prize pools. Both Main Events kick off on Sunday, Oct. 25.
While all tournaments in the Bounty Builder Series play as PKO tournaments, a number of different poker variants are featured across the 213 events in the two-week festival.
Two Main Events start Oct. 25
The two biggest prize pools offered in the Bounty Builder Series come from the pair of Main Events slated to start Oct. 25 at 1 pm Eastern Time.
The first of those centerpiece events comes in Event #204: $530 NLHE, which guarantees $2.5 million. The $530 buy-in tournament plays as a multi-day event, with $250 from each buy-in going toward player bounties.
The eventual winner of Event #204 will take home $475,632 at minimum from the regular prize pool. The progressive bounties earned by the winner will push the total winner's prize far beyond that, however.
Event #205: $55 NLHE also starts Oct. 25, kicking off at 1:15 pm Eastern Time. The $55 buy-in event offers $1 million guaranteed, with $25 bounties. Satellites to both Main Events are already running on PokerStars and will continue throughout the days leading up to the pair of big-money tournaments.
Other notable Bounty Builder Events
The Bounty Builder Series' first day of action, Oct. 11, offers another tournament with at least $1 million up for grabs. Event #6: $530 NLHE HR SE promises a $1 million prize pool. Another big guarantee comes in Event #105: $109 NLHE Sunday Million, with at least $1.5 million awarded.
No-Limit Hold'em isn't the only game played in the Bounty Builder Series. Other poker variants featured include Pot-Limit Omaha, No-Limit Omaha 8, Six-Plus Hold'em, 8-Game Mix, and HORSE.
PokerStars saves some of the biggest-money events for the final day of the tournament. In addition to the double Main Event, the Oct. 25 schedule includes Event #210: $215 NLHE $400,000 Guaranteed, as well as Event #207: $109 NLHE 6-Max Turbo $300,000 Guaranteed.
Popular PKO format continues to thrive in 2020
The Progressive Knockout format adds an exciting element to multi-table tournament poker and offers the opportunity to earn a payout without even finishing in the money.
PKO tournaments assign a set amount of each buy-in as a bounty on the head of each player. Whenever you eliminate a player, you earn half of that player's bounty.
The other half is then added to your own bounty, and any player that eliminates you earns half of that bounty, with the other half applied to their total. The PKO format sees the bounty payouts swell to massive sizes in the later stages of the tournament.
The eventual tournament winner not only claims the first-place prize, but also the full bounty on the head of the runner-up finisher. For example, a recent Bounty Builder $530 tournament on PokerStars saw player 'Rigapols81' win $36,940 for first place, and an added $44,465 in progressive bounties.
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