I recently recorded a video for YouTube called Tips for Bounty Tournaments [PKO Strategy], where I talked about how and why your shoving ranges need to be different when you're playing a bounty tournament, compared to a regular tournament.
You can watch the full video below:
If you want to make more profitable push/fold decisions in bounty/PKO tournaments, this is the poker tutorial article for you!
Here's the situation that I analysed:
It folds to you in the Cut Off with 11bb and pocket 2s. Do you shove or do you fold?
This video explores three different scenarios:
1. Chip EV
2. When you have one bounty
3. When you have three bounties
and discusses why and how you should adjust your shoving ranges in each one.
This video tackles one of the common misconceptions and perhaps counter-intuitive concepts that will help you make more profitable decisions at the table and avoid punting in the future.
We were far from the money so there were no ICM considerations for working out this spot.
Chip EV Nash shoving range
We're going to look at the Chip EV Nash shoving range as a starting point and then compare the other ranges to this one. The CO can shove 36.5%, 33+ Ax K3s+ K7o+ Q6s+ Q9o+ J8s+ J9o+ T8s+ 98s in this spot, which looks like this:
This means that small pocket pairs and medium suited connectors/gappers are profitable shoves. These will be important to look at later on.
Starting bounty Nash shoving range
Now we're going to look at what happens when you have a starting bounty. The CO can now shove 31.2%, 22+ Ax K5s+ K9o+ Q8s+ QTo+ J9s+ JTo T9s, which is a little bit tighter than the Chip EV Nash shoving range.
Pocket 2s are still in there, but many of the suited connectors and gappers have dropped out. They generate a lot of their overall EV from fold equity and since the blinds are now going to call wider to chase your bounty, you have to be more selective in our shoving range.
3x starting bounty Nash shoving range
Now we're going to look at the final scenario, where you have three starting bounties. The CO can now shove 36.5%, 33+ Ax K3s+ K7o+ Q6s+ Q9o+ J8s+ J9o+ T8s+ 98s, which is now a little wider again, but the range construction is very, very different.
Pocket 2s drops out, some of the suited connectors and gappers come back in and more high card heavy hands appear. This is down to the increase likelihood that more than one players behind chases our bounties so you will end up in multiway spots more frequently.
The BTN is supposed to re-jam 64.1% of hands in this spot and then the SB is supposed to overcall 56%. As you can see from this graphic, those are some insanely wide calling ranges and really show the effect having a big bounty can have on the optimal line.
Conclusion
Hopefully you can see that the three solutions shows you that you must adjust your shoving ranges in bounty tournaments from those in regular tournaments. If you have a starting bounty then you must shove tighter than Chip EV Nash, and then when you have a few starting bounties you can shove wider, but you have to omit the weakest suited connectors and gappers and lowest pocket pair.
Good luck!