Mystery Bounty tournaments – Extreme excitement or just another gimmick?

Hi everyone,

What do you guys think about Mystery Bounty tournaments? Personally, I find them extremely exciting because you never really know what you might get when you knock someone out. Even a relatively small bounty can suddenly turn into a huge one, which adds a completely different element to the tournament.

At the same time, I sometimes wonder whether the mystery element actually makes the tournaments more fun or simply adds more variance and gambling-like excitement. It can definitely change the way you approach certain spots, especially when the bounties become significant compared to the remaining tournament stack.

I’m curious how other players feel about them. Do you find Mystery Bounties genuinely exciting and more entertaining than regular PKOs, or do you see them as just another gimmick that increases variance?

What’s your opinion?

Mixed feelings about this format. My biggest cash so far and by far was from a mistery bounty, but sometimes it feels like pure gambling and no skill whatsoever

I like mystery bounty tournaments. Even though I’ve never won anything really exciting, it’s always fun having the chance of hitting a big prize.

I actually enjoy Mystery Bounty tournaments, mainly because they add a little more excitement to the game. You never know what you’re going to get after knocking someone out, so there’s always that extra bit of anticipation. That said, I think they definitely add more variance. I’m a pretty conservative player, so I don’t like changing my whole strategy just because there might be a big bounty involved. I’d rather focus on playing my hand properly and let the bounty be a bonus. I think they’re more fun than regular tournaments, but I’m not sure I prefer them over regular PKOs. The mystery element is exciting, but it can also make people take risks they probably wouldn’t take in a normal tournament. For me, that’s probably the biggest difference.

As a part time "for profit" player I support all innovations, that make the game more fun for recreational players, as long as it does not make the game unbeatable or take away skill edges completely. Mystery bounties (MB) add a lottery element, but as long as the price pool is still paid out without each tournament, as it is in MTTs, it does not drive up variance that much.

So I think, its fine, that sites offer these games as a variation. But I dont think, they should make up the bulk of the MTT schedule, as they do on 888 Poker. Then it gets kind of old pretty quickly to watch those boxes getting opened and see, that someone won $2.5 or $5 in a microstakes MB MTT. Personally I have started out with a bit of sunrun in these games collecting some big MBs on both PokerStars and ACR Poker, which is of course always nice