Short-Handed Bounty Games

[frob23]

A while ago, I mentioned that I was playing a bunch of 6-handed bounty sit and go tournaments on the Merge network. These are games where you have a $1.00+$0.20(+$1.00 bounty) buy-in structure.

I gave my reasons at the time for playing in those games (mostly comp points related) and won't need to restate them here. But I accepted, at the time, that these games will have a lower expectation than a standard sit and go with the same buy-in amount ($2.20). So the question I have to ask myself is just how much am I giving up in expectation by playing these games?

After 51 games, I am starting to have an idea. After these games, I have collected a total of $128.50 in bounties and prize money. From the very start, I was careful to log in a manner that kept the bounty and the prize money distinct so I could eventually find out how much I was giving up. From these numbers, I can say that I would have made $138.00 if I had played $2.00+$0.20 6-handed sit and gos that were not bounty games.

In short, over 51 games, I have $9.50 less than I would have with the exact same results if I was playing non-bounty games. It's been costing me about $0.19 in expected value each game so far. I've had some bad runs (although I am showing a total profit) and I expect the accuracy of this negative expectation to get better as I play more games. I do not expect, at this time, for the bounty games to have a higher expectation than a normal game at any time.

Considering that I have been making an average profit of only $0.32 from each game (I did have a bad run), giving up $0.19 in value is a large percentage of my potential profits. I would bring my ROI from 14.5% to 23% if I was playing in regular games.

Of course, part of my problem is the limited amount of time I have to play these games. And I have little desire to increase either the time I play or the number of tables I play at one time. Because of this, I need to ask myself if that over-rides the value I am giving up. Right now, I think it does. But that is for the time being. Eventually, when I clear these points or have a large enough bankroll on the site in question, I will not need to play these any more. Once I do not need to play them, I probably won't. I do not believe they could ever have a positive expectation over the normal 6-handed tournaments.

Actually, thanks to these games, I have grown rather fond of 6-handed sit and gos. They're pretty fun. I just won't be playing the short-handed bounty games forever because you give up a lot of value.

[Vito_Nuccio]

I avoid the bounty tourneys. If you are not risking chips and eliminating others, you are not winning in a bounty tourney, the pay scale takes a big hit (up to 50%) for a bounty game. You could finish first and take out only one player while 2nd place takes out the rest and makes equal or more prize money.

Many players must like bounties, I see many of them going, but for a tight aggressive player, they should be avoided.


Later,