Bounty Rules and Strategy

[Skallagrim45]

I was playing in the MWCI last thursday and an interesting situation came up involving a celebrity bounty. I have already e-mailed support about the specific game and situation, and am still awaiting their reply. But as I thought about it more, it seems that the situation is quite likely to repeat itself, and the rules ought to be publicly known so that a player can adjust his or her stategy accordingly.

The situation is as follows: in any of the celebrity tournaments with bounties, you are sitting at a table with a large stack in the big blind, as the betting goes around, a small stack goes all in, a celebrity with a bounty calls, and then it is folded around to you. You call. The flop comes very good for you and the celebrity, who still has chips left, checks.

Here is where you must make a decision, do you bet enough to cover the celebrity? You might, thinking that even if you lose to the small all-in stack, you may still take all the rest of the celebrity's chips...so you put the celebrity all-in. As the cards play out, the small stack sucks out on the river, taking the main (small) pot, but your hand tops the celebrity's, you take the side pot, and the celebrity is eliminated from the tournament.

Who should get the bounty, you or the small stack?

I am waiting for support to answer this question, though I can tell you htat when this happened to me, I found out the next day the small stack got awarded the bounty.

So if its not you who gets the bounty in this situation was it good stategy to put the celebrity all in? Probably not if the small stack gets the bounty.

If support does not post an answer to the question about who gets the bounty here in the forum, I wil report back the answer I get in my e-mail.

This is not a complaint, but if the rule really is that the small stack in the above situatioin gets the bounty, then I wish I had known that at the time cause ole "Rock Hudson" was cruising at the time, and I would have saved his bounty for later if I hadn't thought that I would get the bounty there.

Skallagrim

[Al N Smithee]

Obviously, it is a programer's misconception of the game where the 'if/then' code scenario just covers the winner of the hand. But, from a reality stand point the bounty should be awarded to whomever takes out the celebrity. Not that I will ever be in this situation, but still am anxious to hear the reply. If it is stated ambiguously in the 'rules' here, then I think the bounty in this case should be paid to both players, but the true winner of it would have to be the one who took the celebrity out of the game.

Interesting case. Thanks for bringing it to all of our attention.

You are right, by the way, James was cruising. It was a derailment of major proportion in any event. Bottom line, it was just good poker move and congratulations on the take-out regardless.

Also congrats on your overall performance in the tourney. Helluva showing again. Good luck with obtaining your just award here.

[Torrey Pines]

Skallagrim45,
I had a simular, yet different situation a few weeks ago. In my situation, Tom McGowan was the small stack, I was second smallest and there were larger stacks also in the pot. I won the main pot, and was awarded the bounty since I had more chips than Tom. To me it should be your bounty, since it was your subsequent action in the pot that knocked him out. Did you save the hand number, that may make it easier for support to help get you an answer faster.

Let us know what the verdict is.

[Anthony]

Let me make sure I understand your scenario correctly.

- Short stack goes all in.
- Celebrity with more chips than the short stack calls.
- You have more chips than both the celeb and short stack and move over the top.

The short stack beats both your hand and the celeb hand, but your hand beats the celeb hand and you had more chips than the celeb.

If this is the correct scenario..... the large stack would win the bounty. If a player has less chips than the celebrity they can never knock them out, hence no bounty for the short stack.

I will forward this thread onto support for you Skallagrim45.....we will review the hand history and pay your bounty if the above situation occurred.

My apologies for the delay.

[Skallagrim45]

Got my reply from support today and it is now official, I did win the bounty in the above situation

Another well deserved thanks to the HP support staff - the best in the business

And so we all now know for certain: put those celebrities all in any time you can!

Skallagrim

[Al N Smithee]

Only way that scenario could have logically ended up, but still glad for you both that it was resolved this way. Many things in life defy the logical solutions.

Well done Skall. Well done HP. And thanks for posting also so now we all know.