Bounty Element No Longer Has Rake

You don’t need millions to play tournaments if you know where to go, such as online tournaments with a lower buy-in than before. PartyPoker released a blog post stating they are going to remove the “rake” from the “bounty element” in their Progressive Knockout Tournament. The PKO is an online tournament that they host. The structural changes to the game will begin May 6th, 2018. It is also the start of PowerFest, their online poker series.

The policy is only going to be in effect for six months. The idea is to make a permanent reduction in pricing, as long as they obtain support from the poker community.

Lowering fees allows more people to join PartyPoker tournaments. Patrick Leonard, the PartyPoker ambassador said, the bounty element is unfair. If you register for a $20 tournament, with 1000 players, then the prize pool after a $2 rake becomes $20,000. If the main prize pool is $10,000, then the tournament is $10,000. As long as a person registered on time they can play. After three hours the tournament may still be going with only 350 people. If someone joins the tournament late, with the rake added to the pool, then that person has a chance of winning less than the initial registrants.

In other words, if someone registers late, they will see $13,5000 instead of a prize pool that was initially $20,000. It is all because of the rake with the bounty element. It is a rather convoluted concept that is not easy even when an ambassador explains it.

Patrick Leonard was instrumental in getting the changes made with this feedback on how unfair the system is. Tom Waters, the managing director of the website stated it was the feedback from poker players and the ambassador that made the company look at the rake and bounty element and decide to change the tournament fees to make the overall prize pool fairer.

Poker Ambassadors are a Thing

Leonard is not the only poker ambassador that has been hired by PartyPoker. Elky joins PartyPoker as the newest ambassador. There are also plenty of top poker players who blog or vlog who are starting to get sponsorships from companies. They represent poker sites, play games, and help new players learn the ropes. It is a more recent addition to poker. It is also helping garner more advertising and marketing for various sites.