The PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) began this weekend and though the public could see the two-week schedule in its entirety online, that schedule had been incomplete until Monday. Still open was the Event #57, the Players’ Choice event, whose game type, as one would figure based on its title, was left up to players to decide upon. PokerStars hosted the vote on its Facebook page, allowing people to vote by “like” emoticons. That vote closed yesterday and emerging has the clear winner was No-Limit Progressive Knockout, a tournament suggested by popular Twitch streamer Jamie Staples.
“Progressive Knockouts are a really fun form of tournament; I am excited this has been the most voted option. I wish everyone the best of luck in the Players’ Choice event!” said Staples in a press release issued by the world’s largest online poker room.
Progressive Knockout tournaments are not for the passive player, not for the kind of person who is content with trying to fold their way into a min-cash. Read: I would be terrible at Progressive Knockouts.
As the name implies, it is a knockout tournament, where part of the buy-in is used as a bounty on every player’s head. Eliminate a player, claim their bounty.
But the Progressive Knockout takes it to another level entirely. In these, half of the buy-in is put into the prize pool, while the other half is the bounty on the head of every player in the tournament. So, in a $10 buy-in event, $5 from each player goes to the prize pool and $5 is the bounty on each player. But it gets a bit more complicated than that. When you eliminated an opponent, you don’t get their entire bounty; you only get half. The other half is added to your OWN bounty, making you an even juicier target for your opponents.
What that little twist does is make Progressive Knockout Tournaments more action-packed, as so much of the value comes from actually notching eliminations. And it’s not just about being aggressive in trying to knock people out. The aggressive play needs to start from the get-go, as players must build up big enough stacks to allow them to have opponents covered and be able to eliminate them when the opportunity arises.
“We always take into account the latest trends and player preferences when building the SCOOP schedule,” said Mike Jones, Poker Operations Manager. “A Players’ Choice event is a great way for our customers to directly contribute to that. This event will be a fun way to close out SCOOP 2017, and I’m delighted that our players chose this format.”
The Players’ Choice event will be held on Monday, May 22nd at 11:00am. The three buy-in levels will be $11, $109, and $1,050. Jamie Staples plans on streaming all of his SCOOP events, opting for the low-tier buy-in.
