What are Mystery Bounty Tournaments? - Poker Guide
What are Treasure Hunt (Mystery Bounty) Tournaments?
Stake offers a wide range of exciting poker formats and games that you can play online at Stake Casino. Among the many types of poker formats, Treasure Hunt has quickly become a popular format that features exciting elimination gameplay. Known also as Mystery Bounty tournaments, this thrilling card game format blends standard poker gameplay with the excitement of a lottery. Here is a quick poker guide to understanding how they work and the key strategic differences.
What are the Differences Between Mystery Bounty & Knockout Tournaments?
In standard bounties or traditional knockout poker tournaments, players typically receive a cash prize when they eliminate or knock out an opponent. Securing knockouts in such events is often rewarded with known bounty prizes or amounts. In Mystery Bounty tournaments however, the prize for busting a player is unknown and players are instead awarded bounty chips or keys. With the addition of unknown bounty values for eliminating opponents, players need to adapt their bounty strategy accordingly to make plays that balance risk and reward in this thrilling format.
Tournament Structure
A Treasure Hunt event is typically divided into two distinct phases:
| Phase | Description | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1: Early Stage | Standard tournament play. | No Bounties are active yet. Play like a regular multi-table tournament (MTT). |
| Phase 2: Bounty Stage | Once players enter the in-the-money (ITM) stage the mystery bounties become active. | Bounties are now active. Eliminating a player awards a 'Mystery Bounty' prize in the form of a ‘Chest’ |
The Buy-in Split
When you enter a Mystery Bounty tournament, your buy-in is split into three parts:
Prize Pool: Contributes to the regular prize money (for final table payouts, etc.).
Bounty Pool: Contributes to the pool of 'Mystery Bounties' to be awarded.
Tournament Fee: Pays the rake/fee for the host.
Crucial Difference: Unlike traditional Progressive Knockout (PKO) events where the bounty amount is known, the size of each bounty in the Bounty Pool is random and hidden until you win one. There are usually a few very large bounties, several medium ones, and many smaller ones.
Winning a Mystery Bounty
A Mystery Bounty is only won by the player who eliminates an opponent during the Bounty Stage (Phase 2).
When you eliminate a player, you immediately receive a key to open a “Chest” revealing the value of the bounty you collected.
The eliminated player's stack is gone, but their bounty (whatever size it was) is now yours and will be credited immediately to you.
Play aggressively in the early phase to accumulate a big stack just before the bounty stage. Betting strategies such as the 3-Bet strategy offer a great approach to set you up well for the final phase. Once bounties are active, becoming even more aggressive can place you in great positions to try to knock out players and collect those hidden prizes inside the ‘Chests’. The massive top bounties mean that players can win as much as 1st place money without even reaching the Final Table!
Casino Bonuses, Promotions & Stake VIP Program
Before playing Mystery Bounty tournaments online at Stake Poker, read up on our guide to joining poker tournaments and common poker slang terms to get yourself oriented to win it big in our online lobbies. Discover the current offers and promotions available to you to help boost your bankroll. If you're an avid casino player, you should also check out our Stake VIP program to unlock exclusive rewards, including rakeback bonuses, reload offers, and even a personal VIP host when you reach higher levels. Learn more about this exclusive club with the VIP FAQs post on our blog.
