New Lottery-Style PKOs Spark Debate in Online Poker Community

A new type of poker tournament is making waves in the online poker community. These tournaments, dubbed 'Jackpot PKOs' by industry pro Nick Jones, combine elements of progressive knockout (PKO) and lottery-style payouts, similar to spin-and-gos. The format originated with European operator Winamax and has sparked debate among players and industry stakeholders.

In these new lottery-style PKOs, half of the buy-in goes to the prize pool, while the other half funds the player's bounty prize. However, instead of pocketing half of that bounty and adding the other half to their own upon scoring a knockout, a random multiplier is applied. For instance, GGPoker's multipliers can go up to 400x, while Winamax's peak at 100x. This means that when a player knocks out another, they spin for a random bounty prize, which can range from a low value to a high value.

Industry stakeholders have mixed reactions to these new tournaments. Some predict a massive shift to this format over the next 6-18 months, while others express skepticism. Standard Backing, a pro backing poker team, tweeted, 'There's going to be an absolutely massive shift on GG to this format over the next 6-18 months. Pokerstars and other competitors will likely be rolling it out once they see how successful they are.' However, other players and experts question whether these tournaments will become the predominant format and if players truly want this style of play.