$30M Gtd. Bounty Builder Series Begins Oct. 11 on PokerStars

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Oct 08, 2020 10 min read Last updated Oct 10, 2020

While the major championship events might be over and done with on PokerStars, the folks running the show there have lined up a fan favorite event for October: it's time for the Bounty Builder Series, starting Oct. 11.

The Bounty Builder Series gives players 213 tournaments and all will feature the popular progressive knockout (PKO) payout structure that awards larger and larger bounties as the tournament gets deeper. This October's BBS promises more than $30 million in guarantees, a step up from the last two runnings that offered $25 million.

Series Highlights

Of course, the first tournament most players will circle is the Main Event. In this case, they've got two of them on tap as PokerStars has offered two tiers of buy-in level. There's BBS-204: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event] with a guarantee of $2.5 million, and for those with less deep bankrolls it'll be BBS-205: $55 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event] with a still-handsome $1 million in guarantees. Both are on Oct. 25.

A week prior, Oct. 18 sports BBS-105: $109 NLHE [Sunday Million SE]. At $1.5 million, that sports the second-biggest guarantee after the Main Event.

High rollers won't get the slew of five-figure events that the World Championship of Online Poker did, but they do get BBS-006: $530 NLHE [Bounty Builder HR SE] with a $1 million guarantee on Oct. 11.

Mixed-game players haven't been left out either. There's an 8-game event, a couple of pot-limit Omaha variants, and even H.O.R.S.E. and 6+ hold'em.

New Structure Trialed

Flat blind levels are typically the norm that most players are used to — if a tournament starts with 15-minute levels, it's going to have 15-minute levels throughout, or even have that number increase on Day 2 as some of the recent WCOOP events did.

That won't usually be the case in this BBS, however. As Poker Industry PRO reported ($), decreasing blind levels will be in use. For example, BBS-002: $11 NLHE [8-Max] will see players given 15-minute levels for the first six levels before the structure moves to 10-minute levels. Other events barely offer the longer levels, with only two or three lengthened levels before the speedy part kicks in.

Not all of the tournament have variable levels. For example, the Main Event has 20-minute levels BBS-004: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, Sunday Warm-Up SE] has 15-minute levels the whole way. Players should reference structure sheets in advance to be sure of the layout.

PRO speculated the reason for the change has to do with how deep-stacked many PKOs get late. While normal tournaments have incentive for players to avoid busting in order to ladder up payouts, there's often more incentive in PKOs to hunt for eliminations. That naturally leads to more deep-stacked play that puts recreational players at a disadvantage. There's no word on whether the change will be permanent for PKO series.

PokerStars Bounty Builder Series Full Schedule

_{The Stars Group owns a majority shareholding in iBus Media, PokerNews' parent company.}

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