I would like to hear some more opinions on that too. Although Im fairly experienced in these, Ive won at least three (small stakes) large field bounty MTTs that I can remember and final tabled many more. My take is this: Normally I play them pretty much like any other tourney, but I dont play very tight, if you're playing tight you might make some adjustments. I mean hands that have the potential to win large pots (and thereby knock someone out) you should normally play anyway, if they're not too expensive. When the situation arises that someone is all-in or is very likely to go all-in because he has only few blinds left you can make some adjustments and play or call with some marginal hands that you might fold otherwise because of the added EV of the bounty but this depends on many factors, particularly how much you risk relative to your stack, how big the bounty is relative to the buy-in etc. You might also isoshove in some spots that you normally wouldnt, you see this very often in bounty MTTs. But as long as the prize pool is large relative to the bounties I wouldnt recommend making any moves that are clearly -chipEV especially when its for significant proportion of your stack.

There is also a big difference between bounty and progressive bounty MTTs. In progressive bounty MTTs the bounties get bigger the more you progress, so you should be less inclined to go for the smaller bounties early on, which in effect makes it again play more like a normal MTT.

I dont really understand 2. I mean one effect they certainly have is that they have lower variance because they give some payouts without needing to make it into the top 10-15%. Otherwise, depending on how good you understand the structure, they are like normal MTTs, I mean if you understand the specifics well you can exploit some players who might not understand it well and vice versa. As for what percentage, it really doesnt matter, theoretically you could play with 100 % on bounties, then you would really need to make some more adjustments but I have not seen more than 50 % offered.

Interesting hand, Ill put it in this thread:

Poker Stars $12.30+$12.25+$2.45 No Limit Hold'em Tournament – t600/t1200 Blinds + t150 – 9 players

Hero (BTN): t78038         M = 24.77
SB: t40097         M = 12.73
BB: t35323         M = 11.21
UTG: t44723         M = 14.20
UTG+1: t3260         M = 1.03
UTG+2: t37571         M = 11.93
MP1: t19603         M = 6.22
MP2: t30089         M = 9.55
CO: t24185         M = 7.68

Pre Flop: (t3150) Hero is BTN with
XX
UTG raises to t2800, UTG+1 raises to t3110 all in, 2 folds, MP2 raises to t29939 all in, 1 fold, Hero raises to t77888 all in, 3 folds

PS $27 PSKO

The interesting point is UTG+1 has around 60$ in KO bounties and MP2 140$, so if I knock out both I'll get around 100 $ instantly. We're ITM but with around 60 players left, to get around 100$ more in tournament payout I need to make the FT. The players have shown nothing out of the ordinary, UTG is kind of active 25/16, the AIs are 22/17 and 24/17, they appear competent, UTG+1 has just lost almost all his chips.

What is the worst hand you would shove here?

Thanks for the reply. I agree completely, that reshove of MP2 is very likely taking advantage. I think your range is still quite conservative. I actually shoved A2s knowing that I was likely behind. That was probably a little bit too liberal but I def think that MP2 could do this with some good kings and I was in ok shape against many pairs also. (MP2 had AJo, the small stack had QQ but his range is likely to be much wider also).