AMA on PKOs to win a copy of my new book with Dara O'Kearney - PKO Poker Strategy

Example question:

Hey Barry, what is wrong with your stupid face?

Hey Barry, which format do you currently play the most?

Hello, whats you favorite football club?

Hey Barry,

Writing about a specific topic, can you go a little indepth of how you structured the book and why so?

Greetings

tmy

Originally posted by quis
Hey Barry, which format do you currently play the most?

I don't have much time to play at the moment so I just late reg normal freezeouts (as you will learn in our book, late regging a PKO is a terrible idea).

Originally posted by ekisz
Hello, whats you favorite football club?

Sheffield Wednesday, so as you can imagine I didn't really want the season to restart.

I have just moved to a village where the local team is Sheffield FC, the oldest team in the world, so I might make them my second team. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_F.C.

Originally posted by tmy
Hey Barry,

Writing about a specific topic, can you go a little indepth of how you structured the book and why so?

Greetings

tmy

Great question, as we did in our satellite book we didn't do it in a linear way like starting with early stages, ending with end game etc. Instead we picked out the biggest adjustments you need to make in PKOs, in the order of usefulness.

So we start with calling all-ins, which is by far the biggest change in strategy, as you can call much wider when a bounty is on the line.
Then we look at ICM, which is important as that tightens your range while the bounty widens it.
Then shoves, especially when you are covered, as fold equity is near non existant in PKOs.
Things like opening ranges we leave to the end because thats small by comparison
We also have a mental game chapter, 3-betting, post flop etc.

The book is written assuming you have a basic understanding of normal MTTs

Why you think PKO will be more dominant than standard freezeout?

How many PKOs have you or Dara played in the past two years?

Originally posted by my5tyle
Why you think PKO will be more dominant than standard freezeout?

Operators love them because the money gets spread about between the players, rather than the (mostly better) top 15% of players. Recreational players love them because they get more 'winning moments'. Good serious players like them because they are very complex and way off being solved.

Plus they are just quite fun in a pure 'boom I won a bounty' sense

Originally posted by BubbleNedRum
How many PKOs have you or Dara played in the past two years?

No idea on Dara but he is very high volume. I on the other hand am pretty low volume (rec player), I'd say I've played 1,000 - this is my stars/party

When comparing PKOs to normal MTTs, how much importance should be given in trying to build a stack early to have a towering advantage over other stacks on your table earlier on to position oneself favourably to be able to win bounties?

Based on the above, should one play the earlier phases more aggro with a go big or go bust approach?

Originally posted by Galador82
When comparing PKOs to normal MTTs, how much importance should be given in trying to build a stack early to have a towering advantage over other stacks on your table earlier on to position oneself favourably to be able to win bounties?

Based on the above, should one play the earlier phases more aggro with a go big or go bust approach?

Great question and your instincts are correct. Getting the chip lead early in a PKO is massive, as the chip leader every hand becomes more profitable because you are playing for a bigger immediate prize pool than everyone else. We do a bunch of sims that show how wide you can get your money in first hand of a PKO because being a CL is so beneficial for the rest of the tourney. If you regularly are the first player to bust a PKO, you are probably playing them right.

Hi Barry --
I play a lot of non-hold'em PKOs
Some like 2-7 Single Draw can be very bluff-heavy

Would the principles in this book apply equally well to draw games such as Badugi, 5-Card Draw and 2-7 Single draw as well?

Thanks (and the facial hair looks great! )
VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Hi Barry --
I play a lot of non-hold'em PKOs
Some like 2-7 Single Draw can be very bluff-heavy

Would the principles in this book apply equally well to draw games such as Badugi, 5-Card Draw and 2-7 Single draw as well?

Thanks (and the facial hair looks great! )
VS

Yes they would. We start from a first principle of knowing what your ranges would be in a normal MTT, then use the bounty situation to determine how wide you can expand those ranges. I think you'd be able to do the same thing for non-hold'em games.

In practice though I think bluffs will get through more in these games as you tend to either have it or you don't, whereas in hold'em it's more often good hand vs better hand.

Hi Barry, Have You considered doing a piece on PLO PKO's? I'm Curious how twice the Holecards influence the optimal playing style

Originally posted by deralte71
Hi Barry, Have You considered doing a piece on PLO PKO's? I'm Curious how twice the Holecards influence the optimal playing style

That could be interesting. My instinct is that because the equities run so close together anyway in PLO, pretty much everything would be a call.

Having said that I have played a few on party (actually won one) and in practice they play really tight for a PKO. I think there is a lot of nut peddling in PLO tournies in general.

Hi Guys, are the concepts in the book easily applyable on PKO SNG's and have you played them?

Originally posted by pceetje
Hi Guys, are the concepts in the book easily applyable on PKO SNG's and have you played them?

Very much so, in fact I play the 18 man hyper PKOs on Stars as they were a really good place to practice the concepts. The same is true for The Grand Tour on Stars.

I actually think the regs in those games understand PKOs better than MTT regulars.