Knockout
Tournament Mastery
Alex Theologis
Alex "Pwndidi" Theologis is a Greek poker player who arrived on the high stakes MTT scene in mid 2018 after a number of years grinding and learning the game. Through hard work and determination, he has amassed over $2,000,000 in profit and over $12M in lifetime cashes. Alex's biggest score came in the $25k WSOP Super High Roller which established that he is a force to be reckoned with.
Alex has produced dozens of videos for Run It Once but recently dedicated his personal study to PKO tournaments and the fruits of that labor are on full display in this course. He is widely considered by his peers to be one of the best PKO players in the game and certainly one of the best to teach this variant.
- The fundamentals and advanced theory behind progressive knockout tournaments, along with practical examples for the application of this theory.
- How to use Holdem Resources Calculator to study bounty tournament preflop strategies and export the output in PIOsolver.
- Solver-based explanations for the preflop strategy adjustments to make when being the covering or covered stack in different scenarios.
- How bubble and final table ICM works in PSKOs and how it differs from regular tournaments.
- The postflop adjustments to make when covering or being covered.
- The solver based theory behind mystery bounties.
- A detailed final table and hand history review from PKO crushers Graftekkel and OneH1tWonder.
- Two in depth hand history reviews from Alex.
- A PSKO quiz to test your knowledge.
- Excel sheets comparing different PSKO postflop strategies.
- Slides detailing theory points, bounty values and the main takeaways from each chapter for easier reviewing.
- A glossary of terminology used in the course.
- Access to the course's dedicated discord channels where you can ask Alex questions directly and get his thoughts on your hands.
Course Videos
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08:03
Introduction
We introduce the structure of the course, what you can expect to get out of it, and the best way to move through the videos to get the most out of them.
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51:39
Basics: What's a Bounty Worth, Theory, and Solvers
The math behind the value of a bounty is discussed and we introduce the theory along with how to use solvers for analyzing bounty tournaments.
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20:34
Opening and Jamming as the Big Stack
When you hold the big stack your ranges need to reflect your ability to scoop bounties and we look into how to constuct them effectively.
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27:54
Opening and Jamming as the Short Stack
When playing the short stack your opponents are going to be more apt to play against you with your bounty at stake and we need to adjust accordingly.
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30:11
3-Betting and Calling as the Big Stack
3 betting ranges can change dramatically based on your stack size and here we look at doing so as the big stack.
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28:09
3-Betting and Calling as the Short Stack
Just as having the big stack alters our range, 3 betting as the short stack looks dramatically different and we explore that here.
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49:45
Blind v Blind: SB is Short
Blind battles can be tough to navigate but occur frequently and we discuss how to approach when the SB is short.
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31:05
Blind v Blind: SB is the Big Stack
On the flip side, we look at a blind battle where the SB covers the BB.
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28:46
Limping: When and Why
Limping marks a key difference in this format with quite a few opportunites to do so and we look at when and why to limp.
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27:34
Multiway All-ins
Occasionally you'll find situations with multiple players all-in and we have to narrow down our approach that takes a number of factors into consideration.
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32:19
Postflop Adjustments: Covering and Covered
Whether you're covered or covering your opponent, your postflop play will change dramatically and we discuss how and why that is.
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35:40
Postflop Adjustments: Covering and Covered (part 2)
We dive further into the details of how to approach postflop situations both when you're covering your opponent and covered by your opponent.
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40:16
ICM Bubble: Covering and Covered
Even though bounties play a huge role in your decisions, you still need to contend with ICM and we look specifically at bubble play in this installment.
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45:02
ICM Final Table: Covering and Covered
At the final table we'll have many factors to contend with. Here, we dive into ICM when covering and covered.
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18:16
Field Size Differences
The size of the field will have a definitive impact on your decisions, the importance of bounties, and the structure of the prize pool and we examine each.
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15:22
Adjustments to Very Short or All-In Stacks
Inevitably you'll have hands where players are either forced or nearly forced to put their stacks in and with a juicy bounty things can get weird.
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33:14
Extensive HH Review: My Tournament Hands
I load up some real hands that I've played to help illustrate a number of topics from previous lessons.
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44:09
Extensive HH Review: My Tournament Hands Continued
More illustrative examples of real hands from tournaments that I've played.
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39:42
Extensive HH Review: My Tournaments Concluded
We continue to break down the action from my own tournaments and wrap up with hands that illustrate a variety of lessons.
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50:14
Extensive HH Review: My Tournament Hands (part 2)
We continue to look at real hands from various tournaments that show the decision making process.
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43:54
Extensive HH Review: My Tournament Hands Continued (part 2)
The final few hands from real tournaments that I've played.
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52:35
High Stakes PKO with Graftekkel
Special guest Graftekkel joins us to review some high stakes hands and get the perspective of another high stakes professional.
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51:14
High Stakes PKO with Graftekkel (part 2)
I wrap up with Graftekkel with some more hands along with his keys for success at bounty tournaments.
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43:56
Mid Stakes PKO with Oneh1tWonder
Oneh1tWonder joins me to review hands from a mid stakes tourney and offer his thoughts on PKO strategy.
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44:50
Mid Stakes PKO with Oneh1tWonder (part 2)
The hands continue to roll as Oneh1tWonder shares his thoughts and bounces ideas off of our hero.
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37:04
Mid Stakes PKO with Oneh1tWonder (part 3)
We wrap up our analysis of mid stakes hands with our special guest.
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13:26
Mystery Bounties
Mystery bounties have grown in popularity and we examine the approach to this format and find hueristics to help guide our play.
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39:30
PKO Quiz: Test Yourself!
Time to test your knowledge and see if what you've learned is sticking with this quiz.
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03:50
In Closing
Here I recap the most important concepts from the entire course and offer my thoughts and keys for continued success.
Course Updates
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New
17:53
Update #1: Bounty-Sensitive Opening Ranges
In this first update chapter, we'll quantify how strongly we have to adapt our opening ranges depending on the stack distribution at the tables. You'll learn several heuristics to assess when being covered or covering has the strongest impact with four real-hand examples.
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New
21:58
Update #2: Bounty-Sensitive 3-Bet Strategy
We shift our focus to how different bounty and stack size distributions impact our optimal 3-betting strategy. We'll explore heuristics for when to size up, when to size down and which hands to select for 3-betting when covering or being covered.
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New
46:31
Update #3: Drilling ICM Scenarios in Bounty Tournaments
In the latest video update, we explore different bubble and final table scenarios to improve our ability assess the influence of bounties on ICM calculations