BetRivers Poker's Gobbleknocker Series is back for Thanksgiving 2026, and this year every single event is a knockout. The series runs November 22-29 across Pennsylvania, Michigan, Delaware and West Virginia, with 37 events and more than $250,000 in guarantees, according to PokerNews. Each tournament is either a Progressive Knockout (PKO) or a Mystery Bounty, making it the first Gobbleknocker to lean so heavily into the mystery format BetRivers introduced to US players this year.
Before the series starts, a qualifying promotion called the Road to the Gobbleknocker runs from November 15-21, giving away $7,500 in tournament tickets. Here's everything you need to know.
Gobbleknocker 2026 at a Glance
- Dates: November 22-29, 2026
- States: PA, MI, DE, WV
- Events: 37, all PKO or Mystery Bounty
- Guarantees: $250,000+
- First event: 5:05 p.m. ET, November 22
- Last event: 10:05 p.m. ET, November 29
Featured Events
PokerNews highlighted ten of the 37 events. The full schedule is in the BetRivers Poker lobby.
| Date | Time (ET) | Event | Buy-in | GTD | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 22 | 5:05 p.m. | #1 Monster Big and Small Mystery | $50 | $10,000 | Mystery |
| Nov 22 | 7:05 p.m. | #3 Deepstack Mystery (Flat Bounties) | $200 | $20,000 | Mystery |
| Nov 23 | 7:05 p.m. | #7 Monsterstack Mystery (Flat Bounties) | $100 | $10,000 | Mystery |
| Nov 24 | 7:05 p.m. | #11 Deepstack PKO 6-max | $200 | $14,000 | PKO |
| Nov 25 | 8:05 p.m. | #16 Deepstack PKO | $100 | $10,000 | PKO |
| Nov 26 | 7:05 p.m. | #19 Gobbleknocker PKO | $200 | $14,000 | PKO |
| Nov 27 | 8:05 p.m. | #24 Friday Fight Club 6-max | $100 | $10,000 | PKO |
| Nov 28 | 7:05 p.m. | #28 Big or Small Mystery | $100 | $10,000 | Mystery |
| Nov 29 | 6:05 p.m. | #33 Mystery Bounty Main Event | $100 | $20,000 | Mystery |
| Nov 29 | 8:05 p.m. | #35 PKO Main Event | $200 | $25,000 | PKO |
The schedule peaks on the final Sunday, with two "main events" back to back: a $100 Mystery Bounty Main Event ($20,000 GTD) and a $200 PKO Main Event ($25,000 GTD), the biggest guarantee of the featured events.
Road to the Gobbleknocker: $7,500 in Tickets
The qualifier runs November 15-21. Here's how it works:
- Play real-money MTTs with a buy-in of $1 or more.
- Earn one draw entry for every two qualifying entries or re-entries in the same tier (rounded down). There's no cap.
- Tiers are Low ($1-$9.99), Medium ($10-$49.99) and High ($50+). Entries from different tiers can't be combined.
- Each tier awards $2,500 in Gobbleknocker tickets, for $7,500 total and more than 1,400 tickets.
- You can win more than one prize per tier.
- Tickets expire November 29 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Because tiers can't be combined, it pays to concentrate your volume. Ten $5 tournaments earn five Low-tier entries. Splitting those ten entries across two tiers could leave you with fewer total draw entries because of rounding.
Daily Ticket Punch and Gordon's Final Mystery
Two more promotions run during the series:
Gobbleknocker Ticket Punch: Every knockout you make in a Gobbleknocker PKO or Mystery Bounty event earns a daily draw entry, up to five per day. In Mystery Bounty events, only knockouts after the bounty phase starts count. Each daily draw awards 55 satellite tickets worth $500 total. Entries don't carry over, and no opt-in is required.
Gordon's Final Mystery: Play eight or more distinct Gobbleknocker MTTs (re-entries don't count separately) and you get a $20 ticket to a Mystery Bounty on Sunday, December 6, at 7:05 p.m. ET, with a $4,500 guarantee plus $500 added. It's also open to anyone who buys in for $20.
Why an All-Knockout Series Matters
Making every event a bounty tournament is a deliberate choice. Bounty formats have become the most popular tournament type online because they give recreational players more ways to win. You don't need to make the final table to cash something meaningful; a single knockout can pay for your buy-in.
BetRivers only brought mystery bounties to the US this year, as we reported when BetRivers launched mystery bounty tournaments. Building a holiday series around them shows the operator thinks the format is working. BetRivers has also been growing its share of the US regulated market, which we covered in our report on BetRivers reaching 10% market share.
Guarantee Context
At $250,000+, the Gobbleknocker is modest compared with the multi-million-dollar series on bigger networks. That reflects BetRivers' smaller player pool across four states. But for players, smaller guarantees on a smaller site aren't automatically bad. Fields are softer and more manageable, and overlay is possible when guarantees outpace traffic, especially during a holiday week when players' schedules are unpredictable.
Strategy: PKO vs Mystery Bounty
The two formats play differently, and adjusting is important.
Progressive Knockout (PKO)
In a PKO, part of each bounty goes to you when you knock someone out, and part is added to your own bounty. That means:
- Big-stack bounties grow over time, so late in the tournament, the bounty on a player can be worth more than the chips.
- Call wider against short stacks with big bounties. The bounty adds "dead money" to the pot, which improves your pot odds.
- Covering matters. You only win a bounty if you cover your opponent's stack, so position your aggression against players you cover.
Mystery Bounty
In a mystery bounty, bounties are only awarded during the later bounty phase, and their value is random.
- Early play is a normal freezeout. Don't make loose calls for bounties that don't exist yet.
- After the bounty phase starts, every knockout is a lottery ticket. Some formats, like BetRivers' "Flat Bounties" events, use more even values, while "Big and Small" events have more variance.
- Remember that only post-bounty-phase knockouts count toward the daily Ticket Punch draws.
For deeper tournament theory, our guide on ICM explains why chip value changes near the money and at final tables, and our pot odds explainer shows how bounties change calling math.
What This Means for Players
If you're in one of BetRivers' four states, the Gobbleknocker is one of the better-value holiday series around: low buy-ins, an all-bounty schedule, and three layers of free tickets through the Road qualifier, the daily Ticket Punch and Gordon's Final Mystery.
A sensible plan: use the November 15-21 qualifier to earn tickets in the tier you normally play, pick a handful of featured events that match your bankroll, and save some energy for the final Sunday doubleheader. If you're new to tournament poker, our tournaments guide is a good place to start, and our bankroll management guide will help you decide how many events to fire.