Bounties are rare, but do occur occasionally in professional tournaments.
This bounty chip is carried by the player throughout the tournament.
Some online tournaments use a more complicated schedule, whereby a player's own bounty increases with every elimination he makes.
This assignment is rarely random, and is usually pre-arranged with the players who have bounties on them, as such an assignment to a random entrant would significantly affect their game.
Most professional poker players would alter their normal playing style to adapt to this aspect if they were to enter a bounty tournament.