Getting players to enter a local tournament

Calcutta

nobody mentioned a calcutta?
Some of the best action during the tournament was between the guys that weren't playing.
 
mreightball said:
Lots of good ideas here could you elaborate a little more on the side pot aspect.
Ron
Click to expand...

No problem!

In AZ, we have cheap entry in some tourneys, say $5 each. Everyone pays that to get in.

Then we offer some side pots, usually $5, $10 and $20. People can get in these if they want. If you have 20 people in the tournament, but only 5 get in the $20 sidepot, the one of those five that finished the highest wins that pot. If you have 7-12 players in a side pot, usually pay 2 or 3 place. 70%-30% split or something.

Example: Your tourney has 32 players x $5 enty = $160 + any added money. Then 20 of them get in the $5 side pot. 10 in the $10 sidepot, and 6 in the $20 sidepot.

20 x $5 = $100, Pay 3 spots, $60, $30, $10
10 x $10 = $100, Pay 2 spots, $70, $30
6 x $20 = $120, Winner take all.

If someone got in all sidepots ($40 entry total), and they won it, they'd get the 1st prize + $60 + $70 + $120, which is awesome.

If none of the 6 players that got in the $20 sidepot got close to winning it, you pay out the highest finisher. (Sometimes you have to split it)

Doing sidepots makes it easy for weak players to play for $5, while other players have a chance to win some money.
 
stick8 said:
I dont know how it would work for you, but i have been running a handacap for a few years and it does real well. just have someone with the knoledge of your players rating and go at it i run 6ball on wed nite avg 16-25 players 9ball sunday nite and avg 30-32 players. have had as many as61 at my christmas tourny50-40 through the winter months. just a thought good luck STICK
Click to expand...

I know pretty much what every shooters average is according to their wins and loss ratio. So how do you handicap the players? Say a guy is a 7 and is playing a 5 how would you handicap them in 8ball?
Handicap systems never seemed to work in my observations of many different ways of handicapping.
We have one league where ball count comes into the scoring in other words you get 1 point for each ball made and 3 points if you make the 8 ball so you can get a total of 10 points for winning the game and your opponent gets as many points as balls he made so if he made 5 balls the score for that match would have been 10 - 5 We have 5 shooters and you total up the scores for all 5 shooters and the team with the highest score wins that round and we play 3 rounds. The handicapping for that goes by shooters aveage so if a 9 plays a 7 the 9 gives the 7 / 2 balls to add to his score.
Seems that 95% of the time this doesn't help the lower team out. I have even seen the 1st place getting balls from lets say a 4th place team.
 
Last edited:
ShootingArts said:
Ron,

This has been discussed before but you are never going to have much correlation between league players and tournament players. Most league players are social players at heart and tournament players are competitors. From my observations the vast majority of people do not enjoy competing. They don't want the stress or the pressure. Nothing you can do is going to change these people's basic make up.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I have tried to start tournaments and the only people that showed were tournament players and the cream of the local leagues. Most of the people in leagues play for the social aspect of it. If you could tap into the social aspect of it, you may be on to something.
 
mreightball said:
So how does this work? If you had 20 players you start 2 players on each of the 4 tables, then if you loose you turn in one of your chips and move to the next table etc. Wouldn't this mean that a player that keeps on winning will wind up playing more players then someone else and play many more games to become the winner?
Click to expand...

Yes. Start by assigning all players to tables, so if you had 4 tables, there would be 5 starting on each. If each player had a number, for example, on table 15 number 1 plays number 2, followed by 3,4 then 5. If number 1 loses, he goes to table 16 and follows player 10. Winner stays on the table (just like in a bar with quarters lined up on the rail, or king-of-the-hill), loser moves along. Minimum games played is the number of chips you get (get 6 chips, lose every game, play 6 games). Winner stays on the table(s) until he loses. It narrows down to the number of spots paid. Winner could be playing a lot of games. Good cheap, educational, fun entertainment that draws a lot of people. The best players in the city play in it and so do leaguers and lots of other folks. The better players naturally rise to the top, but don't win all the time, much to their chagrin. I play in one that has been going on continuously, every Monday night, since 1984.
:p
 
turneys

Try a calcutta and start it at a decent time so player that work far a living can get out sooner..With a calautta you can do a entry at 5 instead of 10 and still have a good payout..5 less dollers dont sound like much but thats 2 more beers to some of your bar players..addvertise at your location..do a race to 2 on winner side and 1 on losers to keep it going..Good Luck:thumbup:
 
change

mreightball said:
Hello Stick8 I am still waiting for your answer
Ron
Click to expand...

well i wish i had a soulition to your problem, but i dont. i shoot only 9ball and 6ball and it is easy to handacap it. 8ball is adiffrent story---- my players dont like to shoot 8ball!!!!:confused:
 
Handicapping 8-ball is fairly simple. You just determine the overall race you are looking for. Let's say the Median is 4 games. You can bucket rankings in many ways, the easiest for starting out is probably A,B,C, A players would go to 5 games, B to 4 and C to 3. Once you have it going better you could always move to a more finite rankings.

In Arizona we have ratings from 4 - 10, then 10-1 and 10-2. Most weekly tournaments are Race to your handicap - 3 or something. Most League players are rated 6 and 7, with some 8's,9's and 10's in the mix.

You can gauge a starting point on my website: www.azpoolscene.com/ratings.html

There are more things to go into this than written, but it gives you an ideal placement.
 
Here is one that seems to keep them coming back (once you have them hooked).

By a chance to run a rack of 9-Ball on the house's toughest table. Each ball is worth 1/9th of the total money collected. If the winner / shooter makes one ball he gets paid 1/9 and the rest of the money stays in the pot until next week. I have seen the pot as high as $1,000 in a weekly $10.00 get in tournament. Lottery tickets were a couple of bucks and you could by as many chances as you wanted.

You have to shoot in three prior weekly tournaments before you can buy a ticket.
 
I play leagues 2 nights a week and I consider myself an above average player. I don't enter local tournaments in my area unless they are handicapped due to the fact that any open tournament will be won by a few of the top players in my area. I see these guys all over the place hustling and playing in tournaments. My chances to win or even place in an open tournament are slim so I don't waste my time or my money.
 
rayjay said:
Yes. Start by assigning all players to tables, so if you had 4 tables, there would be 5 starting on each. If each player had a number, for example, on table 15 number 1 plays number 2, followed by 3,4 then 5. If number 1 loses, he goes to table 16 and follows player 10. Winner stays on the table (just like in a bar with quarters lined up on the rail, or king-of-the-hill), loser moves along. Minimum games played is the number of chips you get (get 6 chips, lose every game, play 6 games). Winner stays on the table(s) until he loses. It narrows down to the number of spots paid. Winner could be playing a lot of games. Good cheap, educational, fun entertainment that draws a lot of people. The best players in the city play in it and so do leaguers and lots of other folks. The better players naturally rise to the top, but don't win all the time, much to their chagrin. I play in one that has been going on continuously, every Monday night, since 1984.
:p
Click to expand...

25 years? Sounds like you guys started with a lot more than six chips... :P

That does sound like a neat format, though. It certainly ensures that folks will play a decent variety of other players (as opposed to two folks, should they go two-and-out in a double elim format).
 
I guess I dont understand the problem with these people thinking they can't win. The entry fee is never that much money. I'm a beginner shooter, I have shot in 8 tournys this year, and never once did I think I had a great chance at winning. I go to the tournaments to face the better shooters and learn from it. The more I get beat by these players, the more I get to watch them and learn. It's a cheap lesson in my book. But that's just my 2 cents.
Trevor
 
Many tournaments in the Valley that once had 20-25 Player each week, and not happening because of one word! ECOMONEY! People do not have EXTRA MONEY, things are TIGHT!
 
offer a free drink for all participants to sweeten the deal, and have the person at the bar talk it up and offer it to everyone. Nothing quite beats a good salesperson for this. One cute bar girl can lure 10x more entries than a well-made flyer.
 
ruggz said:
I play leagues 2 nights a week and I consider myself an above average player. I don't enter local tournaments in my area unless they are handicapped due to the fact that any open tournament will be won by a few of the top players in my area. I see these guys all over the place hustling and playing in tournaments. My chances to win or even place in an open tournament are slim so I don't waste my time or my money.
Click to expand...

You said you don't enter unless they are handicapped. What type of handicapping do you prefer that will allow your feelings to enter the tournament.
Thanks
Ron
 
Tournaments

Handicapped tournaments are not worth it to the top players. They end spending more on entry fee and quarters for some paltry payback. I played in 1 last Sunday. The tournament paid $60 for 1st, 30 for 2nd, and 10 for 3rd. It was handicapped 2 to 7. I was a 7. It had 13 players.

Another place in town, Stix, started tournaments on Thursday through Sunday. On Thursday night at 7, they have Novice 8 ball, $5 entry, race to 2 for beginner players only. On Friday night is 8 ball tournament at 10 pm, $5 entry, 150% payback, race to 2. On Saturday, 8 ball tournament at 10 pm, $5 entry, 200% payback, race to 2. And on Sunday at 8:30 pm, 9 ball tournament, race to 3, 150% payback.

I played in one of the 8 ball tournaments, it had 19 players, paid a $100 for 1st, $50 for 2nd, $25 for 3rd, $15 for 4th. Plus the race to 2 was where many players felt they had a chance to win.

Needless to say, the Stix tournaments are becoming more and more popular, and drawing more players every week.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top