Do you tip tournament directors? If so, how much?

The tournament directors are all over the place!

A tournament director that is hired to come in isn't the same as a player in the tournament isn't the same as the venue owner.

A tournament director at a big event, I toss some jelly. It will be larger or smaller depending on how I thought the event was ran. The venue owner or somebody else playing in the event might get a token payment.

A tournament director playing in an event isn't able to do their TD duties fair service in my opinion. I was playing a midsized tournament years ago. cue ball nearby, two balls almost in the jaws. Had to get a little tiny masse but the space to work in was also tiny. I called the TD over to watch the hit. I genuinely couldn't see if it was good or bad myself. I didn't get the call. I wasn't too surprised. On the other hand I would have been surprised if I got the call seeing as I was playing the tournament director at the time.

Some of y'all thnk tossing the TD a little jelly might be a conflict of interest but the tournament director playing in the tournament isn't???

Hu
 
Depends on the tournament.

Weekly room type tournament, nope.

Smaller monthly tournaments, maybe.

64+ player brackets, where the money is good. Yep.

Played a tournament a couple months ago, I read the poster wrong and was expecting a higher payout. $75 entry, $800 added. I was expecting $1500-2000 depending on how many places they paid (they paid down to 16th). The part I missed was $25 from every entry went to the Wounded Warrior project.

As it turned out, 1st paid $800, which I was still happy with. Tipped the tournament director 40, as they had been there for 3 days running the thing.
 
I almost always throw some jelly back to whomever made it possible for me to win money. Doesn’t matter if it is a pool tournament, office pool or coin flip. If someone else put the effort together, I tip. Only exception is half-pots. Can’t stand to see organizers selling based on how much you can win and then expecting you to donate your half back.


Sent from my iPhone using AzBilliards Forums
 
ShootingArts said:
A tournament director that is hired to come in isn't the same as a player in the tournament isn't the same as the venue owner.

A tournament director at a big event, I toss some jelly. It will be larger or smaller depending on how I thought the event was ran. The venue owner or somebody else playing in the event might get a token payment.

A tournament director playing in an event isn't able to do their TD duties fair service in my opinion. I was playing a midsized tournament years ago. cue ball nearby, two balls almost in the jaws. Had to get a little tiny masse but the space to work in was also tiny. I called the TD over to watch the hit. I genuinely couldn't see if it was good or bad myself. I didn't get the call. I wasn't too surprised. On the other hand I would have been surprised if I got the call seeing as I was playing the tournament director at the time.

Some of y'all thnk tossing the TD a little jelly might be a conflict of interest but the tournament director playing in the tournament isn't???

Hu
Click to expand...

A weekly tournament I think it's fine if the TD plays in it unless he's a heavy favorite to win. In that case they should probably lay off some. You just aren't going to be able to pay someone to run a 16 player weekly bar tournament if that is their only job. You either have to use staff from the bar which will cause split duties or find a volunteer that doesn't want to play. There aren't many of those. When I used to run them I ran 3 tournaments a week and probably cashed 1/2 the time and won each tournament once a month or so. Basically that gave me grocery money. They were handicapped so never a sure thing.

Bigger tournaments....well, we used to have about 4 or 5 of us that ran a lot of tournaments at the time and for bigger tournaments we would run them like a team and play but just cover for the people playing.

As far as conflict of interest goes. I don't ever remember an incident where a TD who was playing got a favorable call from another TD. I made a bad call once and it was an honest bad call. I realized my error too late to correct it but almost immediately when I returned to the score table. I apologized to the player and told him I screwed up and that was that.

With bar tournaments - especially weekly or monthly tournaments there are very few cases of the TD having to make a call. I've never personally witnessed a TD making a bad call intentionally to favor his friend/teammate/mother. I know it exists but I haven't personally seen it and we're talking hundreds and hundreds of tournaments. I did see a TD once make an intentionally (IMO) bad call against an unknown road player that they thought was trying to steal the tournament. I thought that was wrong too even though he clearly outclassed the field. Once someone is in the tournament they deserve fair calls. If you don't want them there, don't let them in. If they are better than they represented, give them their entry fee back and tell them to hit the road. But don't make a chickens**t call against them.
 
At the beginning I tried playing in some tournaments I was running (way back in the early 80's). I quickly found out it was impossible to do both well, so I gave up playing and became a full time TD. Over the next thirty years I worked over 200 important pro tournaments, all with decent prize money. Most of them ran smoothly with only a few glitches along the way. My biggest headache down through the years was trying to explain and repair the bad publicity from one particular tournament promoter who had a bad habit of writing post dated checks and paying players weeks and even months late. My second biggest headache was trying to keep one particular star player in line. :D
 
Wowzer!

jay helfert said:
At the beginning I tried playing in some tournaments I was running (way back in the early 80's). I quickly found out it was impossible to do both well, so I gave up playing and became a full time TD. Over the next thirty years I worked over 200 important pro tournaments, all with decent prize money. Most of them ran smoothly with only a few glitches along the way. My biggest headache down through the years was trying to explain and repair the bad publicity from one particular tournament promoter who had a bad habit of writing post dated checks and paying players weeks and even months late. My second biggest headache was trying to keep one particular star player in line. :D
Click to expand...


Gee Jay, it could take us three or four years or seconds to figure out who you are talking about!

I too found that I either competed or played official. I wasn't able to do a good job of both even at small events.

One of the more funny things was a car owner/driver that had a very successful business. Once a year he put on a big event. Every other week of the year he was a great guy. That week he was a no good thieving conniving son of a biscuit eater! As a fellow driver he was a great guy. As a promoter, well there has never been a promoter that was anything but a snake in the grass trying to get rich off of everyone else's work and money.

Sometimes I was up on the flagstand, sometimes I was down there in the crowd threatening to tear down the flag stand and lynch the sorry so and so flagging!

Funny old world. I might apologize to my friends afterwards for having to do it but everyone was going to operate under the same rules if I was tasked with enforcing them.

I found out that we are only born with a certain amount of patience. Once we use it up it is gone forever! At least that is my story and I am sticking to it. Nobody wants me in a position that requires tolerating fools, gladly or otherwise! Some thought I would make a good mod here. Nope! Been a mod a few times, been admin too. Used up my last two drops of patience.

Hu
 
Depends highly on if they are a player and are playing in and running the tournament.

If they are a duffer and playing running, yes you tip them. But the player has a shot and placing/winning, so IMHO no tip for that.

Running without playing, yes, tip.

aaronataylor said:
Just wondering if you tip and if so, how much? Generally, when I place and get a payout I will tip $10-$20 to the tournament director. Obviously, it depends how much my winnings actually are. But generally, If I win $80-$200 in a weekly tournament, this is my normal tip.

What about you?
Click to expand...
 
I’ve run a ton of bar box tournaments and never got a tournament or thought about one. The only money I got from a tournament is when I cashed and I’m ok with that
 
During the sixties and on, I never heard of that happening to a TD. Usually a TD got paid for his 16 hr dayz, with free meals and some walking money or more, depending on their skills/calcutta.

The thinking back then in most pool room cultures was ''you give'' and you get $$$$. So tipping could Effect a future match situational ''thinking'' in a negative manner for you or your opponent, not always, but pool I$ bu$iness. Favor$. I had a ''bad'' call on me in KS, the house man REF...''stole'' the money. Called a foul, was no foul, cept his friend wa$ my opponent.
 
Island Drive said:
During the sixties and on, I never heard of that happening to a TD. Usually a TD got paid for his 16 hr dayz, with free meals and some walking money or more, depending on their skills/calcutta.

The thinking back then in most pool room cultures was ''you give'' and you get $$$$. So tipping could Effect a future match situational ''thinking'' in a negative manner for you or your opponent, not always, but pool I$ bu$iness. Favor$. I had a ''bad'' call on me in KS, the house man REF...''stole'' the money. Called a foul, was no foul, cept his friend wa$ my opponent.
Click to expand...

I hear you Bill. My first Reno tournaments in the late 80's I was paid $100/day plus $15 in food coupons per day. It lasted eleven days and I worked a minimum of 14 hours each day. I was thrilled to get the job because it was a prestige event back then. :)

Then there was the TD (a very prominent one) who ran the book on all the matches. Yes, the same matches he was supposed to be officiating. I shared with him on more than one occasion that he could put himself in an awkward situation but he ignored me. He was making a lot more money off the book than he was as a co-TD. True story.
 
jay helfert said:
I hear you Bill. My first Reno tournaments in the late 80's I was paid $100/day plus $15 in food coupons per day. It lasted eleven days and I worked a minimum of 14 hours each day. I was thrilled to get the job because it was a prestige event back then. :)

Then there was the TD (a very prominent one) who ran the book on all the matches. Yes, the same matches he was supposed to be officiating. I shared with him on more than one occasion that he could put himself in an awkward situation but he ignored me. He was making a lot more money off the book than he was as a co-TD. True story.
Click to expand...

The Buffet food was cheap back then....:thumbup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top