I have been helping out with a weekly tournament at the local watering hole. The only issue the owner and I differ on is payouts. How do you decide what percentages to payout and what percentage of the field?
Sounds exactly like the tournaments I help run. What we do is pay a strict 25% of the field. 8 players, only 2 get paid. 32 players, 8 get paid.
Basically payouts look like this:
8-10 players, only 1,2 places get paid. 65% and 35% or so. Rounded to not have change.
11-14 players, 1,2, and 3. 50%, 30%, 20% rounded once again.
15-23 players, 1, 2, 3, 4. ~45%, ~30%, ~20%, and fourth is ~10%
24-31 players, 1-6 get paid. 5/6 only get their entry back, rest of pot like above.
32 players, 1-8 get paid. 7/8 get their entry back. 5/6 get $15, and then the remaining pot split like above ~45%, ~30%, ~20% and ~10%.
What this does is establish a very repeatable guideline. The only people I've found to not like this payout guideline are people who are greedy. They either want more when they win, or want extra places paid when they finish just shy of the money. Either way, this is for a low money added event.
Even with 100% purse matched money added, I have a hard time believe more than 25% of a field should be paid. Stop expecting handouts and improve your game.