Adding Money In Tournaments

[highrun55]

I have a hard time trying to find money to add to tournaments and I see rooms on here adding from $500 and up all the time. Do you guys sell alcohol and have full kitchen to be able to add that much money ? Do you charge them table time. I need to know,

I have always heard if you charge table time you must add money.

I have no alcohol and only snacks here too. Township says no booze.

How do ya all do it ? If I add $100.00 here I cant make any money.

highrun55

 

[Drater]

I've got a room with 20 tables and full bar & kitchen.

When we add money to a tournament, be it $150 for a weekly thing (like I'm doing on Sundays) or $2500ish for a bigger weekend event (like Janis' Viking Tour) we always come out ahead, but only because of the bar & food sales.

I even do *FREE POOL* all day on Tuesdays & Wednesdays from open to close just to keep people spending money at the bar.

If I didn't have a bar there'd be no way I could afford to give away pool time for an entire day.

I look at the large tournaments as a marketing expense so I'm really just trying to break even after a two or three day tournament. Thus far we always won, but not by much.

The smaller tournaments are just a way to keep people in the building spending money. $100 or so if you've got a bar/kitchen is not a problem at all.

Maybe you could look at adding other things instead of money. Coupons for a day of free pool, an iPod Nano (buy 'em cheap on e-bay), a cheap jump/break stick, etc. Anything to keep the players interested in winning something a bit beyond the pot.

Also, look to your vendors to give you free stuff. Maybe your soda vendor will give you a free box/case of Coke. Or your cleaning service can give you free chemicals or something. Any way for someone else to subsidize even some of the added money is good.

Raise your table rates by $0.25/hr. After 400 hours of pool playing you've made that $100 to add to the pot. With only 5 tables with 2 people playing you only need 40 hours of table time per table, per week to make that extra $100.

I'm kinda rambling, so I dunno if this has been helpful or not.

eric

I have a hard time trying to find money to add to tournaments and I see rooms on here adding from $500 and up all the time. Do you guys sell alcohol and have full kitchen to be able to add that much money ? Do you charge them table time. I need to know,

I have always heard if you charge table time you must add money.

I have no alcohol and only snacks here too. Township says no booze.

How do ya all do it ? If I add $100.00 here I cant make any money.

highrun55

 

[highrun55]

Thank you Drater

Mickey

 

[whitewolf]

I have a hard time trying to find money to add to tournaments and I see rooms on here adding from $500 and up all the time. Do you guys sell alcohol and have full kitchen to be able to add that much money ? Do you charge them table time. I need to know,

I have always heard if you charge table time you must add money.

I have no alcohol and only snacks here too. Township says no booze.

How do ya all do it ? If I add $100.00 here I cant make any money.

highrun55

I don't own a poolhall, but as a player when the 'big rack' money got over $1,000 it used to really draw in the players.

Big rack where I come from = 4 names drawn out of a hat each week. Each gets a chance of break and run at 9 ball. If the pot goes dry, then you could start it off with $100. That way you don't have to fork out $100 every week. Charge players $1,$2,$3,$4,$5 or whatever to get a crack at the rack - but only if they play in the tournament.

One pool hall gave away trips to Bermuda every week - worked out some kind of deal with a travel agency.

 

[Dawgie]

I have a hard time trying to find money to add to tournaments and I see rooms on here adding from $500 and up all the time. Do you guys sell alcohol and have full kitchen to be able to add that much money ? Do you charge them table time. I need to know,

I have always heard if you charge table time you must add money.

I have no alcohol and only snacks here too. Township says no booze.

How do ya all do it ? If I add $100.00 here I cant make any money.

highrun55

Here are some suggestions that may help you achieve your goal and maybe more.

Talk to some of your local businesses like your local car dealer. Ask him if he would be willing to set up some vehicles in your parking lot along with some signage. this is good advertising for him. In exchange for the exposure he could add some money to your tournament(s).

If there is a local diner who would be willing to advertise in your building in exchange for some added money.

Other items you could ask for is - Coupons from the diner for something like buy one meal get one free. maybe the car dealer could give free oil changes, discount on tires, etc.

Use your imagination and I bet you can think of other bus' in your area that would be willing to help in exchange for some advertising.

 

[kevin s]

Here's a alternative idea to ADDED monies.

I have a hard time trying to find money to add to tournaments and I see rooms on here adding from $500 and up all the time. Do you guys sell alcohol and have full kitchen to be able to add that much money ? Do you charge them table time. I need to know,

I have always heard if you charge table time you must add money.

I have no alcohol and only snacks here too. Township says no booze.

How do ya all do it ? If I add $100.00 here I cant make any money.

highrun55

I have a good friend that owns the pool room here. He has a similar situation as yours. There was NO WAY he could do ADDED MONEY tourneys. I helped him run a weekly tournament. I did two things that got people in the door. I believe that's what your trying to achieve by adding money to your tournaments.

The first thing I did was to call several players and arrange a ring game on the night of the tournament. We mostly played dollar dollar or 2 and 2. I would always have 5 or 6 there an hour or two before the tourney started for that.

We started a break and run jackpot. We went to Walmart and bought some raffle tickets. We started it off putting in the first $ 100. We sold tickets for $2 each limited to a max of 10 tickets. You had to play in the tournament in order to be eligible for the break and run Jackpot. Each night about half way through the tournament we would draw one ticket out of the hat. The player with the winning ticket would get a chance to make some money. We chose to play it on a 9 foot table with pretty tight pockets. Here's the rules.

- nine ball
- break and run....win the pot
-break and make a ball .......each ball earns 10% off the pot( balls made on the break DO NOT PAY unless you run out.)
- 1 -9 combo counts as one ball and keep shooting to the 8 for the run out

First week we had 12 players with 200 in the pot. It was $ 20 a ball or $200 to run out. This went on for 3 or 4 weeks without anyone even making a ball on the break. After the first month there was over $1000 in the jackpot. That's right 100 dollars a ball!!! It got up to almost 300 dollars a ball before someone finally broke and ran out. It was a APA 5 too. He was happy to say the least. That's the great thing about paying out PER BALL because anybody can break and run a few balls. When the word got out about the PROMOTION I had good players from surrounding areas showing up trying to get it. We made a rule early on that when the jackpot reached $ 1000 dollars you had to play two tournaments before you were eligible to participate in the Break and Run Jackpot. This can be HUGE if you promote it right. Just some ideas to help you get more people playing pool.

 

[deerhunter]

About the same thing goes on in my area. Break & run gets up there and you will have 30 or 40 players. Then it gets hit and you are back to 8 or 10 players. But, it is a good gimmick while the money is up there.

 

[march11934]

Leisure Time Billiards

I used to play in NY, LI. There was a hall called Leisure Time that had a weekly tournament that developed into a really incredible experience. It was a 64 man field and it was $20 a head entry. I think first place was about $500 - $600? That was not boring part, LOL. The part that got exciting was the calcutta. That was getting into the 2 to 4 thousand range. Side action on the players was intense. I have seen players go for $500 at times what their spots were getting low enough. Usually the owner of the winning bid would split the bid with the player. I had the eventually drop out since I just couldn't keep up with the calcutta splits I was going in for.
There was what was called the Super Tuesday that was then held every 10 weeks. A percentage of the weekly drawing was placed into a pot that would be held till the Super. Between the first place winnings and the total calcutta fee first place was hitting from over 10 thousand for the Super. Players were allowed to participate based on the point basis. You built up points as you played each week. The higher you placed in one of the regular tournaments the more points yu acquired. That way you didn't have to play every week to become eligible. You could also buy some points if you were coming up short.

The pool hall was located on Hempstead Trpk in Levittown. Haven't been there is in about 10 years so no idea what the tournament status is anymore. Probably died down. If i recall this one ran hot for about three years. Every week there was heavy betting. A lot of fun to be around.

By the way, there was no alcohol served in any of the pool halls in NY at the time. Just food. So don't let that be considered a factor.
Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

Here is an idea to add money infrequently

Kolby's? in Tempe AZ, entry fee is $11.00, $10.00 goes to the Tournament Pot, and $1.00 goes in a Floating Prize fund. After the Draw a ball is drawn from 31 Balls that are numbered 1-31, and if the Balls Number is the same as the Date the Floating Fund is added to the pot.


I have seen the floating fun at 3-500 bucks. The house never adds anything, but there are NO Quarters, or Green Fees.

 

[highrun55]

Thanks all

A bunch of good ideas here men, Now I can try them out and find what will work with the guys & girls here at my room. They are a picky bunch they are lol

highrun55

 

[march11934]

A bunch of good ideas here men, Now I can try them out and find what will work with the guys & girls here at my room. They are a picky bunch they are lol

highrun55

Keep us updated on the results. Might be some handy info for some of the other owners.