Calcuttas

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david(tx)

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I never paid attention to them 20 yrs ago when i'd attend the occasional tournament , i only played in weeknight local tournaments. Since i have started paying attention to pool tournaments lately i 've noticed that some tournaments auction all the players prior to the start and others wait until it is whittled down to the final 32.


Just looking at it it looks like waiting till the final 32 gives the bidder and better idea of a players ability because he has watched them play people of various talent. I know this isn't working with small fields.


My question is does anyone know of a website that explains calcuttas somewhat. Is there pretty much a standard ratio of payout to the player and bidder?Does the house get a cut? Why does the player get any unless he buys his/herself in the auction?
 
david(tx) said:
I never paid attention to them 20 yrs ago when i'd attend the occasional tournament , i only played in weeknight local tournaments. Since i have started paying attention to pool tournaments lately i 've noticed that some tournaments auction all the players prior to the start and others wait until it is whittled down to the final 32.


Just looking at it it looks like waiting till the final 32 gives the bidder and better idea of a players ability because he has watched them play people of various talent. I know this isn't working with small fields.


My question is does anyone know of a website that explains calcuttas somewhat. Is there pretty much a standard ratio of payout to the player and bidder?Does the house get a cut? Why does the player get any unless he buys his/herself in the auction?
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I've never heard of tournements waiting till 32 to do a aucton..but some tourney's have 2 auctons..1 in the beginning then 1 either at 32 or even down to 16....I'm sure that's what you are refering to..maybe you wasn't there for the 1st calcutta but got there on the sunday when they were kicking off the 2nd calcutta.
 
Generally, a calcutta does not pay anything to the player. The payouts go to the person who won the bid for the winning player(s). As a general rule, the winning bidder will offer the player the option of buying back half of himself, in which case, they would split. Say I pay $200 for Archer, and he buys half of himself from me for $100. If he wins anything in the calcutta, we would split 50/50.

Steve
 
Ha ha

pooltchr said:
Generally, a calcutta does not pay anything to the player. The payouts go to the person who won the bid for the winning player(s). As a general rule, the winning bidder will offer the player the option of buying back half of himself, in which case, they would split. Say I pay $200 for Archer, and he buys half of himself from me for $100. If he wins anything in the calcutta, we would split 50/50.

Steve
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gOOD LUCK BUYING ARCHER FOR $200.00 , HA HA I KNOW JUST A EXAMPLE!!!:confused:
 
I have played in tournaments that are 32 person max entry and have a calcutta only for the final 8. It saves a lot of time when it is done this way. Usually, the player only gets a cut if he purchased himself in the calcutta or bought half back from the person that did purchase him. As far as the house taking a cut, I have heard of some taking up to 5% from the calcutta pot. However, there are some legal issues regarding this. Calcuttas are not legal in all areas and in some areas where they are legal, the house is permitted to take a maximum of 5%. These statements are what I believe to be fact, based on my own research, and should not be assumed to be truth until researched by one's own self. I do not accept responsibility for anyone conducting a calcutta illegally.
 
Payouts

Generally, the number of places paid and the percentages differ from tournmanet to tournament, but are public info before the auction. If there are any standard figures, I am unaware of them. In my experience, the player always has the option to buy half of himself, as stated above. Usually, even if the player doesn't buy half, the buyer will give him some kind of jellyroll. Obviously that would depend on factors like amount won versus amount invested and the generosity of the buyer. A generous guy may give 20-25%, a guy like Watchez....zippo.:wink:
 
houmatroy said:
I've never heard of tournements waiting till 32 to do a aucton..but some tourney's have 2 auctons..1 in the beginning then 1 either at 32 or even down to 16....I'm sure that's what you are refering to..maybe you wasn't there for the 1st calcutta but got there on the sunday when they were kicking off the 2nd calcutta.
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They wait until the final 32 in some of the higher entry 8 ball tournaments in the midwest i think , i don't think it is a split auction. Thanks for the info though.

Ought to be a pretty good down your way in a couple of weeks.
 
bradsh98 said:
I have played in tournaments that are 32 person max entry and have a calcutta only for the final 8. It saves a lot of time when it is done this way. Usually, the player only gets a cut if he purchased himself in the calcutta or bought half back from the person that did purchase him. As far as the house taking a cut, I have heard of some taking up to 5% from the calcutta pot. However, there are some legal issues regarding this. Calcuttas are not legal in all areas and in some areas where they are legal, the house is permitted to take a maximum of 5%. These statements are what I believe to be fact, based on my own research, and should not be assumed to be truth until researched by one's own self. I do not accept responsibility for anyone conducting a calcutta illegally.
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The legalities might be like poker here in Texas , you can play for money legally but there can't be any rake by those hosting.
 
yep!!

pooltchr said:
Generally, a calcutta does not pay anything to the player. The payouts go to the person who won the bid for the winning player(s). As a general rule, the winning bidder will offer the player the option of buying back half of himself, in which case, they would split. Say I pay $200 for Archer, and he buys half of himself from me for $100. If he wins anything in the calcutta, we would split 50/50.

Steve
Click to expand...

did not mean to offend you with my little archer thing!11 but yes you are correct, in my view the calcutta is mostly for the no-shooting fan to wager a few$$$ on the game, as a spector does in horse racing !!! LET THEM RUN!!!
 
punter said:
Generally, the number of places paid and the percentages differ from tournmanet to tournament, but are public info before the auction. If there are any standard figures, I am unaware of them. In my experience, the player always has the option to buy half of himself, as stated above. Usually, even if the player doesn't buy half, the buyer will give him some kind of jellyroll. Obviously that would depend on factors like amount won versus amount invested and the generosity of the buyer. A generous guy may give 20-25%, a guy like Watchez....zippo.:wink:
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Thanks for the info Punter, like you said it probably depends on how many spots pay. I thought maybe there might be a standardized ratio dependent on entrants and if they didn't meet their target they would just pro rate.

I do see announcements by people telling the amount winners of tournaments get from the prize plus calcutta as a selling point for future events.
 
stick8 said:
did not mean to offend you with my little archer thing!11 but yes you are correct, in my view the calcutta is mostly for the no-shooting fan to wager a few$$$ on the game, as a spector does in horse racing !!! LET THEM RUN!!!
Click to expand...

No offense taken. I don't gamble myself, but I would probably buy him for that if I could, figuring it probably isn't gambling as much as it would be "investing". :grin:

Steve
 
the old saying holds true

david(tx) said:
They wait until the final 32 in some of the higher entry 8 ball tournaments in the midwest i think , i don't think it is a split auction. Thanks for the info though.

Ought to be a pretty good down your way in a couple of weeks.
Click to expand...

you can learn sumthin new everyday...see....i did not know that.
 
I have seen LOTS of tournaments, but never one where the calcutta is only for the last few players. A calcutta is one method used to increase the interest and potential pay-outs to the players or the railbirds....keeps everyone interested. A well-run calcutta in a tournament with several high-level players and shortstops may have more money paid out than the actual tournament winnings.
Joe
 
Bamacues said:
I have seen LOTS of tournaments, but never one where the calcutta is only for the last few players. A calcutta is one method used to increase the interest and potential pay-outs to the players or the railbirds....keeps everyone interested. A well-run calcutta in a tournament with several high-level players and shortstops may have more money paid out than the actual tournament winnings.
Joe
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My exact thoughts...that's why they usually have 2 calcuttas...where if u pick the right ones on the 1st one u got way better odds then if you wait till the 2nd one after the brackets are drawn..but if that's how they do it in the midwest....so be it..but they leaving alot of money on the table by doing it that way.
 
Bamacues said:
I have seen LOTS of tournaments, but never one where the calcutta is only for the last few players. A calcutta is one method used to increase the interest and potential pay-outs to the players or the railbirds....keeps everyone interested. A well-run calcutta in a tournament with several high-level players and shortstops may have more money paid out than the actual tournament winnings.
Joe
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Just a note of clarification. When we run a calcutta on the final 32 or whatever, it is done along with a redraw. So you may have a tournament that starts with 100 players. At the start of the tournament, there are many players who would not be bid on or who would go for the minimum. The calcutta would take a lot of time for the full field right when you want to get the thing going.

The tournament may play down to 32 the first day. Then at the end of the day, there is a calcutta for those 32 BEFORE the second draw is done. Losses are forgiven for this group.
 
If your not in !!!

punter said:
Generally, the number of places paid and the percentages differ from tournmanet to tournament, but are public info before the auction. If there are any standard figures, I am unaware of them. In my experience, the player always has the option to buy half of himself, as stated above. Usually, even if the player doesn't buy half, the buyer will give him some kind of jellyroll. Obviously that would depend on factors like amount won versus amount invested and the generosity of the buyer. A generous guy may give 20-25%, a guy like Watchez....zippo.:wink:
Click to expand...

$20 or $25 dollars, maybe. If they want half, pony up.
Calcutta pay outs are basically like betting on a horse. Return at best is 6-1 on the money or can be less.

$40 entry with $1300 for first, thats like 32-1 on the money.:cool:
 
The way I've always seen calcutta's run is the auction starts before the tournament and anyone can bid on a player even people not playing in the event. Often a player will bid on himself so if he wins the bid he gets all of the Calcutta money for himself which can be a hefty payday. The person who bought a player in the Calcutta has to offer the player a half if he wants it which he usually does. Sometimes after the auction there may be a few weaker players who haven't been bought. They auctioneer then offers them all up for bid as a group by saying "the field is up for bid". So if you win that bid you get all of those players in the Calcutta, sometimes for a cheap price.

If you have a good auctioneer, usually the tournament director, who really gets into it he can really drive up the bids on players. Back in the mid 90's we had a really good weekly event in Manhattan with a lot of really good players, a few pros and a great auctioneer, the 64 player field was already filled before 6pm every week, in fact I used to call during the day from work just to get my name in! First prize for the event was about $600 however first prize in the Calcutta varied anywhere from $1200 to $4000+. I remember one player outbid everyone and bought himself for quite a bit of money but ended up winning the event and walked out with about $5000. The entry was only $25 and you could conceivably by yourself for $10 in the Calcutta which payed out at least 8 places.

Of course calcutta's are liable to become corrupt. A group of players will decide one of theirs is going to win that night and if any of them play him they will dump the match. Although it's often easy to spot in advance when the players involved don't bid on themselves or buy half of themselves in the Calcutta except for the player designated to win.
 
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