Good Old Days - maybe why pool is suffering?

[rackmsuckr]

In the thread regarding who showed up at Cadillac Ranch, about Rafael Martinez, I posted a couple pictures from a casino here that had a $5,000 added weekend tournament.

Thanks to the RealKingCobra's efforts, we were also able to put on WEEKLY $500 ADDED tournaments twice a week on beautiful Diamond 9 footers. I believe Tuesdays were 9-ball and Thursdays were 8 ball. That means the casino was paying out $1000/week and couldn't really recoup anything since they had ridiculously low-priced meals there...huge pizzas for $3.99.

Do you know what was goofy?? We couldn't fill the fields!! Leagues or something interfered with some of the players, but here is the rub. Most of the other players sneaked off to the other tournaments to win those, since the 'good' players were at my tournaments!

First place each night was usually around $300 and we paid deep, about a 1/3 of the field. I think even 3rd got over $100. For example, on 26 players paying a $10 entry fee (can't remember the green fee, but it was less than $5), that made a total pot of $760. Payouts were something like $300, 200, 100, 50, 35/35, and 20/20.

So even when someone puts in good money, not enough people support the tournament or the room. That is sad.

 

[ironman]

In the thread regarding who showed up at Cadillac Ranch, about Rafael Martinez, I posted a couple pictures from a casino here that had a $5,000 added weekend tournament.

Thanks to the RealKingCobra's efforts, we were also able to put on WEEKLY $500 ADDED tournaments twice a week on beautiful Diamond 9 footers. I believe Tuesdays were 9-ball and Thursdays were 8 ball. That means the casino was paying out $1000/week and couldn't really recoup anything since they had ridiculously low-priced meals there...huge pizzas for $3.99.

Do you know what was goofy?? We couldn't fill the fields!! Leagues or something interfered with some of the players, but here is the rub. Most of the other players sneaked off to the other tournaments to win those, since the 'good' players were at my tournaments!

First place each night was usually around $300 and we paid deep, about a 1/3 of the field. I think even 3rd got over $100. For example, on 26 players paying a $10 entry fee (can't remember the green fee, but it was less than $5), that made a total pot of $760. Payouts were something like $300, 200, 100, 50, 35/35, and 20/20.

So even when someone puts in good money, not enough people support the tournament or the room. That is sad.

I feel your pain. The same thing happens here as well.

It seems like the dumpier the place and lower the payoffs, the bigger the turnout.

 

[!Smorgass Bored]

A Result Of The IPT Debacle ?

The Queen said:
<with snippage>
So even when someone puts in good money, not enough people support the tournament or the room. That is sad.



I agree 100%. For the past 7 years Planet 9-Ball has had money added monthly $25 entry 9-Ball tournaments and drawn some really great local talent, roadplayers and some HOF players.
Due to a poor turnout at the last three monthly tournaments, P-9-Ball has discontinued their monthly pool tournaments indefinitely. It's a damn shame.... imo
Doug

 

[MrLucky]

my thoughts

When I know that a tournament is going to have a Stevie Moore and a Cliff Joyner plus some roadies I might enter just to evaluate my game but as a APA 6 I know the chances of my winning anything are few and far between ! so if I have a choice between that tournament (which where I play there are many) and a smaller bar tournament where I am up against shooters more in my caliber! then the obvious choice is the bar rather than say Mr Cues !

This isn't rocket science !

P.S. I really do not see how "Pool is suffering" ... I hear this term used here a lot but in your example its the big gun tournaments that may be suffering but not pool ! I see the room I play out of full every night of the week 40 + tables !!! I see the smaller bar tournys full with players and every session I see many new players in our leagues So IMO! it isn't suffering !

 

[ShootingArts]

reality

Do you know what was goofy?? We couldn't fill the fields!! Leagues or something interfered with some of the players, but here is the rub. Most of the other players sneaked off to the other tournaments to win those, since the 'good' players were at my tournaments!
(

I think you just bumped head on into reality. There are a limited number of pool players. Many of those players will play wherever they are most comfortable. The quality of equipment and room, even the payout being better somewhere else won't move them from their "home". Others will duck and dive trying to avoid the tough competition. Some would rather gamble than shoot tournaments too. I fell into that category during my peak years playing. I figured the odds were far better gambling against one or a few people, and the payout was usually better than at a tournament too.

There is another issue that keeps many people away from tournaments or any form of competition. Some love competition, some hate it or at least dislike competing. There is no form of competition that you can put together that they would enjoy competing in. Do a little checking and find the names of the people in your area who have competed at least three to five times in the last year in events the size you are putting on. Add five to ten percent per year to that number and that is all the competitors that your venue and the other venues hosting events can hope to split between them, and as long as two or more places go head to head or basically head to head you are splitting competitors. They can't be two places at once and most aren't going to play into the wee hours Tuesdays and Thursdays and shoot another late night event somewhere else Wednesday. The Thursday night tournament impacts Friday's events too and so on.

The sad truth is that there aren't a lot of serious competitors even on the local level to spread between events. In other sports we coordinated with other venues and tried to avoid conflicts. When that wasn't possible we at least coordinated for our monthly type events so our larger events didn't go head to head.

We need more pool players and we need more competitors. We also have to realize that the two aren't necessarily one and the same.

Hu

 

[Russ Chewning]

In the thread regarding who showed up at Cadillac Ranch, about Rafael Martinez, I posted a couple pictures from a casino here that had a $5,000 added weekend tournament.

Thanks to the RealKingCobra's efforts, we were also able to put on WEEKLY $500 ADDED tournaments twice a week on beautiful Diamond 9 footers. I believe Tuesdays were 9-ball and Thursdays were 8 ball. That means the casino was paying out $1000/week and couldn't really recoup anything since they had ridiculously low-priced meals there...huge pizzas for $3.99.

Do you know what was goofy?? We couldn't fill the fields!! Leagues or something interfered with some of the players, but here is the rub. Most of the other players sneaked off to the other tournaments to win those, since the 'good' players were at my tournaments!

First place each night was usually around $300 and we paid deep, about a 1/3 of the field. I think even 3rd got over $100. For example, on 26 players paying a $10 entry fee (can't remember the green fee, but it was less than $5), that made a total pot of $760. Payouts were something like $300, 200, 100, 50, 35/35, and 20/20.

So even when someone puts in good money, not enough people support the tournament or the room. That is sad.

Linda,

Well, if you remember, I was one of those people that would travel to any tournament that Mike, J.D., Kris Iverson, Tim Tweedel, etc.. would play on a weekday evening. Also, I was travelling to any weekend tournament I could find, including up into Canada and down to Portland. I donated to the 211, Dr. Cue's, City Lights tournaments for a few months before I started cashing, but it really paid off eventually, because I beat a few of those guys in the tournaments..

Russ

 

[rackmsuckr]

Linda,

Well, if you remember, I was one of those people that would travel to any tournament that Mike, J.D., Kris Iverson, Tim Tweedel, etc.. would play on a weekday evening. Also, I was travelling to any weekend tournament I could find, including up into Canada and down to Portland. I donated to the 211, Dr. Cue's, City Lights tournaments for a few months before I started cashing, but it really paid off eventually, because I beat a few of those guys in the tournaments..

Russ

Exactly. And you started cashing in. What league players, women, and others should be realizing is that going head-to-head with the big guns in your area for a measly $10 is exactly the seasoning you need to improve. If the field is paying 1/3 of the field instead of 1/4, there is a better chance you will be cashing in too. Occasionally, the big guns knocked each other out and a B player would win it all. You're not going to improve in competition unless you play better players and this was an inexpensive way to do that.