Ideas for starting a weekly tournament?

A

accustatsfan

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I moved to a new area that has three days of leagues, but no weekly tournaments. Funny enough the senior center is the only place that holds a weekly tournament, but its closed to senior club members only.

Any ideas on how to generate interest for a small weekly or once a month tournament?

I'm thinking keep it a low entry fee $5 to $10, short race, 8 or 9 ball.

I know how to run, handicap etc a small single or double elimination tournament.

The base questions are how do you generate interest without a marketing budget so the people will come? How do you get a bar (there are no other venues) owner to participate?
 
Tournament Idea

9-ball
Always pay top 4. 4th gets entry back then up from there.
Hdcps are 5, 7, 9 or 11...
If you place in the top 2 you go up 2 games period. No top limit.
Loser breaks.
$2 Calcutta bids.

Ours was always jammed with players.
 
At our local bars that host our leagues we have some pretty cheap, simple, and always fun tournaments.

8 ball, or 9ball, single game or race to three.
Double elimination, if racing, loss side goes to two.
$8 entry, $2 buy in for $8 ball breakpot. Bar always adds two dollars per player.
No handicaps.
Standard BCA rules.

That's our average tournament, sees about 28-32 players a week. Pays out through 6th depending on how many people.
 
I started 3 weekly senior tournaments called instant gratification, 0n Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and Wednesday evening. The players pay 6 dollars each, $3.50. to the house and @2.50 prize money. We form 2 teams and the winning team players get back $5.00 each. Sometimes we get 50 to 60 players and we form teams of 5 or 6 on each side. We started small and grew. At first it was like a regular league with prize money at the end of the season, but this is simpler, no record keeping and show up when you want. Amazingly good old time players heard about us and joined, there are no easy games. Larry
 
accustatsfan said:
The base questions are how do you generate interest without a marketing budget so the people will come? How do you get a bar (there are no other venues) owner to participate?
Click to expand...

Tough nut. In this situation I recommend you appeal to the bar owner's ego. Name the tournament after the bar -- let's call it The Old Town Bar & Grill 9-ball Tournament. This way he feels like he's got some equity in it. Mock up a tournament poster that prominently features the OT Bar&Grill (i.e. DON'T just bury the OTBar&Grill's logo in the lefthand corner!)

The objective is to get him excited enough to "participate" (reserve the tables for the tournament) and then kick in some marketing dollars ("Gee, sure would be nice to get this poster printed...")

Good luck!
 
Our local weekly tournaments are called "chip" tournaments. Players are given X-number of chips (or games). This is the number of games the player can lose before they are out of the tournament. Every "match" is 1-game. The loser loses a chip and is reassigned to another table. The winner stays at the table and racks for the incoming player. The winner is the last player with any chips left.

We use the number of chips a player receives as the handicap system. In 8-ball, the average player gets 5 chips, better players get 4, and the best players get 3. For 9-ball, most players get 7, better get 6, best get 5. And in both cases, we have a couple of folks who get more chips.

This handicapping system works very well: the better/best players usually win, but there are lots of times where other players get in the money. Playing only one game at a time, ANYONE can win a game (or a series of games).

The entry fee is $12/person. $10 of each entry fee goes into the prize money, the other $2 goes to the house. We try to pay out 1 place for every 4 players, with a max of 4 places.

The number of tables we use determines the number of people in the finals. Typically, we use 4 tables: when the tournament gets to the point that there are only winners remaining (meaning there are no more losers with chips left to be sent to another table), then that is considered "the finals". We draw chips again and go down to two tables. Each player has their remaining chips, and we play out from there. If you end up with 2 losers and two winners on opposing tables, the two losers play for 3rd and 4th and the two winners play for 1st and 2nd.

It's a really good format. No one plays one or two matches and goes home, everyone gets to play a bunch of games, and with different people. Anyone has a chance to win, but it still typically rewards the strongest play. And with 12-20 people it can take 3-4 hours to play, so the pool hall wins because that's 3-4 hours of people buying food and drinks.
 
accustatsfan said:
I moved to a new area that has three days of leagues, but no weekly tournaments. Funny enough the senior center is the only place that holds a weekly tournament, but its closed to senior club members only.

Any ideas on how to generate interest for a small weekly or once a month tournament?

I'm thinking keep it a low entry fee $5 to $10, short race, 8 or 9 ball.

I know how to run, handicap etc a small single or double elimination tournament.

The base questions are how do you generate interest without a marketing budget so the people will come? How do you get a bar (there are no other venues) owner to participate?
Click to expand...

What format are the leagues in your area? I know they were almost all 8-ball where I was at so that would likely be the most appealing to the given crowd for a game format. It might be different in your area.

As far as rules go you will have arguments regardless of the format but I think call pocket (not shot) ball in hand are the rules that allows for the least amount of arguments for 8-ball. Just make sure everyone knows what constitutes a ball in hand.

As for generating interest ask the league owners/operators if you could include a letter size advertisement with their weekly paperwork for the leagues. Just explain your pool tournament does not interfere with their league nights and this might generate more interest in their league.

Most bars I have patronized, but not all, would be glad to have a group of 8 to 32 additional people to buy drinks and bar food while shove money in their pool tables for 2 to 5 hours on a normally slow day. In fact you just might be able to get the bar owners to add money to the tournament pot. Especially if the bar owner is a pool player and thinks he might have a shot at winning his money back. The more money in the tournament generally the more people will show up.

If you can talk to different bar owners and get more than one interested consider a rotating venue tournament or just another regular tournament on a different day/night. The other bars involved shouldn't mind hanging an advertisement for the other bars as they know they will get their additional customers when it is their tournament night.
 
The place where I play now has tournaments on Fri and Sat night and Sunday.. They have handicapped 8 ball and short rack 8 ball plus 9 ball. The short rack and 9 ball are all race to 3 and double elimination. All are $5 buy in.

Another place I played for several years that no longer has tournaments used to have a tournament every Sat night. It would alternate 8 ball one week and 9 ball the next. The guy who ran it kept records on the players and everyone was rated. He had a chart for 8 and 9 ball where you plug your average in the define your race. ratings went from 2 - 9. Strangers were rated high to prevent the obvious. It was popular and there usually was a field of 25 - 30 players each week. Entry was $10 and the bar kicked in $100. The bar changed hands and the tourney was discontinued. There is still a couple of leagues but that's it. This is a big place with 25 7' tables and 6 9' tables. It's gone from a pool hall to a sports bar I guess.
 
flyrv9 said:
The place where I play now has tournaments on Fri and Sat night and Sunday.. They have handicapped 8 ball and short rack 8 ball plus 9 ball. The short rack and 9 ball are all race to 3 and double elimination. All are $5 buy in.

How did they handicap 8 ball? Place I'm at leagues are 8 and 9 ball. I haven't been here long enough to know which is more popular.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top