Also, have you ever thought of having sidepots for your tourneys?
Like a $5 and a $10 sidepot.
They are optional and only the players that bought into them can win the respected money from each.
ie.
32 players sign-up ($30 each) = $960 (rounded up to $1000 per the ad)
$5 side - 20 people get in = $100 (pays 3 spots, $60, $30, $10)
$10 side - 20 people get in = $200 (pays 3 spots, $120, $60, $20)
You don't even have to win the tournament to get the sides. If you are in both side pots and get 4th place and the top 3 people didn't get in the side pots, you win 1st in both sides.
It's something that is done regularly in Arizona. Mainly because Calcutta's are outlawed. But I also find it's much easier to get people to participate. And brings more people to the next tourney, because they have a chance of winning more moola.
More larger tourneys do multiple sidepots $5/$10/$20/ $20 Winner-take-all. The winner take all pays only 1 person, the highest finisher that got in this pot. And usually the higher the amount the less places pay out. So you might only pay 2 places for the $20 one.
Just some ideas!