Organzing Tournament and Drawing

[THam]

So, I am thinking I am going to do a big money tournament (big for my area), I am doing it so that part of the entry fee goes to charity. I want to do it for charity to I can put charity service on my resume for my school program. I was thinking of also having a drawing for prizes if you buy tickets, all ticket money would go to charity. My initial thinking was this.

10 Ball - Early 10 counts if called taking place over 2 days
Limit 32 Players
Double elimination race to 5 until Top 8. Then redraw race to 7 single elimination.
$135 Entry Fee
-$80 To tournament
-$20 Green Fee
-$35 to Charity

Pay out top four + Calcutta or Side Pots
1st $1024
2nd $768
3rd $512
4th $256

Raffle would go like this,
1 entry for playing $10 per ticket (don't have to be playing to buy tickets)
Grand Prize: 2x5/3x4 JB Rugged ($250)
Prizes: Q Claw Customized with Event Name($30), Barracuda Glove($25), Kamui Bridge Head($40), and Custom Pocket Chalker($30)


Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks for reading.

 

[THam]

I forgot to mention I'm having a really experienced tournament director helping me run it, these were just my initial ideas. I haven't talked to him about specifics yet.

 

[ChrisinNC]

So, I am thinking I am going to do a big money tournament (big for my area), I am doing it so that part of the entry fee goes to charity. I want to do it for charity to I can put charity service on my resume for my school program. I was thinking of also having a drawing for prizes if you buy tickets, all ticket money would go to charity. My initial thinking was this.

10 Ball - Early 10 counts if called taking place over 2 days
Limit 32 Players
Double elimination race to 5 until Top 8. Then redraw race to 7 single elimination.
$135 Entry Fee
-$80 To tournament
-$20 Green Fee
-$35 to Charity

Pay out top four + Calcutta or Side Pots
1st $1024
2nd $768
3rd $512
4th $256

Raffle would go like this,
1 entry for playing $10 per ticket (don't have to be playing to buy tickets)
Grand Prize: 2x5/3x4 JB Rugged ($250)
Prizes: Q Claw Customized with Event Name($30), Barracuda Glove($25), Kamui Bridge Head($40), and Custom Pocket Chalker($30)


Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks for reading.

Initial thoughts -

I assume this is an open tournament with no handicaps since you didn’t mention handicaps? If so, unless you attract mostly very strong players or prohibit strong players from playing, you’re going to have a tough time filling the field. If you are handicapping players, how will you fairly go about doing that?

Why 10-ball instead of 9-ball? The games/matches will take longer to complete, not to mention there is way more chance for conflicts anytime you have to have to call pockets, particularly when players are ponying up $135.

$135 is a steep $ entry fee unless you are located in a large market with numerous competitive players. The less than 8-to-1 payout for the winner in a 32 player field is not that enticing. Many players aren’t going to care that part of their entry goes to charity, and you need to clarify what the charity is. I’d suggest instead of taking out $35 (over 25% of their entry fee) for charity, just take out $20 or $25 per entrant but then also take out like 10% of the player auction $ total, which hopefully would amount to more.

How big a poolroom with how many tables dedicated exclusively tournament matches do you have, particularly for the first day? Based on that you have to figure the timeframe for how long the tournament will take to complete, then adjust the length of the races accordingly so you can complete the tournament in the specified time frame the poolroom is giving you.

Finally, unless you have experience running pool tournaments, I strongly suggest you find an experienced tournament director to run a tournament of this size smoothly, to minimize chances for problems and controversy. I just read your added post, so it sounds like you’ve got the TD issue taken care of.

 

[THam]

We have been filling 32 man fields for $100 and $150 entry easily lately. We have a room that would have at least 7 free diamonds for the tournament on the first day.

The tournament would be Saturday from Noon to Midnight then additional games Sunday if needed.
I can easily see doing 9 ball instead, that's no biggie.

The charity will be specified.

 

[ChrisinNC]

We have been filling 32 man fields for $100 and $150 entry easily lately. We have a room that would have at least 7 free diamonds for the tournament on the first day.

The tournament would be Saturday from Noon to Midnight then additional games Sunday if needed.
I can easily see doing 9 ball instead, that's no biggie.

The charity will be specified.

With 32 players, 8 tables at least for the first 2-3 rounds would be way better if at all possible, to considerably speed the time you’ll need to play the entire tournament. That would allow you to complete the first 2 rounds where everyone must play in 4 sessions instead of 6 sessions.

 

[THam]

I could easily use 8 as well, I see how that would increase the speed of it.

 

[ChrisinNC]

I could easily use 8 as well, I see how that would increase the speed of it.

Just curious by your avatar, are you in the Atlanta area and I assume you’re a suffering Falcons fan like myself? I will never recover from our Super Bowl collapse until we win one, which is highly unlikely given our our clueless owner.

 

[THam]

I'm actually from the Salt Lake City area. I am just a lifelong Falcons fan since the days of Vick being the most exciting player to watch. Stuck with the Falcons after the whole dog fighting thing. It is a painful team to be a fan of since the Super Bowl.

 

[hang-the-9]

$20 green fee, not sure I'd go in for that, rooms I play in don't usually take out anything from the tournaments, rely on the food/drink business from the bunch of players there during a slower time, like during the day. Also only paying out top 4 with a heavy prize for the players vs to the charity with 32 players is also a no for me. I'd expect top 8 to be paid out with 32 unless this is a room that gets the players that don't care if they can't win. Top 4 of 32, you can pick the top 8 before the matches start in an even race, and probably top 4 also almost as easily.

Race to 5 32 players, with enough tables not to wait for the rounds to finish you can do in a day easy.

 

[THam]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, after some thought I think we've decided to do scotch doubles in some form with a low entry fee and a decent chunk going to charity. Something like a $20 to $25 buy in with 16 to 32 teams. My tournament director and a friend of mine both believe it'll draw more people. Also thinking probably 8 Ball if we're doing scotch doubles.

Also trying to get a quite a bit from the raffle.

A local tournament in a much smaller city drew 50 teams of 2 last weekend. I'm hoping in a bigger city we'd get just as many if not more. Maybe even $10 entry per player if we want to try for that many people.

 

[hang-the-9]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, after some thought I think we've decided to do scotch doubles in some form with a low entry fee and a decent chunk going to charity. Something like a $20 to $25 buy in with 16 to 32 teams. My tournament director and a friend of mine both believe it'll draw more people. Also thinking probably 8 Ball if we're doing scotch doubles.

Also trying to get a quite a bit from the raffle.

Most charity events I played in were doubles, and random partner doubles at that. Was always fun playing that way, coaching OK. Maybe make it not too random so there are not many teams with two good players or two bad players.

For charity (if that is the goal here) since you seem to know the area, assign the players to two buckets, one B to A, the other D to B-, pick one from each for partners.

 

[THam]

Most charity events I played in were doubles, and random partner doubles at that. Was always fun playing that way, coaching OK. Maybe make it not too random so there are not many teams with two good players or two bad players.

For charity (if that is the goal here) since you seem to know the area, assign the players to two buckets, one B to A, the other D to B-, pick one from each for partners.

I was going to make it random draw with people seperated by skill. Doubles are a lot of fun and not too serious when it's random draw. I think it's a good plan.