Seeking Tips on Organizing Company Pool Tournament

juanbond

juanbond

Software Engineer
Silver Member
Helllllllo AZB...

I'm considering organizing a company tournament, probably 8-ball. It could either be for fun, or perhaps to benefit a local charity. Our company's good standing in the community will likely get us a great deal on table time and food/drinks at the local pool hall. I'll leave that stuff to the company's activity organizers.

What I'm seeking is advice on other aspects of running a tournament in which there will be a majority of less-experienced players. We will probably not have referees available, so players will be making their own calls, or perhaps one person will be available as a ref...I'm not yet sure. Have any of you attended or helped run a similar event? I'm really looking forward to getting this off the ground, as I absolutely love to organize tournaments of any kind. I never figured out why, but it is a passion of mine.

Keep in mind, this whole thing is just a fun company event, nothing too serious.
 
The thing that pops to mind right away from experience is:
Make sure you distribute the rules days in advance of the tournament. It will save you headaches the day of the tournament.
 
I used to run corporate parties all the time for companies like Microsoft and Boeing, when I was the house pro at Jillian's. Jillian's also had darts and ping pong, so we would make a triathlon, but you can just do pool.

First, in a corporate event, I think it is a good idea to do scotch doubles or at least partners. This allows mixing, cameraderie and makes more efficient use of the tables.

Second, make sure that partners are picked either by blind draw or they select partners that do NOT work in the same division. They need to mix it up. This creates partnerships that they would never have formed otherwise. Have them choose fun names for their teams for scoring purposes.

Third - keep the rules ultra-simple. In place of a double elimination tournament which drags on and on, we would blind draw who each team's opponents would be and put them on a table. Make sure the tables are clearly marked to lessen confusion and that you have enough so there are more people playing than sitting around. With 4 players per table, you can get a lot of players involved.

The rules I used is call pocket (NOT call shot), BIH, and coaching is allowed/encouraged. Sharking is not formally frowned upon, lol. The winner gets points for how many balls the opponents left on the table. So if your team won and we left 4 solids on the table, you would get 4 points. Scratch on the 8 is loss, etc. You may have to explain what BIH is, and where the kitchen is.

Ties are broken with a full rack break contest. Everyone gets the same amount of tries and all balls in on the break count. Scratches subtracts a ball.

Have lots of fun prizes for consolation...and runners up.

If you have any questions about this format, let me know. :)
 
If you like organizing fund raisers/charity events, a good idea is to have either a scavenger hunt or a progressive dinner. Each one requires traveling, but the progressive dinner can be done at several poolhalls at once. Start at 4 at one with soup and/or salad and play one round of the tournament I suggested above.

Then go to the next poolhall at 6 and play another round and have a main course. Another for side dishes/veggies (or combine with the main dish).

And lastly at 8 or 9, a dessert stop with the winners announced, etc.

You can charge $50 for the meal and pool. You can have your organizers or members of the charity do the cooking. Make sure to get lots of local press there. If alcohol is served, better make sure there are designated drivers to and from and back to the original location.

The poolhalls will usually donate the table time (especially if they get press), and you can get food donations, or some members will cook and shop for the food themselves as their contribution.

Again, get lots of door prizes from the community to give out along the way.
 
Oh, about the scavenger hunt...

You can make up a list and have it the traditional way where people play in teams and the list could be composed of stuff typically found in a poolhall. Locations and driving directions of all the participating poolhalls would be on everyone's list as well.

Someone in the group needs a mobile phone with a camera or a digital camera with playback to verify all found items. You may need to explain some of the items on the list to people who don't play pool. First players to get all items or most items checked off within a limited time period wins. Everyone reports back to the 'home' poolhall location.

List could be like this:

Poster of Paul Newman in the Hustler
Ivory cueball
The Rack pizza on menu (You would need to know that this menu item actually existed at one of the poolhalls! :p )
Non-Master chalk
A 22-oz. bar cue
Solid wood rack
T-shirt that lists a poolhall in another state
Centennial balls
Someone in the poolhall with orange hair
Someone drinking a Bud Light
A leather pocket filled with balls
Someone with a pierced nose
Someone wearing an ankle bracelet
A BCA rulebook
A Mike Sigel video

You get the idea. You can make the list as mundane or as wild as you want. Make sure to mix easy ones (to ease frustration) in with the more difficult-to-find items.

The other way to have a scavenger hunt is to hold an actual tournament and also have it in teams against other teams. That way, both teams have to verify it. Only the team performing the feat gets to check it off their list though. This prevents collusion.

Have each team play another team only 1 game to move things along (depending on turnout and size of teams). Again, scoring is by balls left on table in 8 ball.

The list of items could be:

A break and run
A successful bank
A combo
A billiard
A scratch
An intentional safe
Using the butt end of a cue for a shot
An 8 ball break (there needs to be items that not all teams can produce)
A shot executed while on one leg
Scratch on the 8 (players will decide if they want to risk losing their placing in the tournament as opposed to winning the scavenger hunt portion).
A shot executed with their non-dominant hand
A one-handed shot using the rail
A one-handed shot jacked up
A one-handed break
A behind the back shot

You get the idea. Make sure you have lots of prizes for something goofy that will happen that was not on the list, for best dressed, for best efforts, for last place, etc. You can get a lot of good, fun, and funny stuff at the Dollar store, and/or get donations for your event.

Do not advertise the exact shots needed before the tournament starts, but do advertise well in advance. If you get a lot of interest from actual players, match them up equally with non-players for fairly homogenous groupings.

Send out press releases talking up the fun aspect while raising charity dollars. Good luck!
 
Many good suggestions here, but I'll add one more, that hasn't been mentioned. A great equalizer is to play matches that consist of only ONE game. Anyone can win ONE GAME of 8-ball. That way the tables change hands quickly, and nobody is left waiting for very long. I brought this concept to my area several years ago, and now it is an annual event, that is very popular with all ability players (we always have 40-50 players). We play you must lose FIVE matches before you're out of the tournament. It's called 'chip pool', and utilizes poker chips. All matches begin with a blind draw. Everyone pays an entry fee (we charge $10), and you get 5 chips. You stay on the table when you win, and turn in a chip when you lose. For each win, the winner is paid $2 cash on the spot. That way everyone wins something, sometime...as a race-to-one can be won or lost by even the very best, or very worst players. The remaining 'entry fee' money (plus added $$$ if there is any), is divided very equally between 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th. This concept uses a different kind of "bracket", so if you're interested, PM me, and I can provide you with a mock up to use for yourself. This is a fun and popular format, because anyone can win...and everyone gets to play a lot of pool.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
 
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