Single table pool tourny ideas?

SoundWaves

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm looking for some ideas. Recently refinished my basement, got a better table, built a bar etc. Since then I have been complaining about our lack of guests to the new room. My wife came up with a great idea for my upcoming birthday and came up with a $100 added pool tournament at our house and invited around 12 of my pool friends over for the evening to break in the new room.
I love the idea but I'm unsure what format i should use to run the tourney. I want to make people feel like they have a fair shot, but not have it last 3 days.
Any Ideas?
 
games

pick an order then rack all fifteen 1st breaks then your only task is to pocket a ball then the next in line does the same if you miss you mark it three misses and your out you can handicap it with number of misses, this is a party game the only other format to end quickly is single elim or double race to one
 
format

A 16 player bracket, race to 2 8 or 9 ball. Charge $5 entry, and pay $100 for 1st, $50 for 2nd, and $10 for 3rd.
 
My wife's suggestion was to start a "Pool Night", so I did. I've provided links to Word docs which contain the details. I invited four others (so 5 players total), and we play the first Friday night of the month. 3 nights (or "sessions") make up a "season", and the winner of the Season (best record) gets to pick which game they want to play in the next Season. (I'm working on a better prize for that, but that's the current model.)

Each player comes with 20 bucks. The house (that's me) takes $50 for food and beer, and the Session winner takes $40, and the runner-up takes $10.

We ended up taking this summer off due to scheduling issues. I'm trying to start it up again, but this time with only four of us.

Attached are all the details, including our records, house rules, head-to-head stats, etc.

While 12 sounds like a fun party, it seems like you'll have a lot of guys getting frustrated when two lesser players take the table and are banging around and not able to pocket in a timely fashion. I think 4 or 5 is ideal. I actually think 6 may be too many. Then again, none of us are all that good!! If your 12 friends play jam-up, it may work.

OTOH, if you have 12 friends who are into it, perhaps you can break them into groups and have 2 or 3 different pool nights. More pool for you! :cool:

House Rules:
http://www.poolvids.com/PoolNightv15.doc

Spring '08 Season Results (note: my original approach was to make the order of players switch around by assigning P1, P2, P3, P4, P5 to the player in order of their record from the prior session. The best player was P1, then P2 and so on. The idea was to have the night culminate with the supposed two best players from the prior session (P1 and P2). For next Season, I decided to just have the match-ups based on first names, and forget about the culmination thing -- keeping track of which player was which was too confusing):
http://www.poolvids.com/Results-Spring08.doc


-- tonmo
 
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Numbers in a hat. Odd number of players and add a zero for a by. 1 plays 2, 3 plays 4 etc. Play 3 or 4 ball double elimination. Second round have 1 play 12, 2 plays 11 etc. 12 players should take around 1 1/2 hours. Second round winners only, 8 players should go for 45 minutes tops. Top 4 play 8 or 9 ball single elimination. Winner from match 1 plays winner from match 2. Last, BYOB.
 
Two Words... Scotch Doubles and play 9 ball. Each "team" puts up $50 and you have 6 teams. Take some for the house for food and beer and break it down for the payouts.

Ok, that was 32 words... So, sue me... lol

Dwight
 
racefornine said:
pick an order then rack all fifteen 1st breaks then your only task is to pocket a ball then the next in line does the same if you miss you mark it three misses and your out you can handicap it with number of misses, this is a party game the only other format to end quickly is single elim or double race to one

I have played this before, but with an additional rule. If you pocket the 8-ball you get 1 extra "life". We named the game "Killer". It's fun for both good players and beginners, and with 12 players it doesn't need to last long either
 
SoundWaves said:
Yea but a ring game with 10 or more could be tough. Keep the ideas coming thanks guys!

Do a Blind draw, Scotch 9 ball ring game. We use to do this after league play. You get 10 players, draw peas or whatever so the teams are random each set.

Play the Ring game with first team to 3 wins.

Same Ring game rules, no safeties, gentlemens effort to make a good hit, etc.

$10 a man. Winning team gets $40 each per set.

We also have it so you have to pay double if one team skunks everyone with 3 wins and no one else got any wins.

Great game, and if some people need to leave early, you can do it with any amount of teams.
 
3 Ball Tournament:

$5 gives you 3 balls: $4 goes to the pot $1 goes to the progressive jackpot

Rack 3 balls....player breaks...then tries to pocket the balls in the fewest amount of shots....player with the lowest score at the end of the round wins the pot....if a player makes all 3 balls on the break, he wins the progressive jackpot (put the $100 added money in it to kick it off)
 
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