Tournament Payouts?

Tom In Cincy

Tom In Cincy

AKA SactownTom
Silver Member
I run tournaments at Hard Times Billiards in Sacramento CA.

I am interested in opinions about payouts.

I always pay atleast 25% of the field. (8 places for a 32 player field)

I keep the cash payouts for 1st place limited to a range of 25 to 33% of the total pot. 15 to 20% for 2nd place.

I also keep the last place (7th, 8th) to atlest twice to 4 times the entry fee.

How does this compare to what you are use to in your tournaments?
 
Sounds great, tournaments locally you have to place in the top 3 to get in the money, and it's always the same people, maybe that's why the last two times I've showed up to play they cancelled the tourney for lack of participants.
 
In my experience of running tournaments....I have found that the most successful tournaments are ones that have a broad spectrum of ability in the players that enter. You have to have about half of players that would be considered beginning to intermediate players and some intermediate players and a few advanced players. In order to do this you have to pay out to approx 20 - 25% of the field. The successful tournament is the one that has a core of repeat players every week and those repeat players are normally the beginning to intermediate players. If these players can make 15 - 20 bucks on their 5 dollar entry fee then they are happy because they win something and they keep coming back to play.

If you only pay the top 3 places then only the top players will play for the most part and there are only a few of that group that will come back to play each week.

Now, saying this, I also find that if you want to attract only the top players for a tourney, I find that paying more for 1st place is a good thing and that paying only the top 3 or 4 in a field of 32 works because then you will get a lot more of the better players because the money is better, but this only appears to work out for a successful tourney if you do have the tourney just every so often. Dont know why this is true, but it appears to be the case - at least here in Arizona. Go figure.

Maybe this is not the case in other states.

JMHO
 
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Tom, you and my buddy the Professor run a tournament like the players want. Those are great %s. If the winner gripes and quits, good, you will have more players next time. Bravo.
 
I agree. The ones who complain are the ones that dont spend any money at the establishment anyway and after all, tournaments are supposed to give the players a chance to compete, but ultimately to make some money at the establishment as well.

Isnt it funny how the ones that complain about payouts are always the ones that are drinking water.

heh...just an observation.
 
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