What would you prefer?

[Black Cat 5791]

You enter a Weekly Tournament entry fee is $20.00 Dollars $15 Prize Fund $5 Green Fee.

Tournament paying 6 Places.

20 Entrants 5/6 Place Gets $15.00
16 Entrants 5/6 Place Gets $10.00

What would you prefer the above payouts or, $0 for 4th thru 6th?

Historically the same 3 or 4 people generally finish in one of the top 4 places.

Black Cat

 

[poolguy4u]

You enter a Weekly Tournament entry fee is $20.00 Dollars $15 Prize Fund $5 Green Fee.

Tournament paying 6 Places.

20 Entrants 5/6 Place Gets $15.00
16 Entrants 5/6 Place Gets $10.00

What would you prefer the above payouts or, $0 for 4th thru 6th?

Historically the same 3 or 4 people generally finish in one of the top 4 places.

Black Cat

The top players might not like it...but you can make first and second place closer to the same amount since a lot of people like to split anyway. I like 5/6 place to break even or make a dollar or two.

I like to play for the fun and competition and it's nice to at least break even.

 

[rayjay]

Pay more places = more happy people. Nobody's gonna make a living at these weekly tournaments and the difference in money to the top 4 is insignificant, but meaningful to the bottom 2. This draws more players, building up to larger pots in the long run, making win-win.

 

[desmocourtney]

In my town, we handicap winners the next tournament. 4-3 race instead of 3-3. If they keep winning they keep going up. After three tournaments out of the money, they go down. We pay the top three and fourth place gets the scratch cup (.25 per).

Keep interest with a super rack raffle. Sell tickets for a drawing, if the winner can break and run, they win the pot. If not, pot carries over. Another variation is racking four balls. Must make four in three shots, including the break.

Good luck!

 

[Neil]

This is how I ran mine- 16 entrants, pay 25% of the field which is 4 people, 1st-40% 2nd-30% 3rd-20% 4th-10%.

 

[Gsitz89]

You gonna get mixed answers. Weaker players will prefer more payouts and stronger players will prefer less, hell some might want winner takes all.

 

[hang-the-9]

You enter a Weekly Tournament entry fee is $20.00 Dollars $15 Prize Fund $5 Green Fee.

Tournament paying 6 Places.

20 Entrants 5/6 Place Gets $15.00
16 Entrants 5/6 Place Gets $10.00

What would you prefer the above payouts or, $0 for 4th thru 6th?

Historically the same 3 or 4 people generally finish in one of the top 4 places.

Black Cat

In the local tournament I play in I often see the same several people finish in the top spots (including me, yay!), but they always pay out top 3 only. In my case the entry fee is only $7 and I think all goes to the prize fund, maybe it's $5 to prizes and $2 to the house. Maybe only pay out to 6 places if there are 20 entries? Have there been complaints?

Not really a comment on the payouts, but have you considered a higher handicap for the people that keep finishing in the top spots, even if the tournament is not handicapped? I've seen that happen before and I think it's not an issue as it makes the egos of the guys forced to give up a spot swell. I remember that they had a 3-6 handicap tournament in one place but a few guys were "special" 7 ratings.

I know in my case I always feel good when I go up in rating and even better if I can max them out hehe.

 

[bdorman]

...but have you considered a higher handicap for the people that keep finishing in the top spots, ...

This has been a problem in our local tournaments too. Despite handicaps, the same 3 players always occupy the hot seat, winner & loser of the loser's bracket.

We handicap by "number of racks needed to win". But the range has been a high of 8 (for the three best players) and a low of 5. We're lowering the handicaps, making the weakest players 3s and 4s. The 6s and 7s are going down one to 5s and 6s.

Although I'm one of the 8s I hope it results in more variety in the results.

Currently we only pay out the top two spots but I like your ideas of paying out at least four spots.

 

[hang-the-9]

This has been a problem in our local tournaments too. Despite handicaps, the same 3 players always occupy the hot seat, winner & loser of the loser's bracket.

We handicap by "number of racks needed to win". But the range has been a high of 8 (for the three best players) and a low of 5. We're lowering the handicaps, making the weakest players 3s and 4s. The 6s and 7s are going down one to 5s and 6s.

Although I'm one of the 8s I hope it results in more variety in the results.

Currently we only pay out the top two spots but I like your ideas of paying out at least four spots.

5-8 is a good long race, but a C playing an A would need more than that for a spot.

Another sneaky way to handicap the higher ranking players is to lower the races to 2-3-4 or to 5. It would give the beginners a good chance (winning 2 games is not too hard, just takes one hung up 9 ball or a scratch or something), while giving the higher ranked players more of a test to not make mistakes that let the lower level people get to 2. With longer races, the deck is stacked to the better players side.

I've played a 1 before, and it's not easy to do that LOL, the place had 2-3-4 handicaps, but on the losers it went down. So a 2 just needed 1 to win on the losers side. Even though I only needed 2, it was stress all the way for me hehe.

 

[Cdryden]

You gonna get mixed answers. Weaker players will prefer more payouts and stronger players will prefer less, hell some might want winner takes all.

As far as I'm concerned any tournament with 20 or less people should be winner takes all. But I know I am probably in the minority on that one.

 

[bdorman]

5-8 is a good long race, but a C playing an A would need more than that for a spot.

Another sneaky way to handicap the higher ranking players is to lower the races to 2-3-4 or to 5. It would give the beginners a good chance (winning 2 games is not too hard, just takes one hung up 9 ball or a scratch or something), while giving the higher ranked players more of a test to not make mistakes that let the lower level people get to 2. With longer races, the deck is stacked to the better players side.

I've played a 1 before, and it's not easy to do that LOL, the place had 2-3-4 handicaps, but on the losers it went down. So a 2 just needed 1 to win on the losers side. Even though I only needed 2, it was stress all the way for me hehe.

We considered lowering the worst players to 1s or 2s but decided against it. I don't think the 8s would mind losing to a 1 or 2 (it would be pretty funny), but a 4-5-6 might rightfully feel kind of cheated that now he has a chance to win a tournament...only to lose on one lucky shot.

And our only true "1" is an 84-year old guy who is legally blind...but used to be a very sporty 3-cushion billiard player. He can barely pocket ball, but it's very hard to play safe on him. I wish I could play 2- and 3-cushion shots like him. He knows all the angles.

 

[Gunn_Slinger]

The less places you pay, the less players you will have . If it doesnt pay 1/3 of the field, I just dont play, and the players who never cash will find something else to do. In my area, VA , they use big racks to attract players. They cap the money at $500 and start another one. This gives the weaker players a chance to make some money ( with really weak fields, its everyone gets to break, have to make the money ball on the break ). Another good tourney formay is the chip tourneys. Each player gets so many chips. Win a match, get a chip, lose a match , lose a chip. If you win, next week you start with 1 less chip.
Paying the top 3-4 every week will gring the field down and out....no tourney.
used to be, players came to tourneys to gamble after the tourney. Now few if any stay to gamble. Everyone waitin for a dead man.....lol

 

[Cdryden]

The less places you pay, the less players you will have . If it doesnt pay 1/3 of the field, I just dont play, and the players who never cash will find something else to do. In my area, VA , they use big racks to attract players. They cap the money at $500 and start another one. This gives the weaker players a chance to make some money ( with really weak fields, its everyone gets to break, have to make the money ball on the break ). Another good tourney formay is the chip tourneys. Each player gets so many chips. Win a match, get a chip, lose a match , lose a chip. If you win, next week you start with 1 less chip.
Paying the top 3-4 every week will gring the field down and out....no tourney.
used to be, players came to tourneys to gamble after the tourney. Now few if any stay to gamble. Everyone waitin for a dead man.....lol

I agree that more places paid = more players. Some of the tournaments I have ran included raffling prizes to players that I get donated from local businesses. In turn I print up some banners with their logos on them for advertising. It's nice to see a 16 year old kid that didn't stand much of a chance of winning the tournament walk out with a new cue he won in a raffle from the tournament.

But, no matter what you do, someone will always complain. That much is guaranteed.

 

[hang-the-9]

We considered lowering the worst players to 1s or 2s but decided against it. I don't think the 8s would mind losing to a 1 or 2 (it would be pretty funny), but a 4-5-6 might rightfully feel kind of cheated that now he has a chance to win a tournament...only to lose on one lucky shot.

And our only true "1" is an 84-year old guy who is legally blind...but used to be a very sporty 3-cushion billiard player. He can barely pocket ball, but it's very hard to play safe on him. I wish I could play 2- and 3-cushion shots like him. He knows all the angles.

If you have 2s, having someone as high as 6 may be tough unless you play 8 ball so you can't lose just by hanging up the 9 and the other guy has to still make some shots to win.

I'd think 2-3-4-5 handicaps would be good, MAYBE 6-2 if it's an A playing a D.

 

[fastone371]

The less places you pay, the less players you will have . If it doesnt pay 1/3 of the field, I just dont play, and the players who never cash will find something else to do. In my area, VA , they use big racks to attract players. They cap the money at $500 and start another one. This gives the weaker players a chance to make some money ( with really weak fields, its everyone gets to break, have to make the money ball on the break ). Another good tourney formay is the chip tourneys. Each player gets so many chips. Win a match, get a chip, lose a match , lose a chip. If you win, next week you start with 1 less chip.
Paying the top 3-4 every week will gring the field down and out....no tourney.
used to be, players came to tourneys to gamble after the tourney. Now few if any stay to gamble. Everyone waitin for a dead man.....lol

I dont understand this for a $10.00 or $20.00 entry fee. Its worth that to get your but kicked by a better player and hopefuly learn something to me. All summer I played in the same bi-weekly tournament, won 4 times I think but I also lost to the the worst peson there (best out of 3), we played bank on the 8 which helped even things up, but anyone can get lucky in a short race. Maybe Im just used to racing where I think the highest single entry fee was $400.00, so it make $10 or $20 look cheap.

 

[victorl]

I dont think any prize should be less than the cost of entry. That means you're paying out to too many places.