Tourney Rate my payout system. (3 Viewers)

buzzmonkey

buzzmonkey

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When I do tourneys, I've come up with a system for payouts that consists of:

1 spot paid for the tourney + 1 spot for every table (counted as 9 players).
  • 1-4 players pays 1 spot
  • 5-9 players pays 2 spots
  • 10-18 players pays 3 spots
  • 19-27 players pays 4 spots
  • 28-36 players pays 5 spots
I've never had more than 20, but I'd like that to change and my current system clearly won't scale well. I'm thinking I should try to get as close to 20% of the field as possible. I've found a couple older threads on the subject and wanted to see what folks are doing currently.
 
4 players - 1 winner
6 players - 2 places
9 players - 3 places
14 players - 4 places.

The only thing I do that's a bit more generous is I count rebuys as players. So if we have 9 players with 8 rebuys, I'll pay out 4 places. It's very "player friendly", but we are a close group, so it keeps the money spread around.
 
Josh Kifer said:
4 players - 1 winner
6 players - 2 places
9 players - 3 places
14 players - 4 places.

The only thing I do that's a bit more generous is I count rebuys as players. So if we have 9 players with 8 rebuys, I'll pay out 4 places. It's very "player friendly", but we are a close group, so it keeps the money spread around.
Click to expand...
Oh I kind of like that.
 
I do "entries" not players. I pay a few more places in spots., But it's like this.

1-4 1 place
5-8 2 places
9-12 3 places
13-18 4 places
19-27 5 places

So I guess roughly one place per half table for the first two tables, then one place for each table after that.
 
Last edited:
RagingAZN said:
We also do something similar to @Josh Kifer where we pay about 30% of the field to keep more players happy.

Our game is super friendly so like to give more players a chance of some $$$.
Click to expand...
Keeps the players happy, and the goal is a constant game, not big bucks. We're poor enough anyways. Hahah
 
I only typically run tournies twice a year, so I tend to splurge on trophies as well for first.
 
Cash payouts to 25% (rounded up/down) of total field size (which includes re-buys/re-entries), with a hard ceiling that the number of payouts is always less than 50% of the number of players.

League points are typically awarded to 33% (rounded up) of the number of players.
 
What percentage breakdowns do you do on these payouts?
 
Josh Kifer said:
4 players - 1 winner
6 players - 2 places
9 players - 3 places
14 players - 4 places.

The only thing I do that's a bit more generous is I count rebuys as players. So if we have 9 players with 8 rebuys, I'll pay out 4 places. It's very "player friendly", but we are a close group, so it keeps the money spread around.
Click to expand...
Rebuys aren't humans.
 
buzzmonkey said:
What percentage breakdowns do you do on these payouts?
Click to expand...
2: 65/35 or 60/40
3: 60/30/10 or 55/30/15
4: 50/30/15/5 or 40/30/20/10
5: 45/25/15/10/5 or 40/30/15/10/5

Usually the first of the two listed.
 
buzzmonkey said:
What percentage breakdowns do you do on these payouts?
Click to expand...
5-8 Entries 65% : 35%
9-12 Entries 50% : 30% : 20%
13-18 Entries 45% : 25% : 18% : 12%
19-27 Entries 40% : 22% : 17% : 11% : 10%

I haven't rethought this for a while. I do like trying to keep a high first place, but the fact deals usually get made may indicate I should go a little more level.
 
JustinInMN said:
5-8 Entries 65% : 35%
9-12 Entries 50% : 30% : 20%
13-18 Entries 45% : 25% : 18% : 12%
19-27 Entries 40% : 22% : 17% : 11% : 10%

I haven't rethought this for a while. I do like trying to keep a high first place, but the fact deals usually get made may indicate I should go a little more level.
Click to expand...
This is a good point. Usually my guys are happy to just make a deal at the end and flip/do something stupid for the extra so our payouts end up being quite flat anyway.
 
I have always favored payout scales ($$ or pòints) that offer increasing-size jumps as one gets closer to 1st.

Hence, 50/30/15/5 (+10, +15, +20) preferred over 40/30/20/10 (+10, +10, +10).

Let 'em chop the money if (and however) they want. But not the points.... those must be earned.
 
I use a variety of pay structures, each connected to a particular set of chips.

Some are flatter, some are top-heavy. One paye roughly 33% of the field, others pay as little as 20% of the field. The others fall somewhere in-between.

When you have various sets of chips available, why limit yourself to a single structure? Different people like different structures. Nits or purely social players typically prefer deep-paid fields. Aggressive players fare better in top-heavy structures with few winners. Other people don't care (I'd even bet there are some who have played for years that haven't even noticed).

I try to have something for everyone.
 
I'm a little flatter on both number of places paid (max of 33% of the field) and payout scale (I always try to cobble it so the last place that gets paid gets barely over a buyin back, and then first place is generally 1.5x second place.

Believe in spreading the money around so it's a little more social and more people leave happy.
 
Still tweaking, but I'm already happier with v2 than what I was doing. The formula rounds so the Total value is not always equal to the Prize Pool, but it's a simple matter to move $10 around.

1694032955492.png
 
buzzmonkey said:
Still tweaking, but I'm already happier with v2 than what I was doing. The formula rounds so the Total value is not always equal to the Prize Pool, but it's a simple matter to move $10 around.

View attachment 1191521
Click to expand...
If you’re using formulas in excel you can use the mround function to round up or down to the nearest value of your choice. I think I have mine set to nearest $5.
 
ngmcs8203 said:
If you’re using formulas in excel you can use the mround function to round up or down to the nearest value of your choice. I think I have mine set to nearest $5.
Click to expand...
Man, I wish I knew these little excel tips sooner.

I use a formula that reads:
=ROUND($Q$1*S2/R11,0)*R11+R12
  • $Q$1 = the total prize pool
  • S2 = The percent of the prize pool the position gets paid
  • R11 = The denomination the prize pool gets rounded to. This itself had another formula so if we are at <10 players we pay out to the nearest $5 increment, and if 10+ players the nearest $10 increment
  • R12 = After all the rounding, R12 calculates the assumed prize pool and the actual prize pool. If there is a discrepancy, it will show in R12. This is because certain rounding numbers can result in remainders. Only 1st place earns (or loses) this extra cash.
This whole spreadsheet then shows on another spreadsheet that is shown on the monitor (I just change tabs when buying players in or adding rebuys)...
1694089533395.png
 
Still working through this myself, but I'm of the "this is a social event" mindset, so I adopt a "25-30% + 1" approach. The "+1" is a break-even (get your buy-in back); our buy-ins are $30.

I probably wouldn't host a tourney with less than 5 people, but even in a 4 person tourney? I would do $90 to first place and $30 to the second place. For first place, that's still a tripling of their money which isn't bad IMO.

It's a bit more broad than what it should be for real tourney play, but I am of the mindset of getting more people paid something. Add in bounties and a couple of side pots (bad beats, etc.), and I strive to get about 25% of our players 50-75% of their money back, and 25% doubling or tripling their money.
 
I like your original scheme. For those that want to pay more places, I find that in well-run, friendly games players are open to making a deal to pay the bubble something.

Typically in my game it would be the original buy-in plus 25-50%. The $$$ comes off the other places roughly proportional to the normal payouts.

When you play a tourney regularly, eventually even the least cooperative players realize this is in their own long-term interest.

There were rare instances where it didn’t happen—say, if the chip leader was way ahead, and had less incentive to make a deal. But then sometimes they would run bad and finish out of the money… Lesson learned.
 
If you're paying half of the players in the field, may as well just pass out participation trophies, skip the poker, and watch sports on TV.

It's a competition -- there should be winners, near-winners, and a bunch of losers.
 
BGinGA said:
If you're paying half of the players in the field, may as well just pass out participation trophies, skip the poker, and watch sports on TV.

It's a competition -- there should be winners, near-winners, and a bunch of losers.
Click to expand...
This is also why I always feel like tournaments that chop are terrible tournaments. If you came to play poker, why would you take an offer to stop playing?
 
If you're paying half of the players in the field, may as well just pass out participation trophies, skip the poker, and watch sports on TV.

It's a competition -- there should be winners, near-winners, and a bunch of losers.
Click to expand...
I think there is a middle-ground here.

If 50% of people make a profit? I agree.

But if you're hosting a game for casual poker players and a sizable number of people get PART of their money back? They're technically "losing", but it feels like winning to them.

I was in Vegas last weekend visiting friends who love playing slots. I personally don't get slots, but I saw why they were so hooked. You put in $20 and get little bonuses here and there that makes you feel like winning. Though eventually you're $20 in the hole. But it's those "feel like I'm winning" moments that matter.

If people put in $50 for a tourney/bounty/ tournament and you have a quarter of people make money, and a quarter of people get $20-30 back? 50% are getting "paid", but there are technically only 25% "winning."
 

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