Payout Structure

[mrmookid]

I am wondering how some of you handle payouts.

A little background on the games I host: we're all old friends, we usually play for 20$, our games are now anywhere from 9 - 12 players. NL Hold'em Tourney.

In the past we usually gave 3rd place their entry fee back. And went up from there.

I would prefer to have a percentage like homepokertourney.com suggests: 50%, 30%, 20%
I'd really like to go to a 50/30/20 format - use that number up to say 12 players - if we had a 13 player tourney, then we might do 50/25/15/10

So I was wondering if some of you would care to share what payout structure you use. We could have anywhere from 7-12+ players so whatever we do end up using will have to be flexible.

Finally, do you keep extra cash to do the change? Example

11 player game - 20$ buy-in - 220 prize pool
1st (50%) = $110
2nd (30%) = 66
3rd (20%) = 44

Almost everyone pays in 20$ bills. Do you round up or do you keep a stack of singles to make change? Thanks!

[Big Country]

If everyoneis paying in 20's, I generally try to keep it simple and keep the payouts in even amounts, so, for the 11-person example you posted, I would makethe payouts $120, 60, 40 or possibly $110, 70, 40. With a room fullof people, it should not be hard to find someone able to break a 20, or make it a point to use a couple of10's or 4 5's when paying your fee for this. No need to get down to singles IMO.

As for payout, I generally like to set it up say that it is a 50-30-20 up to 12 players, then 50-25-15-10 up to 20 players. I prefer to keep payout to basically one spot for every 3 to 4 people, generally erring on the side of an extra payout, especially when it is a friendly home game type situation such as you are describing.

That's just my personal preference and not neccesarily the norm.

[Lottery Larry]

Here's mine for $20 entry. As for change, tell everyone to bring change for a $20 each night to cash out!

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
$95.00 $110.00 $115.00 $125.00 $125.00 $130.00 $135.00
$45.00 $50.00 $60.00 $65.00 $65.00 $75.00 $80.00
$20.00 $20.00 $25.00 $30.00 $30.00 $35.00 $40.00
$20.00 $20.00 $25.00

[Yawkey]

I generally like to see the lowest paid place double their buy-in. The top two guys are happy no matter what, they are going home with a good chunk of change. On the border lines like 8 people go ahead and just pay third place the buy-in, but I don't think it does any good to just pay two places in this situation. I would consider paying four places at 14 players (1st $100, 2nd $80, 3rd $60, 4th $40). You want people to feel like they can win some money at your game even if they don't finish 1st, so I would strongly recomend spreading the prize pool out a bit so it is less top heavy. (Note: keeping 1st and 2nd place prizes closer together will make it easier on you as a host when you are out and waiting for the game to end. When the difference is $100 or $150 it can be very easy for two players to go two or three hours fighting for this.)

[Arsene Lupin III]

With no rebuys..

2-5 players: pay 1st
6-8 players: 1st [65-75%] and 2nd
9-13: 1-2-3 [50-30-20 or 60-30-10]
14-18: 1-2-3-4 [45-25-17.5-12.5 to 50-30-15-5]
19+: add one pay spot per 6 extra players

Rebuys we typically add a pay spot per 1/2 the # of players in rebuys.

[AwesomeAli]

Heres the payout structure i use

Ali