Ending Tourney Fiasco

Okay, "fiasco" might be too strong of a word.  But emotions were high, voices were raised, and not everyone was satisfied with the final decision.

Long story short (yea, good luck to that loyal readers, lol)... a weekly tourney had run its course and was to end after a 6-9 month stint.

Why an issue?  Well, it had a break-and-run pot of about $1,000 and that money needed to be paid out some how.  There was to be one final tournament.  The hoopla was how should all that extra money get paid out to the players?

Everyone gave their two cents worth.  Here were some of the ideas:

• Payout like they normally do - top 3 spots
• Only allow players in the final tournament who have played 50% of the events
• Have a break contest the last night until all the money is paid out
• Pay half the field, even if only 20 players show up
• Allow players to play in the final tourney with all the break money added, even if they only played once

The opinions were solely based on the type of player:

Frequent players:  the players who put in all that break and run money for the past 6-9 months felt they had the rights to that pot of money.  They didn't want to share it with the folks who only played in one or two of the tourneys.

Top players:  didn't want to pay deep - they wanted all the money to go to top three spots so they would get more money!

Infrequent players:  wanted a chance at the money so felt they should be included.  After all, they did play at least once.

Non players (like me):  pay deep to satisfy everyone a little bit.  The top players would get money still and the weaker players who put in a lot of the money would have a chance to win a little something.

The players, room owner, and tournament directors argued over this for so long last Monday, they didn't even have a tourney that night!  They were too busy "discussing" what they should or shouldn't do for the final tourney that was to be held a week later.

I showed up Monday night for this final tourney and was told the decision was to pay half the field.  When some of the top players rolled in and heard that.... and they were livid!  Then two other top players entered the tourney who had only played once or twice before and of course people complained about them!  And one guy was upset he had to pay an entry fee.  lol.

I decided to share my thoughts (I wasn't affected because I didn't play, lol, so I spoke up).  I suggested they might as well pay at least the other half their $10 entry back.  Everyone walks home with something.  I mean, there was about $1150 to pay out in ONE night of a weekly tourney!  Give everyone a little jelly, lol.

In the end, only 17 whole players showed up.  OMG.  Really? $1150 in one tourney and only 17 players show up?  I was shocked.

Anyway.  Eventually the final decision was to pay the entire field.  Whew.  Common sense prevailed!

I then helped the TD decide how to divvy out the money.  Someone told them I was a TD for 9 years and voila, there I was at the TD table with my calculator app, lol, to help with the payouts.

It went something like this (rough memory check):

1 $300
2 $180
3 $120
4 $80
5/6 $50
7/8 $40
9-12 $30
13-17 $20

You can see why the top players would be upset.  But at least they got more money than usual.  And, everyone got a little something something.