The Envelope Please

On the Omega Billiards Tour, the tour that I run in the DFW-area, the main sponsor and I decided together we wanted to pay out 17-24th places.  It's not much, just $30, but we wanted to give eight additional players SOME money for their efforts.  We figured that some of the players that had a tougher time to get to 16th place and higher would appreciate "getting in the money."

Some players are VERY happy to get $30.  Other players could care less, because they wanted to do better.

It's dependent on the player, obviously, if they appreciate it or not.

At the October Omega event, one of the top players (Amos) had just lost a heart breaker hill-hill match on Saturday night.  He had literally just snapped off the previous stop (his 1st place finish on the tour) and now he is already out of the very next tournament on a Saturday night.

He is all the way across the room, but I grab his $30 little envelope and shyly walk all the way over to Amos.

He's putting up his cues and he's obviously disappointed.

I said, "Hey, I am embarrassed to give you this little amount, but you got in the money."

I felt SO badly because he had just won an event and now I feel like I am rubbing in his face he's only getting $30 and did poorly.

He replies, "I should have made that 8 ball, it's my fault."

I hand him the envelope and he says, "I didn't think I finished high enough to get any money back."

I say proudly, "well, we pay deeper in the field than most tourneys, so 17th -24th place gets a little something back."

He replies, "that's really cool," as he takes the envelope with the whole thirty dollars in it.

I walk away and go back to the tourney table.  He still stands over there, talking to a couple of friends.

One of my friends who is helping me with the tourney, Heather, notices that another player has finished.  She says, "we finally get to pay out the first envelope."

I declared, "well, we already did, I just paid Amos."

She replies, "You did?  Uh, is that right?"

I'm thinking, "well, yea!"

Then I look down at the chart and see I was completely wrong!  I should NOT have paid Amos!  OMG.  I read the chart wrong!

I was mortified as I walked BACK over to Amos.

I pulled him aside and said, "uh, now I REALLY feel bad."

He's just looking at me, "what?"

"I wasn't suppose to pay you, I made a mistake.  Can I have that $30 back?"

OMG....

He laughed and said, "yea, here you go.  I already tossed the envelope but here's the thirty dollars," as he hands me the cash from his pocket.

I felt SO bad - WOW!  So not only did I rub in his face he finished so badly he only got $30, I then had to go BACK and rub it in even more that he wasn't suppose to get ANYTHING.

OMG.... lol.