Last Lady Payouts

A friend of mine told me a few times lately that I need to come out of pool retirement.

"Oh.  Why?" I asked him, sincerely curious.

He said, "Because the Last Lady payouts are getting pretty ridiculously generous."

First, I never played pool for the money I could possibly win, so this discussion of increased Last Lady payouts wont get me out of retirement.   Nice try.  lol

But, let me talk about this issue in general today.

There are some tourneys that payout a lot for Last Lady - more than most.  Some tournaments base it on the number of female entrants.  3 females, $50 a piece, that's $150 payout.  Most, however, set it normally around the amount of the entry fee:  $50 entry fee, $50 for Last Lady (no matter how many entrants) (this is how the Omega Tour handles Last Lady).

One tourney (held normally about 4 times a year) paid about $125 for Lady Lady in January out of 44 players and a $60 entry fee. The female won 2 matches and won $125 and my friend placed 7th, but the tourney didn't pay down to 7th/8th place, so he got zilch.

Other tourneys with much higher-caliber players in it - I've noticed their Last Lady payouts could be as high as $500.  Whether there's 6 ladies or 12 ladies.  So, those events don't base the payout on the number of ladies.  However, 9th-12 places got $150-$200.  Further, the Last Lady paid out more than 5th place in those events (this is the very reason he brought this up and had some conerns).

As I learned recently, as long as things are consistent in the payout from the same tournament, I am okay with whatever these tournaments decide to do.

I can write another very long blog post about the Omega Tour and Last Lady from a female Tournament Director's point of view, but the point of this post is about Last Lady payouts overall. My only concern is that if certain tournaments are going to pay out more than "usual" for Last Lady, I just hope they keep it consistent.

Why?

Because the female players ARE very happy about the higher amounts they are getting for Last Lady and shouting about it on Facebook (as they should!).  That may mean more ladies will want to enter these higher-paying Last Lady tourneys.  I think that's great!  But I hope these events keep it up and be consistent - because if they don't, a lot of females will be upset they traveled so far for a chance to win that same money paid out before.  If things get changed, they will be upset they traveled that far for nothing.

Don't get me wrong, these tourneys will still get a lot of women to enter the events whether they get paid $50 or $500.  But consistency is the key to keep them more interested.