For a sports bar
Pool night software for a sports bar
Every screen in the building already belongs to something, and on a game night the pool table is competing with the television for the room.
| Tables | 2–4 |
|---|---|
| Usual buy-in | $10 |
| Best night | Tuesday or Wednesday |
The problem
A sports bar is busy when there is sport on and empty when there is not. The pool table sits unused on exactly the nights you need it to earn, and the one screen you could put standings on is showing a highlights reel nobody is watching.
A plan that works here
- Run it on a night with no fixture. Tuesday is the usual answer; check your own calendar before picking.
- Two tables, $10 buy-in, pay three places. A sports-bar crowd expects a real prize and is used to entry fees.
- Claim one screen — the smallest one, the one nobody watches — for the standings. That is the whole trick.
- Start at 8, done by 10. A sports-bar crowd has work the next day more often than a dive-bar crowd does.
What actually matters in this room
Two tables at once
Halves the night, which matters when you are competing with a 10pm last call rather than a 2am one.
The TV display
You already have the screens and the mounts. This is the one venue where the display costs nothing to add.
Season standings
A sports crowd understands a table. Running a ten-week season with a leaderboard on a screen is a much easier sell here than anywhere else.
A run sheet you can steal
Sized for 2–4 and a $10 buy-in on Tuesday or Wednesday. Shift the clock to suit your own closing time; the gaps between the rows are what matter.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| T−30 | Sign-ups open. Names down, money in. Nothing starts until the pot is complete. |
| T−5 | Entries close. Say the pot out loud. State the three rules that cause arguments: scratch, slop, and the free break. |
| T | Draw the order in front of everyone, then break. |
| T+45 | Roughly half the field has a strike or two. This is when the room is fullest. |
| T+90 | Down to the last few. Put a shot clock on if it is dragging. |
| End | Pay out in front of people, and announce the next one before anybody leaves. |
The verdict
The easiest venue to run a good night in, because the screens are already there and the crowd already understands a league table. The only real work is finding the night that is not already spoken for.
If three strikes is not right for this room
It usually is, because it is the only common format that does not care how many people turn up. But if your crowd is small or very mixed, scotch doubles pairs strong players with beginners, and golf pool needs no pool knowledge at all. The full ranking is here.