Guide · 6 min read
What to charge for a bar pool tournament
The buy-in is not how the bar makes money. Understanding that makes the number much easier to pick.
The honest answer: five or ten dollars
Almost every bar tournament in the country runs at $5 or $10, and there are good reasons the convention settled there.
$5 is low enough that nobody thinks about it. Somebody who wandered in for one drink will put a five down. It maximises the field, which is what you actually want.
$10 makes the pot feel worth winning and filters for people who are actually going to stay and play. Right for a room with regulars and a competitive streak.
$20 and up changes the night. You get fewer, better players, a quieter room, and a real risk that a bad week has six entrants. Unless you are running a known monthly with a following, it is the wrong number.
What the bar actually makes
Here is the arithmetic that should drive the decision, and it has nothing to do with the pot.
Twenty players, in the building for two hours, at two drinks each at $6 is $240 in drinks. Fifteen per cent of a $100 pot is $15.
The tournament is a promotion that fills a slow night. The pot is the reason people come; it is not the revenue. Any decision that trades field size for a bigger cut is trading $240 for $15, and bars make that trade all the time.
This is also the argument for taking no cut at all and saying so loudly. "The whole pot goes back to the players" is a better poster than anything else you could write on it.
Pricing for the room you have
- One table, under fifteen regulars: $5, pay two places. Keep it quick and keep it friendly.
- One table, twenty or more: $5, pay three. A $10 buy-in with twenty-plus makes the night long and the prize disproportionate.
- Two or more tables: $10, pay three or four. More tables means a shorter night, which supports a higher entry.
- A monthly with a following: $20, pay four, and consider adding something from the bar to the top prize.
Things worth more than money
A bar tab for the winner costs the venue its wholesale price and is worth its retail price to the player — and unlike cash, it gets spent in the building.
A trophy that stays behind the bar with the current holder's name on it is worth an astonishing amount for what it costs. People defend a trophy.
Free entry next week for whoever finishes last is the cheapest retention mechanism in this entire article.