Free tool
Pool tournament payout calculator
Put in the buy-in, the number of players and any house cut. It works out the pot and what each place pays, rounded so you are not counting change in front of a room.
How it decides the split
Unless you give it one, it uses the convention almost every bar tournament follows, scaled to the size of the field:
| Players | Places | Split |
|---|---|---|
| Under 6 | 1 | 100% |
| 6–11 | 2 | 70 / 30 |
| 12–19 | 3 | 50 / 30 / 20 |
| 20+ | 4 | 40 / 30 / 20 / 10 |
Why it rounds the way it does
Each place is rounded down to a whole dollar and the remainder goes to first. A bar pays out in notes, and first place is the one person nobody objects to receiving a rounding error.
Three worked examples
16 players at $5, no house cut. The pot is $80. Three places at 50/30/20 pays $40, $24 and $16. No rounding needed.
22 players at $10, no house cut. The pot is $220, and twenty-plus players means four places: $88, $66, $44 and $22.
13 players at $5 with a 15% cut. The pot is $65, the house takes $9.75, and $55.25 goes to the players. Three places at 50/30/20 would be $27.62, $16.57 and $11.05 — so this rounds them down to $27, $16 and $11, and gives the leftover $1.25 to first place. First is the one person nobody objects to receiving a rounding error.
Why we built this
Because the alternative is somebody doing percentages on a phone calculator at eleven o'clock while twenty people stand around waiting to be paid, and that is the five minutes where an otherwise good night turns into an argument. It takes no signup and no email address, because a calculator that wants your details is not really a calculator.
About the house cut
Most bars running a successful weekly take nothing — the night is a promotion and the money is made on drinks. If you do take a cut, announce it before anybody pays. More on that here.
Or let the app do it
Mark who has paid as they arrive and the pot works itself out, including the split at the end. Free.