Home poker pay out structure

[Top Pair Ace Kicker]

What is everyones preference for payout structure in an 8 person tournament?

I have played in ten person STT's where the top 3 get paid, and I have played in 6 seaters where the top two are the money winners.

8 seaters are slap bang in the middle and I'm not sure if there is a standard pay out structure or does it come down to host's choice?

In games I host I like to pay out top 3 50/30/20 split to encourage the person finishing 3rd to get rewarded for coming to my house, but oddly, when I travel to other peoples houses it never really bothers me if it's only top 2.

I would be interested in peoples opinions.

[7-2offsuit]

We play a lot of home games and we tend to stick to the 50/30/20 format, which is a pretty common ratio. We vary it if we get more or fewer runners as follows:

7 runners and below - 1st pays 65%, 2nd pays 35%
8-13 runners - 1st pays 50%, 2nd pays 30%, 3rd pays 20%
14+ runners - 1st pays 45%, 2nd pays 27.5%, 3rd pays 17.5%, 4th pays 10%

Personally I would actually much prefer top 2 payouts at anything up to 9-runner games - I'd rather make more on my wins or bubble/go bust. Third place is hardly worth it. Looking back over my stats in my last 27 games I've only actually come 3rd once, and that was in an 8-handed game (for a whopping £16 payout - woo hoo!). The increased payouts for just one of my 1st or 2nd place finishes would more than make up the loss of that if 3rd was the bubble.

Now if only I could persuade everyone else that this was a good idea....

[Top Pair Ace Kicker]

Now if only I could persuade everyone else that this was a good idea....

Now see thats interesting to me. Are you saying that other people wouldn't want just top 2 paid?

I have just done a quick bit of maths and reckon that if there are 8 players paying 20.00 each and top two are paid it works out at 104.00 to the winner and 56.00 to runners up.
If top 3 are paid it is 80/48/32. Seems like a hell of a drop for the winner, whilst the 2nd place only loses £8.00!

At the moment both top 2 and three payout structures here are getting players, so it doesnt really seem to be an influence on whether people play or not. I think it's more likely I dont feel confident enough that I will finish in the top 2 and dont want lose all my entry money!

With a ratio like that I think I will change it to 65/35 and only have 50/30/20 if we get 10 players. I will just have to improve my game

[SlaineMcRoth]

I'm of the opinion that the heads-up is usually a bit of a crapshoot. With that being the case, distributing the money over 3 players, you at least give something back to the person who put in a good effort and came over to see you. But that's me

[a4swe]

We are playing tournaments with 10 entries and we only pay 2!
Why?
Because we play for so little money and there is no fun if the winning amount is bellow 15$, therefore the winner takes it all ecxept for the second placers money who will get his money back.