The payout table
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Poker tournament payouts: how to split the prize pool
How many places to pay, what each one takes, the house fee and the leftover cents, with no argument at the end of the night.
The payout table
A poker tournament’s payout depends on how many players entered: more players, more places paid. At a home game, a simple table settles it, from four friends to a forty-player tournament:
Payout table
- 2-4players1 paidThe whole pot to the winner
- 5-8players2 paid65% / 35%
- 9-15players3 paid52% / 28% / 20%
- 16-20players4 paid45% / 24% / 17% / 14%
- 21-30players5 paid40% / 22% / 16% / 12% / 10%
- 31+players17% of the field40 players, 7 paid: 34% / 19% / 13% / 10% / 9% / 8% / 7%
The table never steps back: a bigger tournament never pays fewer places than a smaller one. Paying too few makes the night expensive for almost everyone; paying too many leaves the last prizes too small to fight for.
What each place takes
With the places set, each one needs its share. A balanced split is 65/35 for two places. If your table would rather reward the winner, or soften the blow for second, there are two other curves. Use the calculator below with your game’s real numbers, rebuys and add-ons included, to pick the best split for your group:
Prize calculator
Prize pool
R$400
- 8 buy-ins × R$50R$400
- 0 rebuys × R$50R$0
- 0 add-ons × R$25R$0
- PotR$400
- 1st place65%R$260
- 2nd place35%R$140
2 paid out of 8 players. The bubble is 3rd place.
The math runs on this page. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Rebuys and add-ons go into the same pot and follow the same split. To pay each one in chips, see how many chips to give each player.
The bubble and ITM
The bubble is the first place without a prize. Finishing in a paid place means you were ITM, in the money. One more player can move where it bursts:
Where the bubble bursts
8 players, 2 paid
9 players, 3 paid
In a two-table tournament the bubble usually bursts near the final table. In a league, counting how often each player finished ITM says more than counting wins: it shows who reaches the money night after night.
The house fee
Some leagues set part of the pot aside before the payout, the house fee: for the snacks, new decks or the app. It is the league’s own rule, and what matters is that everyone knows before they buy in.
The fee comes off first and in whole reais, rounded down: 5% of a R$ 450 pot is R$ 22.50, and the house keeps R$ 22. When in doubt, rounding favors the players.
From pot to prizes
- House feeR$22
- 1st place52%R$222
- 2nd place28%R$120
- 3rd place20%R$86
Rounding without a fight
Percentages break into cents, and cents turn into arguments. Pay prizes in whole reais, and the leftover real goes to whoever came closest to it:
A R$190 pot, split 65/35
The prizes add up to the pot
- Exact mathCents nobody has in their pocket123.50 + 66.50 = 190
- Everything rounded upPays R$1 that does not exist124 + 67 = 191
- Rounded down, and the leftover goes to whoever came closestAdds up to the pot exactly124+1 + 66 = 190
Whoever arrives during late registration changes the math too: the pot grows and, sometimes, the payout gains a place.
The 9th player arrives
- 1st placeR$260R$234
- 2nd placeR$140R$126
- 3rd placeNew–R$90
