PokerEye is a free poker tournament director. It builds the prize pool from every buy-in, rebuy and add-on, then splits it by your chosen percentages automatically — correct to the cent. Runs in your browser and on Android, with a full-screen tournament clock. No subscription, no ads.
Deciding poker tournament payouts comes down to two questions: how many places do you pay, and what percentage does each place get? Pay too few and busting on the bubble stings; pay too many and winning barely beats min-cashing. Below are sensible, copy-ready splits by field size, plus how to adjust them.
The common guideline is to pay the top 10–15% of the field, rounded to something clean. More places = flatter and friendlier; fewer places = bigger, more top-heavy prizes.
| Players | Places paid | Typical split |
|---|---|---|
| 6–9 | Top 2–3 | 50 / 30 / 20 |
| 10–18 | Top 3–4 | 45 / 27 / 18 / 10 |
| 19–27 | Top 5 | 40 / 25 / 16 / 11 / 8 |
| 28–50 | Top 6–8 | see table below |
| Place | Balanced | Top-heavy | Flat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 50% | 60% | 45% |
| 2nd | 30% | 25% | 30% |
| 3rd | 20% | 15% | 25% |
| Place | Share |
|---|---|
| 1st | 45% |
| 2nd | 27% |
| 3rd | 18% |
| 4th | 10% |
| Place | Share |
|---|---|
| 1st | 40% |
| 2nd | 25% |
| 3rd | 16% |
| 4th | 11% |
| 5th | 8% |
| Place | Share |
|---|---|
| 1st | 34% |
| 2nd | 22% |
| 3rd | 15% |
| 4th | 11% |
| 5th | 8% |
| 6th | 6% |
| 7th | 4% |
Percentages are rounded to whole numbers and always total 100%. Adjust the last place or two if your rounding drifts — or let PokerEye normalise it for you.
A top-heavy structure puts more of the prize pool on first place — it rewards winning and makes the final table tense. A flat structure spreads the money so more players leave with something. For friendly home games a balanced split works best; for a competitive crowd, lean top-heavy.
Every buy-in, rebuy and add-on grows the prize pool, so your final payouts should be calculated from the total collected — not the starting buy-ins alone. Tracking that by hand is where mistakes creep in. PokerEye keeps a live prize pool and recalculates every prize the moment it changes.
▶ Let PokerEye do the payout math — free› Poker blind structures — copy-ready blind schedules
› How to run a poker tournament — the full home-game guide
PokerEye runs free in your browser, with native iPhone and Android apps for a full-screen, lock-screen-friendly clock. No subscription, no ads.