Free tool · No account
Payout calculator
How the prize pool splits, to the last chip. Set the buy-in and the field, choose how many places pay and how steep you want it, and it tells you what everyone gets — and whether the last one paid is going home down money.
The pot
Prize pool 1,350
The split
| Place | Pays | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 652 | 48.3% |
| 2 | 423 | 31.3% |
| 3 | 275 | 20.4% |
Adds up to 1,350 — the whole pot, to the last chip.
The same curve the Poker Hawk apps build a real payout table with. The remainder from rounding is placed deliberately, so the places always sum to the pot rather than drifting by a chip.
The questions behind the numbers
How many places should a poker tournament pay?
The common rule of thumb is roughly the top 10 to 15 percent of the field, rounded to something tidy — 2 places for a single table of 9, 3 for 18 to 27, and so on. It is a convention rather than a law. The question that actually settles it is below: how much the last paid place gets.
Why should the minimum cash be more than the buy-in?
Because a min-cash worth less than the entry means the player who outlasted most of the field went home down money, which feels like a punishment for finishing well. Paying fewer places, or flattening the curve, fixes it. This calculator flags it when it happens, because it is easy to create by accident by paying one place too many.
What is the difference between a standard and a top-heavy structure?
Both taper, top heavy just taper harder — it pushes more of the pot into first place, which suits a game where the win is the point. A flat structure pays every place the same and suits a friendly game where nobody wants a big swing. Standard sits between them and is what most home games use without thinking about it.
Pay it out without doing this again on the night
In the app the payout table is built from the entries as they arrive — rebuys, add-ons and late registration included — and every player can see what they are playing for on their own phone. Players are free, forever.