Home › Guides
Guides & tools
Run a better pool night
Practical guides for bar owners and tournament organizers: formats, payouts, handicaps, the board on the TV, and how to keep a weekly going. Written by the people who build RackerTracker, useful whether or not you use it.
How to run a bar pool tournamentFormat, entry, payouts and the night-of checklist.Pool tournament formats explainedSingle, double, round robin, multi-life, Scotch doubles - and when to use each.Put the bracket on the bar TVRoku, Fire TV, Google TV, Chromecast or any browser.Buybacks, multi-life and chip tournamentsRules, pot math and how to run them without arguments.Payout calculator (free)Players, entry fee, added money and splits - in seconds.FargoRate for bar tournamentsWhat a Fargo rating is, how race charts work and how to handicap fairly.Start a pool league at your barSanctioned vs independent, costs, formats and the first six weeks.Best pool tournament apps in 2026RackerTracker vs DigitalPool vs CompuSport vs Scoreholio, honestly.
Try it on your next night
RackerTracker is free for players; organizers start with a free trial.