Tournament prize payout structure
Every tournament uses a standard payout schedule (based on the World Poker Tour structure). When the tournament ends, the full prize pool in Orbits is divided among the top leaderboard positions. The number of paid places and each position's share both scale with the final number of players who competed.
- The prize pool is the tournament's advertised Orbits total. If entry fees are added to the pool, each paid entry increases the pool on top of the base amount.
- Only players who registered and appear on the final leaderboard count toward the player total used for payouts.
- Winners are credited automatically as Orbits—no manual claim is required.
Paid places by player count
Find the row that matches the final number of players in your tournament. That row shows how many leaderboard positions receive a prize and what percentage of the pool goes to 1st place (remaining places share the rest per the schedule).
| Players (final count) | Paid places | 1st place share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 100% |
| 2–10 | 1 | 100% |
| 11–20 | 2 | 60% |
| 21–30 | 3 | 48% |
| 31–40 | 4 | 40% |
| 41–50 | 5 | 36% |
| 51–60 | 6 | 34% |
| 61–87 | 9 | 30% |
| 88–112 | 12 | 28.15% |
| 113–137 | 15 | 26.8% |
| 138–162 | 18 | 25.75% |
| 163–187 | 21 | 24.87% |
| 188–212 | 24 | 24.15% |
| 213–262 | 27 | 23.53% |
| 263–337 | 36 | 22.09% |
| 338–412 | 45 | 21% |
| 413–487 | 54 | 20.1% |
| 488–562 | 63 | 19.43% |
| 563–637 | 72 | 18.9% |
| 638–712 | 81 | 18.47% |
| 713–787 | 90 | 18.1% |
| 788–862 | 99 | 17.76% |
| 863–937 | 108 | 17.5% |
| 938–1012 | 117 | 17.21% |
| 1013–1087 | 126 | 17.01% |
| 1088–1162 | 135 | 16.82% |
| 1163–1237 | 144 | 16.8% |
| 1238–1312 | 153 | 16.6% |
| 1313–1500 | 153 | 16.6% |
| 1501–2000 | 175 | 16.12% |
| 2001–2500 | 233 | 14.87% |
| 2501–3000 | 292 | 13.6% |
| 3001–4000 | 350 | 12.35% |
| 4001–5000 | 467 | 9.83% |
Percentages are applied to the full prize pool and always total 100%. Minor rounding may add or subtract 1 Orbit across positions so the full pool is distributed. From 1,313 through 5,000 players, paid places grow with field size using the same tail rate as the official table (0.13% for deep places), with top places scaled so the schedule still totals 100%.
Example payouts
If the prize pool is 10,000 Orbits, here is how it would be split for a few different player counts:
5 players → 1 paid places
| Position | Prize |
|---|---|
| #1 | 10,000 Orbits |
25 players → 3 paid places
| Position | Prize |
|---|---|
| #1 | 4,800 Orbits |
| #2 | 3,200 Orbits |
| #3 | 2,000 Orbits |
50 players → 5 paid places
| Position | Prize |
|---|---|
| #1 | 3,600 Orbits |
| #2 | 2,500 Orbits |
| #3 | 1,600 Orbits |
| #4 | 1,300 Orbits |
| #5 | 1,000 Orbits |
100 players → 12 paid places
| Position | Prize |
|---|---|
| #1 | 2,815 Orbits |
| #2 | 1,971 Orbits |
| #3 | 1,267 Orbits |
| #4 | 939 Orbits |
| #5 | 704 Orbits |
| #6 | 563 Orbits |
| #7 | 469 Orbits |
| #8 | 375 Orbits |
| #9 | 282 Orbits |
| #10 | 205 Orbits |
| + 2 more paid positions (see schedule table above) | |
500 players → 63 paid places
| Position | Prize |
|---|---|
| #1 | 1,943 Orbits |
| #2 | 1,362 Orbits |
| #3 | 876 Orbits |
| #4 | 648 Orbits |
| #5 | 486 Orbits |
| #6 | 390 Orbits |
| #7 | 325 Orbits |
| #8 | 259 Orbits |
| #9 | 195 Orbits |
| #10 | 143 Orbits |
| + 53 more paid positions (see schedule table above) | |