I'm sure I've posted mine before as well.
We do an 11 game season; 1 game per month, with a final game for all the money in the 12th month (which happens to be my October game). I use an elaborate formula to calculate points:
=(ROUND(LOG(($F$3+5)/A8,10)*100,0)*15)*2 (+100 points for each bounty acquired)
Cell $F$3 represents the total number of entries and rebuys
Cell A8 represents your rank.
In this example from my 1st game of the season with 25 entries and 9 rebuys (34 paid):
- the winner got 4770 points + 800 additional points for bounties. (5570 total)
- last place got 570 points.
I maintain a spreadsheet with the points, and these points become your starting stack for the final game.
Here's a snapshot of that (note, this is the highest our 1st place has ever been, as it's never eclipsed 30k before).
For my game, the top 36 players qualify for the final game. This season, the total pot is 4100 paid out to the top 6 and the high hand of the season ($120 going to
@MikesDad for an 8-high straight flush). Sometimes I push that 36 out a bit if I have a long time regular on the final game bubble. I usually have 2-4 players that can't make the date anyway, and it works out.
Monthly games are T10k tournaments with a $60 buy-in. $40 goes to the current game, $10 bounty, and $10 to the final game. Rebuys (1 per person before the 1st break) are handled the same way. There are no pre-payments made, and no need to commit to playing in every game. Essentially, you get out of this what you put into it. I'm not a fan of "leagues" that require large deposits at the beginning, and make you commit to an entire season even when mathematically eliminated from the final game. I find that causes problems within the group (people tanking chips to others or just not showing up). Again, I've found this method works best for our group.
The only "rule" I have about the final game is that you have to have played in 2 or more games in the season to qualify. This prevents a player that won in their only event from making the game. (in all fairness to the players that attended more and didn't do as well throughout the season).
I've been doing this for the last 10 years or so (even though I call this "Season 5"), and I find it works perfectly for our group. Sometimes I forget to calculate split bounties and a few other little things that I could do better .. but at the end of the day, it doesn't really impact the bottom line. Season 6 starts in Nov.
Here are the final numbers for players in the current season. (I do a game in Dec with prizes and such, and do pull some of the $$ from the prize pool for that).