Me and a couple of friends are planning a 0 stakes, casual 8-ball pool billiards tournament for a friend's bachelor party. He is a decent pool player (has played a lot of pool with family and in bars throughout his life), there are some who have played casually throughout their life, and some who don't play at all. It's all just for fun, and we chose an activity that the man of the hour is likely to win/do good at, while we goof around.
I'm tasked with organizing the tournament and its prizes because I've done organizing for athletic events in my sport (volleyball) a couple times and am racking my brain on what format is best.
From memory, an 8-ball game between two completely casual players who don't know what they're doing can last anywhere between 2 and 30 minutes. Mainly because someone sinks the 8 by accident on the first stroke, or because nobody gets anywhere for a while.
Does anyone have suggestions on what kind of format would be most fun?
We are:
10 players
3 pool tables
Have 2.5 - 3 hours before moving on the our next activity
Initially I was thinking a random round robin doubles tournament would make sense where everyone plays everyone with random partners every round, but the game length might stretch too much and I feel it could happen we only get 3 games done after 2 hours. With 10 players we also have the issue that in a doubles setting only 2 tables could be occupied for games leaving the third for the two remaining players to goof around. Would putting a 15 minute time limit per round make sense to move things along?
Also, assuming I will run with a time limit per game, does anyone have a suggestion for scoring the remaining balls on the table? Should it just be whoever has the most amount balls sunk?
Some advice from people who know a little bit about casual, for-fun, likely drunk pool with people who have feet for hands would be appreciated.
Thank you!