Mingara Open

A big plug for the Mingara Open, which is taking place this weekend (17th&18th May) at the Mingara Recreation Club, at Tumbi Umbi, on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
Having looked at the information sheet I'm impressed by the prizes offered. Due to the sponsorship of the Mingara Recreation Club and Australian Commercial Kitchens (courtesy of Keith Hogan), the tournament is offering a prize pool of $2000, based on only 30 entries. With an entry fee of only $40 ($30 concession) you can see that prizes paid out are going to exceed entries paid in. Hopefully the tournament will attract far more than just 30 players, as the event offers generous divisional prizes ($200,$100,50).
The other interesting idea is a top 4 play-off at the end of the final round. The top 4 players will play a knockout for an additional $500, with winner getting $250. While this is sometimes done in the United States as a way of splitting ties, in this case it is an opportunity for a player who had an unlucky loss (or didn't get to play the winner due to the pairings) to have a chance a picking up some extra coin. And for the spectators/other participants it provides some entertainment while waiting for prize money to be organised etc. If the idea turns out to be succesful it may be worth tryin at other events in the near future.