Free Billiards Tournament Bracket Maker

Set up a single or double elimination billiards tournament in two minutes. No signup, no app, free forever.

Running a Friday-night 8-ball tournament at home, at a bar, or at the pool hall? You don't need a clipboard, a paper bracket, or a third-party signup. Punch in your players, pick single or double elim, and tap match winners as you go. Pick Bracket runs entirely in your browser, saves your state automatically, and gives you a shareable URL so anyone watching can follow along on their phone.

What you get

• Single or double elimination — pick the format that fits the night. Double elim is the right choice if every player should get more than one shot, especially when skill levels are mixed.
• Solo or teams — run a 1v1 ladder or pair people up for a 2v2 doubles night.
• Tappable regulars list — once you've added the people who show up to your billiards nights, you don't have to retype names ever again.
• Touch-friendly — designed for a tablet propped up next to the pool table. Big buttons, no fiddly text input mid-tournament.
• Auto-save — every winner you tap is saved instantly. If your tablet dies, the tournament resumes the moment the screen comes back.
• Shareable link — copy the URL and drop it into your group chat. Spectators can pull it up on any phone and watch live.
• Wins counter — keeps a running tally for the night, plus an all-time leaderboard if you save your home page.

How to run a fair 8-ball tournament

1. Decide single or double elim

Single elimination is fast — every player has one life, and the bracket finishes in roughly half the matches of a double-elim. It's the right call when you've got a tight time window (a 3-hour window, last call at midnight, an event that has to wrap by a specific time).

Double elimination is the right call for any night where you want everybody to get a fair shake. Players drop into a losers bracket after their first loss and get a second chance to fight back. It's slower (roughly 2× the matches) but the eventual champion has actually beaten the field.

2. Seed by skill, not by alphabet

If you've got a wide skill spread, don't run a random bracket — your two best players will inevitably collide round one and one of them goes home early. Roughly seed your top two players to opposite halves of the bracket. The "regulars" list in Pick Bracket lets you reorder before locking in.

3. Set the rules in advance

• Race-to length: typical home night is race-to-2 or race-to-3 (best of 3 / best of 5). For a longer evening, race-to-4.
• Break: coin flip, lag, or rotation. Lag is the fairest — both players hit a ball off the head rail and whoever's ball comes closest gets the break.
• Slop / call shot: at home, slop counts. In a tournament setting, call-shot is more serious. Decide before you start, not after a controversial 8-ball goes in off a slop bank.
• 8-on-the-break: usually a win in casual play. In APA-style rules it's a re-rack. Pick a side.

4. Run the bracket

Open Pick Bracket on a tablet near the pool table. Add players, lock in the format, and tap winners as matches finish. The next match is always at the top of the screen. When the bracket fills out, the champion modal pops automatically.

Single elim or double elim — which one?

If you're running a casual night with 4–8 players and a 3-hour ceiling, single elim is plenty. Three rounds and you're done.

If you're running a "real" tournament with 8 or more players, an entry buy-in, or a real prize, run double elim. Players who got bracketed into a tough early matchup will tell you afterwards that double elim "felt fair." Single elim, when stakes are higher, just generates complaints.

One more nuance: with double elim, the grand final between the winners-bracket champion and the losers-bracket champion is sometimes played as a "true double" (loser of WB final has to win two sets to take the championship, since the LB champ already has one loss). Pick Bracket handles this for you.

Why Pick Bracket beats a paper bracket

• No erasing. When player count changes 5 minutes before start, you don't redraw the whole thing.
• No "wait, who did Rob play?" — the history is right there.
• Spectator-friendly. Anyone with the link sees the live state — your friend who skipped the night can follow along from the couch.
• Works on a tablet by the table. Sticky beer hands won't smudge a screen the way they smudge a Sharpie bracket.
• Resumes after a crash. Tablet dies? Bracket comes back when the screen does.

Other formats

Pick Bracket works for any 1v1 or 2v2 elimination format, not just billiards. Common uses:

• Darts league (steel-tip or soft-tip)
• Beer pong tournament (teams mode)
• Foosball
• Ping pong
• Cornhole (teams mode for 2v2)
• Office NCAA pool / playoff bracket