Payout arguments happen after midnight, when everyone is tired and the maths is being done in someone's head. Print it before the first hand instead.
The shape flattens as the field grows: five players pay one place, thirty pay five. Rounding is absorbed by the top prize so the total is exactly the pool, never a dollar out.
Paying a third of the field turns a tournament into a long game of pass-the-parcel. Paying the top 10–15% keeps first place worth playing for, which is the only prize anyone remembers.
A first payout below about one and a half buy-ins is not a prize, it is a refund with extra steps. If the shape gives you that, pay one fewer place.
Not because anyone is dishonest, but because memory after five hours is not evidence. A printed sheet on the table ends the conversation before it starts.
Roughly the top 10 to 15 per cent of the field, and at least one place per ten entrants.
Between 30 and 50 per cent of the pool, flatter as the field grows.
Yes. Rounding differences are absorbed by the first prize, so the payouts add up to exactly what was collected.