"I was responding to Stu's example of 3rd place paying $1800. If that tourney only paid 3 places and it was a 50-30-20 payout, it would have been a $9000 prize pool, quite a bit more than your $2000 pool example."

$9000 prize pool at 2% = $180 with a lot more downs than a $2,000 tourney. Do the math, comes out close to the same.

Everyone needs to decide for themselves on tipping. IMO small tourys needs to be more in the 5%-8% range. I usually do 10% but I am in the industry.