Best Overlay Poker Tournaments
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Tournament overlays provide players with several advantages, including a better ROI on their initial investment. Most poker sites offer overlays, however, very few are able to match the kind of tournament overlays that the poker sites below have to offer. The poker rooms listed on this page offer more overlay tournaments than any other poker room online, and in fact have the largest overlays online. In some cases, Bodog for example, have events where the tournament overlays as high as $35,000 in a single tournament. If you're not sure what a tournament overlay is, or how these games can significantly impact your bankroll, read on.
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What is a Poker Tournament Overlay?
A "tournament overlay" is when a poker site guarantees that a specific tournament will have a minimum prize pool. The number of buy-ins from the registered players normally makes up the amount of the prize pool. How a tournament overlay occurs is that the tournament will fall short of meeting the necessary buy-ins that make up the guarantee and in return, the poker room offsets the loss by kicking in the additional amount.
For example, let's assume Bodog's weekly $100,000 guarantee only draws in 350 players. At $215 a pop, the amount of buy-ins would total $75,250. Obviously, this amount falls short from the amount of the scheduled guarantee and Bodog would be required to add the additional $24,750 to cover the full $100,000.
The prize pool isn't the only benefit you will see. If we take the number of players that entered into the event and divide that by the amount of the guarantee you will see that your $215 entry fee (assuming you didn't qualify via a satellite), now has a cash value of $285.
Most poker rooms don't have overlays in the $20,000+ range, making Bodog one of the few exceptions. That's not to say it's the only site with overlays. You can still find some decent tournament overlays at the sites we listed above.
Tips for Finding the Best Tournament Overlays
Tournaments Scheduled During Off Peak Hours - If you check the tournament schedule for events schedule around the slower times of the day, you'll find many of them do in fact overlay. Many of the overlays are regular, meaning if you keep tabs on the time and tournament you can usually find the same game every night - and odds are it's going to run into overlay. This is definitely easier for Canadian poker players.
Check the Small Poker Sites - Many of the small poker rooms, like Bet Online Poker, don't have the player base to balance out their schedule of guarantees. Obviously, the amount of the overlays can't compete with Bodog, but in the same token, they will have more frequent tournament overlays. Likewise, the small networks will have far less players registering for a tournament then some of the bigger tournament poker sites, thus making it easier to final table.
