Overlay as it relates to poker has a couple of meanings. If a tournament has a guaranteed prize pool, the tournament does not get the same exposure as if the tournament has a buy-in. Buy-in tournaments usually have a lower number of participants than guaranteed prize pool tournaments.
Overlay tournaments are exactly what they say, extra money that is added to the guaranteed prize pool of a tournament. Some tournaments will purchase extra chips for their players and others will purchase were winners from previous tournaments. These tournaments offer the poker players the chance to have a larger pull on the final table since they have more chips than the other players. Players who are eliminated lose all of their chips and are eliminated from the tournament. The more chips the player has, the more chances they have to win back their chips from the overlay money. This is why these tournaments can offer such large payouts.
The overlay in poker tournaments occur when the buy-in fees from the satellite tournaments are used to purchase tickets and credits to participate in the final table of the actual tournament. The player who incurs the small fee has the opportunity to collect many more chips than the player who does not pay the small fee. This means that even though the tournament does not provide a prize, the player can win additional chips. This is how the money is created. Some of the money that you will win will be given to you as a point spread, other chips will be given to the 4 players finishing in the top 3, and the last 20% will be given to the final tournament champion.
This system has a Perform factor because the players who benefit from it have a stake in the outcome of the game. That is the advantage of using overlay in poker tournaments. If you plan on starting a tournament you can’t use this method, however, if you are planning to host a poker tournament you should consider using this method.
If you are starting a poker tournament you will want to use overlay to increase the chances of your tournament from growing. You can start by using 50% of the buy-in fees to purchase books of rules. You want to make sure that the majority of the rules you purchase are the same for the SNG as well as the MTT. You want all your players to have the same knowledge and experience. This will increase your tournament chances dramatically. You want to key in at least a few practices until you are sure you’ve developed a winning strategy.
You can find a number of poker books online that will help you increase your MTT skills and decide how much money you can spend on an MTT. Once you key in how you are going to spend your money you can register a group of players and lock horns with them. You’ll become competitors and with experience your skills will rise also. You’ll be able to key in more techniques and strategies to help you win first place. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to increase your strategy now. Take the time to consider developing a plan and key out how you are going to do it. You might find that a buy-in tournament will be too intimidating and may decide against it.
Another option is to do tourny block for a few consecutive games. If you play in the same city a couple times you could play consecutive games in the same hotel. Now you have your own schedule. You do not have to block out time in your schedule to play poker online. You already have a block schedule planned out. Take the time to implement a plan before your first few tournaments.
If you take it one step further you will find that poker sites allow you to download softwares to use for your tournaments. These are important because you do not want to be using your cell phone for betting, and you also do not want to be doing any research with your computer while you are playing. You can use a program like Holdem Manager which will gather all the information for you and display it for you on screen so that you are able to review and improve upon your MTT stats at your convenience.