On The Lookout for Added Value

When you’re an online poker player you want to look for every edge you can get. Since everyone on average gets the same amount of good cards and bad cards, it’s those players who can find and take advantage of ways to shift the odds in their favor who come out winners. If you’re smart, the tool for tracking your bankroll you use will show a nice profit.

Overlays for Added Value

One of the ways to gain a big edge is to look for a big overlay in tournaments. This adds value to the tournament and improves your odds. An overlay occurs when a given tournament has a guarantee. This is quite common in online tournaments as a way of drumming up interest in the tournament. If the tournament is well publicized, the site will probably make its guarantee easily which doesn’t add any value to you. However, if a less well-known or publicized tournament has a big guarantee, they may not make their goal number, which means more value for you.

How Overlays Give Added Value

Let’s say a tournament is $50 to enter. If 101 players enter there is $5050 in the prize pool. Assuming you all have an equal chance to win, you are all getting fair odds. You are 100-to 1-to win and the tournament pays out at 100-to-1 (this is not entirely accurate as the tournament collects an entry fee, plus unless the tournament is winner take all, you will not get the entire $5050 for winning, but the point is that the tournament is a relatively fair value proposition). Let’s say, however, that the tournament has a $10,000 guarantee. Now the tournament is paying out at 200-to-1 even though you have a 100-to-1 chance to win, adding significant value.

Taking Advantage of Overlays for Added Value

Of course, most players think that in a 100 player tournament, they have a better than 100-to-1 chance to win. Some are correct in this assumption and some are not. Either way, if you play in a tournament with an overlay, your chances of winning, whatever they were before the tournament began, have now improved. If you can find tournaments of this nature, you should always take advantage of them.