Overlay tournaments

[hojediade]

Hey gang.

I discovered lately, like one week ago, an interesting poker word that i used to ignore: OVERLAY. As i'm not a native english talker, i will use the original article i read for a better understanding.

What is an Overlay?
When a poker site announces a tournament with a guaranteed prize, there is an opportunity for an Overlay.
If the prize money collected from the players who signed up for the tournament does not cover the guarantee, the poker site adds money to make the guaranteed prize.
For example: a tournament has a $5,000 guaranteed prize and the buy-in is $20+$2. The poker site hopes for 250 or more players to sign up so the guarantee is covered by the players (250 players at $20 will cover the $5,000 prize pool).
If, however, only 150 players show up, they contribute only $3,000 to the prize pool and the poker site needs to add another $2,000 of its own money to the prize pool.
These $2,000 are the Overlay.

I wanted to know if you guys are aware about it and if you are, how do you track those tourneys.
I found a nice tracker offering updates for every overlay tournaments that is to start on several rooms as PS, UB, Bodog, Cake and FTP, which alerts you before the start, depending on settings. I didn't used it yet but i know i will soon cause those tourneys are like money added somehow.
Sometimes overlay can reach an amazing 200% or more, even at low BI games.

[Logan]

By coincidence this week was tracking some of this games in the different sites i play, i do it manually, just looking in the sites, they mostly have "Tournament Schedule" page, so look there the games you like, then go to lobby and search for the ended games, you see how many people enter, and look for Ev+ games.

I do find some good games with low buy-ins, and some games where to spend your points.

Good examples.

-$2000 Gtd for $2 in Doyles (no rebuys) (guess is same in Cake)

-$1000/$2000/5000/$7500 for $1 in UB.

-$1500/$2500 for $1 in Carbon

And much more.

Maybe we should make a topic to post the games you plan to play, that way 4k members can join.

[nb1961]

The Carbon Daily Dollar Dazzler is good value at the moment, yesterday (18 Nov) the 12:15 game had an overlay of $847 and the 18:15 had an overlay of $1801

[hojediade]

I can't really check if which games are reccurents so that i can't plan when to play them as the time alert occurs few minutes prior to the games. But as site is having a daily report, i could probably make some research, if i ever find time to.
If you ever want to download the free tracker (to stop doing it manually ), just pm me so that i can give you the link in private. I won't post any more infos in the thread regards on SB rules.
See ya later Logan.

[kingmotan]

There will never be an overlay game on pokerstars...
They had the sunday million this week increased with 1mil, so it was 2.5mil guaranteed for 215$ I really though omg it sure gonna be an overlay. Guess what!? There were 18282 players with a prize pool of 3.656.600$ and a 365k for 1st.
Pokerstars rullz imo.

[Logan]

I can't really check if which games are reccurents so that i can't plan when to play them as the time alert occurs few minutes prior to the games. But as site is having a daily report, i could probably make some research, if i ever find time to.
If you ever want to download the free tracker (to stop doing it manually ), just pm me so that i can give you the link in private. I won't post any more infos in the thread regards on SB rules.
See ya later Logan.

I can't play all days or all times, so have a calendar that i fill at the start of the month with times and days of all my private games, and with that i can know times and days that have free to play open games.

The think is that for open games (MTT) need most of the time 3 or 4 hours to play, and private games usually take 1-2 hours, so usually play more private games, or when have free time play some S&G's games.

I remember play the Doyles Bounty game and ended in the cash, play 3 or 4 times the $10,000 Daylly Dollar in Fulltilt and make it to the money 2 times, but the game take like 4 hours just to make it to the money, so then need to sit out or push because need to go. so do not play a lot of MTT open games, but i do want to play more.

That's why this week search open games in all sites that i am playing. So, that way can schedule with time even if need to lay down some private games.

I know is hard to make a full search, so in your case maybe is better that just take note the games you are playing in the tracker (day and time), so after some time you going to have the list of days and times of the games you like it more, that way you can decide about one or other, because some times are 2 or more games at the same time, so if you know early about all choices have the chance to decide wish one is best for you (like we do in private games).

Any way, i probably miss some good games, so the tracker still can be a good idea to know dates and times even if can't play in that moment, probably PM you to get it,

Cheers.

[hojediade]

There will never be an overlay game on pokerstars...
They had the sunday million this week increased with 1mil, so it was 2.5mil guaranteed for 215$ I really though omg it sure gonna be an overlay. Guess what!? There were 18282 players with a prize pool of 3.656.600$ and a 365k for 1st.
Pokerstars rullz imo.

Here is a report from a PS game occured on Nov the 4th with a huge overlay (Time must be PS server time), and this one is just an example as i could find many more for the same day at PS.

Time Buy In LimitGame Prize Pool Overlay % Field Size Overlay Amount
Nov 04 01:00 $3.3 NL Holdem $40,000196% 4,090$26,503

[katymaty]

Always a good idea to play the games with added money as if you are an average player should make a decent profit over the year.

One problem you may encounter with the added money games is the late registration for tournaments and rebuys.

SOmetimes on DOyles and Cake the late reg can last up to an hour. Remember signing for a $10 game on Cake once where it said $10 Freezeot with only about 80 palyers and it was $2000 GTD so I thought great value.

However after the first break there were over 200 players so wasnt as good as I first thought

[LombardiStix]

The biggest tourneys I've ever taken down were on Bodog Poker. They were both guar tournaments. 5k guar. They both had overlays. I found Bodog games on a regular basis that had overlay. That reminds me I need to get back on that damn site.

Stix

[Logan]

Yep, very good point by Katy, rebuys and late registration change a lot of the ending overlay.

About the tracker Hoje, this tracker mention that take in count 10-15 min for late registration, but like Katy mention Cake (and also Stars) have games to 1 hour late registration, so at the end is not that accurate in that manner.

Other think that for now i do not like is that do not have a option to look by site, supposed to have Stars, Fulltilt, Bodog, Ultimate, Cake and Titan (Titan is not mentioned but actually appear in the warnings) but all warnings are from Stars (do not see any other except for Titan), if i do not play in Stars that means that if want another site still need to see all those popups.


Today see this 2 games in Ultimate, registration was closed so this was final #players.

- $1000 Gtd-$2 buy-in (no rebuys), less than 450 players there, 450x$2=900=$100 overlay (10%)

-$1000 Gtd-$4 buy-in (no rebuys), less than 200 players there, 200x$4=800=$200 overlay.(20%)

Non of both appear in the tracker (and supposed to appear any above 1%)


At the end i turned off, think going to keep it manually. Thanks any way Hoje, i think this is ok if you play in Stars.