Overlay
Also known as: Overlay
When a tournament's prize pool exceeds the buy-ins collected because the operator tops up the guarantee — straight +EV, free dead money for everyone in the field.
What it is
Overlay is the gap an operator must cover when total buy-ins fall short of a posted guarantee. The room tops the prize pool up to the promised number, so the extra money comes from the house, not the players.
Why it's pure +EV
That injected money is free dead money added to the pool but collected from no one. Every entrant's ROI goes up by their share of the overlay before a single card is dealt — it's one of the few genuinely +EV spots in poker that requires no edge at all. Re-entry events let you capture it multiple times.
Where it shows up
- Smaller or online guarantees that miss their target
- Satellites and new rooms buying volume
- Bad weather, holiday weekends, or low turnout
Serious players hunt overlay deliberately: registering a guaranteed event that is clearly running short is +EV even with an average hand.
Example
A $100K GTD draws only 800 entries at $120 = $96K in buy-ins. The operator must cover the $4K shortfall, so the prize pool is still $100K. That $4K overlay is split across the 800 players as free equity — every entry is +EV before any cards, worth an extra $5 of pure value on a $120 buy-in.