Slot machines and video poker stations are positioned just inside the casino entrance. The boys in marketing put them here so you can test the waters and feel the rush a quarter at a time — getting your feet wet right at the casino entrance. Up ahead you see the casino proper, a virtual indoor carnival buzzing with excitement. You can almost feel the energy pulsing.
To say that poker is taking over the world may be only a slight exaggeration. Considering its current popularity explosion, Texas Hold’em could replace war as a way to settle regional conflicts. In truth, many factors have contributed to the card game’s wide appeal, including the broad reaches of the Internet and television poker tournaments.
But technology is only one factor. The big draw? Poker is one of the few games where good players consistently win. In poker, you compete against other players rather than the house. And with honed skills and intimate knowledge of the game, you can have a significant edge over those other, less-prepared gamblers.
Hiding your emotions is a requisite skill for successful poker. They don’t call it poker face for nothin’! So, if you can’t control your nervous ticks when you bluff or if your eyes get as big as saucers when you make a full house, either play your poker online or put a bag over your head.
Unfortunately there is no simple way to find out about overlays. They are more frequent online and in smaller events, but few places ever advertise that theii tournaments are overlays. Players need to do the math themselves in most cases.
A typical casino game rarely pays back more than 98 percent to its customers, which means you will lose at least $2 for every $100 wagered. But many tournaments return all the entry fees back to the players in prize money, making these events a tremendous value. And some tournaments offer lucrative overlays, giving players a return of more than 100 percent on their gambling dollar.
However even in a tournament with a good overlay, most players end up losing money because the prizes are very top heavy. So what does a return of more than 100 percent mean? A player with average tournament skills is a favorite 1:o win money over the long run, but not necessarily in that individual event. For example, the house has the edge in slots and the return is 98 percent, but the actual amount a player gets back for each $100 bet can be far higher or lower than $98. But over time, $98 is the average.
Overlays happen frequently in tournaments because many casinos either guarantee the prize money or add extra dough to sweeten the pot. Take Bodog Casino for example. Bodog has a weekly poker tournament that guarantees $100,000 in prize money every Sunday. Because the entry fee is $100 per person, Bodog needs at least 1,000 players to sign up to break even (because of the guarantee). Yet this tournament always has less than 1,000 players, which creates a profitable overlay, because if only 600 people sign up, $60,000 goes in, and $100,000 goes out. This extra $40,000 is essentially free money split among the 600 players (EV is determined by dividing the extra money by the total number of players). That translates into a 170 percent return on your money, a number much higher than the 98 percent or less return offered in most casino games.
