Overlay (poker)

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An overlay is a poker term generally used to describe the gap between a poker tournaments guaranteed prize pool and the actual prize pool generated by entrants.

For example, if a tournament has a guaranteed prize pool of $10,000, a buy in of $100 and 90 players enter, the gap between the two numbers - $1000 - would be the overlay for the tournament.

Overlays are far more common in online poker than in live poker simply due to the volume of tournaments online and the fierce competition for players online.