Just a few days ago, Doug Polk flooded various poker media outlets around the world, appearing before the Farmers Branch City Council to advocate for the opening of his second poker club in Texas. Doug wanted to open his second major poker club near Dallas.
Laws in Texas
To begin with, we need to explain the legislation in this American state. In short, gambling is illegal in Texas, but there is an exception where poker clubs can only exist if they do not collect rake. They can only collect membership and seat fees. Overall, however, there is a great deal of public opposition to any gambling in Texas.
Doug stood before the Farmers Branch City Council where he came up with a proposal to build the largest poker club in Texas. Unfortunately, his plans quickly fell apart after the council voted 4-1 against the idea. However, the city council told him he could resubmit his application.
Huge overlay at The Lodge
All of the above took place on May 7. Not even a week has passed and Doug has another reason to mourn. His The Lodge Card Club hosted The Lodge Championship Series in recent days, with the Main Event guaranteeing $2,000,000 at a buy-in of $2,725 + $275 fee. However, on Twitter, Doug announced to the world that after registration closed, the Main Event overlay was a whopping $417,000. The number of entries stopped at 581 and 734 entries were needed to fill the guarantee.
Ended up overlaying 417k in our main event. Congrats to all the players getting the free value.
- Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) May 12, 2024
We made some scheduling errors and dealt with some logistical nightmares.
Tough week, but as always, we learn and get stronger. We will continue pushing Texas poker forward.
An overlay of $417,000 is a huge number for any poker club or casino. For comparison, last year the Main Event of this series had 772 entries, making the prizepool worth more than $2.1 million. The main reason for such a huge overlay was said to be that the tournament was held on Mother's Day. There was $428,000 waiting for the winner, and after almost 8 hours of play, Michael Liang took home the prize.
A huge overlay was also reported by the Borgata Casino
The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City had the Borgata Spring Poker Open on its grounds, with the Main Event taking place on the same date and also guaranteeing $2,000,000. Here, the buy-in was $2,480 + $200 fee + $20 Add On and the entries counter here stopped at 706, representing an overlay of approximately $250,000. The winner here was Joel Deutsch, who took home $347,224.
What do you think was behind this huge overlay? Was Mother's Day the reason? Let us know in the comments on our social media.
Source - The Lodge Card Club, Pokernews, Youtube, Pokerstrategy, 8131, Facebook, Twitter, Farmers Branch City Council, Hendonmob, borgata.mgmresorts
