Introducing ... The Overlay
Last summer, the World Series of Poker Main Event had 10,112 players. That means there were 10,112 stories waiting to be told. The Hendon Mob database has nearly 900,000 different poker players listed with a result in their database and results for nearly 650,000 different poker tournaments. Each one of those results, each one of those events, represents a potential story.
Part of what makes poker such a fantastic game is that it serves as a great democratizer. It allows David from Des Moines, Iowa, Mateo from Córdoba, Argentina, and Jakub from Prague, Czech to sit down and compete with Daniel from Toronto, Canada, Phil from Madison, Wisconsin, and Yuri from Curitiba, Brazil, in pursuit of not only the money, but the fame and glory that comes with it.
The Overlay will land in your inbox each week with high quality content from GPI Global Poker Award winning journalist Lance Bradley. A newsletter created with poker players and fans alike in mind, each issue will put you right at the table with some of the biggest names in the game for some of poker’s biggest events of the year.
Whether it’s a high roller tournament in some exotic local, a low stakes cash game in a local poker room, a low buy-in daily tournament in a Las Vegas casino, or a home game in somebody’s basement, every poker table is populated by saints, sinners, and people who constantly straddle the line between both. The stories aren’t always going to be about just the saints. They also can’t always be just about the sinners. Or even just the ones who dance between the two categories, The Overlay will attempt to find the balance between those three groups to give an honest representation of the poker world.
Finding those stories, telling those stories, and sharing those stories is exactly what The Overlay is for. Leaving standard news coverage to the established leaders and gossip to the social media streets, The Overlay is built upon a foundation that includes in-depth feature stories that go beyond the felt, profiles that focus less on who won the tournament and more on who the winner of the tournament is, oral histories detailing some of poker’s most iconic and historic events and moments as well as columns and commentary that offer unique insight and contextualize the things happening in the poker world.
Poker can be serious business, but the moment that likely made you fall in love with the game was something fun. Your first bluff, your first time flopping a set with pocket fives, or your first time dragging a pot. Because of that there will also be some fun in each issue including trivia, polls, and some hidden gems from the various corners of the internet. Along with the exclusive content, each issue also includes a celebration of some of the best content from across the poker world.
The first issue rolls out (update) Monday, March 3.