When something looks like a deal...

...but really isn't. Not as good as the old deal, anyway.

I don't know how many people know, but BoDog is doing a "12 Days of Poker" promotion from Dec. 21 to Jan. 1 where they add money to prize pool of a mess of tournaments. All of these "money-added' events are in place of guaranteed tournaments normally held at those times. For some of the tourneys this is fine - they either normally have a small or no overlay, so the extra juice is gravy. As for the others, well...

For example: for the next two Sundays, BoDog is replacing the $100K Guaranteed with a $20K Added event (same buy-in). Don't get me wrong, $20K is a lot of money to add to the prize pool. With that said, the $100K typically attracts a field of about 700 people, which means BoDog has to pony up a $30K or so overlay to meet the guarantee. This means that, by running this promotion, BoDog is actually saving themselves 10 grand or so each Sunday since they have to put up less juice in their signature event.

This isn't a complaint so much as an observation. Most people probably saw the $20K added and thought "that's a great deal." But it's an interesting psychological bend, to see that an apparently great deal is actually worse than the deal you had before.