Side Pots in Poker, Explained

A side pot appears when a player goes all-in with fewer chips than someone else who's still in the hand. From that point on, the table has more than one pot, and not every player can win every pot. It can look confusing at the table, but the rule behind it is simple once you see it worked through.

You can only win as many chips from each opponent as you put in yourself.

Once a player is all-in, they can't add any more chips. If the other players keep betting, those extra chips go into a separate pot that the all-in player isn't eligible to win, because they had nothing left to match them with.

Three players go all-in on the same hand, each with a different stack:

• Player A: 200 points
• Player B: 500 points
• Player C: 800 points

To split this up, work upward from the smallest stack, one layer at a time.

• Main pot: 600 points. All three players put in at least 200, so the main pot is 200 x 3. All three can win it.
• Side pot: 600 points. B and C each put in 300 more than A could match, so the side pot is 300 x 2. Only B and C can win it. A can't, because A had no chips left to contest it.
• Returned to C: 300 points. C's last 300 points were never matched by anyone. Nobody can win them, so they go straight back to C. This isn't really a pot at all.

So only 1,200 of the 1,500 points are actually being played for.

At showdown, each pot is settled separately, starting with the side pot:

• Side pot: compare B's hand with C's. The better of those two wins the 600-point side pot, no matter what A has.
• Main pot: compare all three hands. The best of the three wins the 600-point main pot.

For example, if A has the best hand, B the second best, and C the worst, then A wins the main pot (600), B wins the side pot (600), and C gets back only the 300 that was never called.

• Folded chips stay in the pot. If a player bets and later folds, their chips stay in whichever pots they contributed to. They just can't win any of them.
• Ties split only the pot they're in. If two eligible players tie for a pot, they split that pot evenly. The other pots are settled as usual.
• More all-ins mean more layers. Every additional stack size adds another side pot, but you build each one the same way: work upward from the smallest stack.

Without side pots, there would be only two options, and both are unfair:

• Capping every bet at the smallest stack. Players with deeper stacks couldn't bet against each other properly just because one short-stacked player was in the hand.
• Letting the short stack win everything. A player all-in for 200 could win chips they never risked anything against.

Splitting the pot into layers means everyone plays for exactly what they risked, no more and no less.

When a player goes all-in, RbPkr builds the main pot, any side pots, and the returned remainder for you. There's no manual counting. At showdown, each pot is awarded to the right player, even with three, four, or more different stack sizes in the same hand.

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