Side Pots

Ok, I am really new to the game (about a week), but I am getting somewhat frustrated by the "side pot". I am playing on holdempoker.com and it seems random but on some pots (usually sizable ones) the winning hand doesn't win much at all. Instead it mentions something about a side pot and gives anywhere from 10 to 80 percent of the main pot to a lesser (i think?) hand. If anyone can decipher my question (its like 3 am)....

What is this side pot, how is its size determined, and what determines when it is put in to play?

If there is already an answer to this somewhere I apologize.

Thanks in advance -

Shaka8

A side pot happens when one player goes All-in, and other players call. This money makes up the main pot, but since the player who is all in can't afford any more bets the extra money is carried over to a 'side pot' and the winner of the hands involved in the side pot wins it.

It is possible to have several side pots if a lot of people are all in, and remember people in the side pots can still win the main pot if they have the best cards, i hope that explains it, although i am not sure if it will

Side pots

That definitely gets me started. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Shaka8

Just to clear that up a bit more, basically you can only win the amount of chips that you have in front of you.

So say player A goes all in with 100 you call with 50 and B calls with 75.

Now the main pot will be 150 (you multiply the amount of the smallest person by the number of callers, you would also have the blinds in there as well assuming they were less than the 50 in this case, but I am leaving them out for ease)

The side pot would then be 50 and player A will get the extra 25 he bet back as no one called that. If you won the hand you can only win the main pot and the side pot would go to whoever had the best hand from the other 2 players.

If one of the other two players had the best hand they would win both the main pot and the side pot.

A small point to add that is worth remembering, if you bet more than anyone has it normally still gets raked, so you will lose some money for no return, it is worth making sure you only bet as much as you need to to avoid this.


I have seen people go all in for a 30 cent pot, and get raked for about $1 so they lost money by betting, be careful of this

really? the sites i have played on dont rake money that doesnt actually go in the pot...so only the .30 would be raked in your example. id stear clear of a site that did it any other way!