Poker stake rules III
The stake table rules in poker games lead to interesting situations. For example, when a player decides to play his entire stake into the pot and goes all-in, this puts the pot to a limit. If only one opponent is left in play at this time, that person can match the all-in bet and the hand of play is over. However, when many players are active, the betting action often goes beyond the value of all-in and the player who had gone for that course cannot match the increased stake any more. In this situation, the extra dough gets accumulated in a side pot. Since the all-in player makes no contribution to the side pot he has no share in that dough. Interestingly, when a single poker game has produced many all-in players, it means that more than one side pots may be formed.
The situation of main pot and side pot in a poker game can be illustrated by the example of three players where the first player opens a betting round by staking $100. If the second player only has $50, he can go all-in with that amount. If now the third player has $150, it is evident he can call or raise the initial bet of $100; or he can raise all-in by betting the entire $150. If this happens, with the main pot now limited to $50, the first player can call it and being the only active player in hand, need not bet any further. Since the second player staked $50, he can only win as much from his opponents and so the main pot is formed with $150 taken equally from all three players. It can be calculated that the total amount staked has been $350, so the extra $200 constitute the side pot and can only be played between the first and third player who contributed towards its build-up. With no scope of further betting, showdown takes place and the players will win or lose according to their hand strength.
