How Does a Side Pot Work in Poker?

A side pot is a separate pot built by the players who still have chips behind after someone is all in for less. The all-in player can only win the main pot, which is capped at the amount they matched from each opponent; every chip wagered above that goes into a side pot only the live players can contest. One hand can produce several side pots when several players are all in for different amounts.

How a side pot is built

Take a $1/$2 game with three players to the flop and $60 already in the middle. Alice has $40 behind, you and Bob have $160 each.

Alice shoves her last $40 with 8♠8♦. You call with Q♣Q♠. Bob raises to $140 holding A♥K♥ and you call. Alice has nothing left to match that raise, so the dealer splits the money into two pots.

The first $60 from each player — the most Alice can put at risk — builds a $180 main pot. The extra $100 apiece from you and Bob forms a $200 side pot that Alice has no claim on, whatever she turns over.

You can only win from an opponent what you had at risk. Every pot is capped by the smallest stack eligible for it.

Who gets paid first

Pots are awarded from the outside in: the last side pot created is settled first, then any earlier ones, and the main pot last. It reads backwards, but it keeps eliminations clean, because nobody is knocked out until the pot they are actually contesting has been decided.

So if Bob's ace pairs and your queens are beaten, Bob takes the $200 side pot. Alice's eights then win the $180 main pot. Bob has collected $200 of a $380 hand, and Alice has tripled her $60.

Playing a side pot well

Alice is never folding, because she has no chips left to fold. Every bet you make on the turn and river is aimed at Bob alone, so a bluff can win you the side pot but never the main pot — that $180 still goes to the best hand at showdown.

The reverse is the useful part. Betting Bob off his live overcards protects your share of the side pot and leaves your queens heads-up against Alice for the main pot, which is a real gain when your hand is ahead but fragile.

In a tournament the side pot moves chips while the main pot decides whether Alice goes home. That is why players often check a side pot down near the money: two hands trying to beat the short stack bust her more often than one. Run the pay jump through a tournament ICM calculator before you fire a bet that thins the field and keeps her alive.