Poker rules for side pots and betting

Poker allows players only to bet what’s in front of them at the table. What’s on the table is the only money you can put 'all in' – even if it doesn't exactly match your opponent's amount.

A side pot is when there are more than two players left in the hand, and one player is all-in while the rest continue to bet. These additional bets are ‘on the side’, between the remaining players. A player who is all-in and has no more chips is not eligible to win any of 'side bets’.

If there are multiple all-in players, it might create multiple side pots.

A kicker is a card or set of cards in a poker hand, which are not part of the hand rank. The kicker breaks ties between poker hands with the same value.

For example, the hand KK85J is ranked as a pair of Kings. The 8, 5, and J are kickers. If another player has KK85A, they'll win the hand because their kicker A outranks the kicker J.

Split pot is when players have the same hands and kickers (all 5 cards are identical in rank). In that case, all the chips they win, whether in a single pot or more pots, are divided equally between them.

In a Pot Limit game, no player can raise more than the size of the total pot, which includes:

1. Chips collected from previous betting rounds.
2. Previous action in the current betting round.
3. The amount you would have to put in to call.

Here is an example. We have $10 in the pot on the flop, and your opponent bets $5.

1. Chips collected from previous betting rounds = $10
2. Previous action in the current betting round = $5
3. The amount you would have to put in to call = $5

After all the calculations, we get $20 which you can raise. This means you can put $25 in total.

The dealer posts the small blind, and the other player posts the big blind for tournaments and cash games where players are Heads-Up. The dealer will then be first to act on pre-flop and second to act in all further betting rounds.

Whenever there’s no action on the river, the showdown starts to the left of the button and proceeds clockwise.

The last 'aggressor' hand is revealed first when there's action on the river.

For example, if John bets and Mary calls, there are two possibilities:

1. John has the winning hand, his cards are shown, and Mary can either show or muck. If other players are involved, the showdown proceeds clockwise and the remaining players can either show or muck their cards.
2. Mary has the winning hand. John still has to show his hand first, but Mary’s hand is shown without asking. This is because our software will never allow a winning hand to be mucked. Then, the showdown proceeds clockwise, starting from the winning hand.

If you go all-in or raise less than the current bet in No-Limit games, it counts as an action, not a raise or re-raise. It can be called but doesn’t re-open the action. Therefore, further action from the player would essentially mean raising himself.

The following rule is commonly accepted in most casinos:

"All raises must be equal to or greater than the size of the previous bet or raise on that betting round, except for an all-in wager.

Example: Player A bets 100 and player B raises to 200. Player C wishing to raise must raise at least 100 more, making the total bet at least 300. A player who has already acted and is not facing a full-size wager may not subsequently raise an all-in bet that is less than the minimum bet or less than the full size of the last bet or raise. (The half-the-size rule for reopening the betting is for limit poker only.)"