The side-pot hero (part II)

Using the method I described, a few things will become immediately obvious:

A tidy pot is a good pot.
Strictly speaking, pot management is the dealer's responsibility and only the dealer's hands should be in the pot. If the dealer is not keeping the pot reasonably tidy then your "side pot hero" moment can be ugly. There's nothing worse than having to back-track through a hand in order to figure out what chips belong where.
Don't go channelling your "Inner Accountant", but try to encourage players to keep a tidy pot. Discourage "splashing" and as soon as a hand looks like having side-pots suggest that everyone keeps their bets in front of them.
It will make life much easier.

When you are dealing you can do whatever you like to manage the chips (though putting them in your pocket is not popular). I reccomend sweeping all of the chips into the middle at the completion of each round of betting, and pulling out any "splashes" as soon as they happen. It makes it much easier to tell the new betting from the old.

Either take control or don't do it..
There's more than one way to do sidepots, so there's often more than one opinion. Establish clearly who is going to do the work before anyone touches the chips. The dealer is the first choice. If they want to relinquish the job they should ideally ask a single person at the table to do it. You might try saying something like "I know how to do sidepots... would you like me to talk you through it?" You'll probably get a response like "Ummm... do you want to do it for me?", but they may also jump at the opportunity to learn how.

Talk it out loud.
Whether you're doing the side pot or talking the dealer through it, explain what's happening as you go.
This does several things.

It reinforces your authority in the process.

It makes it obvious that you are working honestly.

It teaches everyone listening how to do it.

It gives people the opportunity to correct your mistakes.

Start by declaring each players total bet size (Tower size) "UTG is in for 700, Seat6 for 750, Dealer & Seat7 1250. OK... there are two players in for 1250, the next biggest bet is 750. So each of these players has 500 more in the pot, they play for a sidepot of $1000. We now have 3 bets of 750 and one of 700 so..." etc. etc.
If you goof and declare that 1250 - 750 is 350 and someone corrects you, thank them, laugh it off and keep going with the correct figure. It's easy to make simple mistakes under pressure, it doesn't mean your not the right person for the job.

Put side pots in a logical location on the table.
It usually makes sense to put the main pot in front of the player with the shortest tower. I usually say something like "that's all you can eat".
There are no rules, but try to put each side pot an equal-ish distance from the players contesting it. Point to them and say "you guys are playing for this pot."
Keep everything you are doing open and clear, share all information and the table will get behind you.

Special cases.
Sometimes one of the players pushes all-in and has more chips than everyone else. The answer is simple, but I'll state it anyway... once all the betting has ceased. just ask them to take back the excess so that their bet is equal to the next biggest tower (you can think of it as a side pot that only they are in if your head works that way).

Splitting a side (or main) pot
Fortuantely splitting a side or main pot has nothing to do with the side-pot calculation. It only affects who the pot is actually given to. If two (or more) hands tie for the main pot, then they split every side pot that they are both entitled to. Once you reach a pot that only one of the tying hands is in they win any remaining pots they are entitled to. Beyond that normal side-pot allocation applies.
If the main pot is not split, but subsequent side pots are, then just allocate the main pot, then proceed as above.

Example...
In our example above, UTG shows Aces, Seat7 shows TT and both Dealer and Seat6 show AJ
The board is J4746 (assume rainbow)

The winner is the short tower (AA44J)
Dealer & Seat6 Tie for second (JJ447)
Seat7 loses (TT447)

AA is the outright winner of the Main pot, but that's all he gets. It's the only pot he's in.
Dealer & Seat6 split the 150 pot (75 each)
Dealer wins the 1000 pot. The only other person in the pot with him is Seat7

Try it at home.
If you want to build confidence and you have a chip set at home, try grabbing a random collection of 4 5 or 6 chip stacks and declaring them "all-in" against each other. Work through the process and create the side pots. If you want to also do the pot allocation, you can add cards and a 5-card board to the exercise. Figure out who won and decide the winnings accordingly.

C U @ the table :-)

The side-pot hero (part I)

I always love that scene in the movie where the average Joe, minding his own business is called-upon to find the inner hero and do something above and beyond.
For instance... there's an air hostess... (I'm using 70's terminology, coz it usually happens in 70's films).
She rushes back from the flight deck panic-stricken. She clutches at her pearls and says,
"Is there anyone onboard that can fly a plane?"
Or sometimes it's a medical drama
"Is there a doctor in the room?"
or
"Does anyone here know first aid?"

Reluctantly our hero raises his hand and the crowd breathes a collective sigh of relief.

Emergencies like this happen in pub poker too, and I'm here to tell you that with a little more reading... YOU can be that hero.

Finish reading this article and I promise the next time someone at your table asks,
"Can anyone do side-pots?" the sighs of relief will be directed at you, the cute girl/guy will buy you a drink and the shark in the hoodie with the iPod and wrap-around sunnies will stop stealing your blinds.

It will become clear in some of my coming blogs that I'm not keen on mental arithmetic.
If there's a lazy-man's way to do any mathematics exercise, then sign me up.
So here's the way that works best for me, hopefully it will be useful to you.

First we need a reasonably complex betting scenario with multiple side pots.

So... at an 8 player table. (SB = Seat 1)

Blinds are 50/100
Seat 3 (UTG) Raises to 300
Seats 4 & 5 Fold
Seat 6 pushes all-in for her remaining stack of 750
Seat 7 (The Cutoff) does likewise for his stack of 1250
Seat 8 (The Dealer) calls the 1250
Seats 1 & 2 (SB & BB) fold
Seat 3 (UTG) calls and is all-in for his remaining 400

What a dog's breakfast!
If your blood pressure is going-up at just the thought of tidying this up, then you're not alone.
(I'm a bit tense and I made it up.)

OK...
Firstly... stop looking at it as a maths problem.
Instead of numbers, I want you to visualise "towers".
Imagine every player was only using one chip denomination and they each pushed their wagers towards the pot.
There would be 150 lying in the middle of the table and four "towers" in front of the four players contesting the hand.
I'm going to use the word tower instead of "stack" to reduce confusion.
The height of each tower would represent the amount of each player's bet.

Seat 3 (UTG) has a 700 tall tower (his original 300 raise then 400 call)
Seat 6 has a 750 tower
Seat 7 (The Cutoff) has a 1250 tower
Seat 8 (The Dealer) also has a 1250 tower

What we have to do is slice the tops off the towers until they are all the same height.
We start with the biggest towers.
How much taller are they than the next biggest tower?
If the next biggest tower is 750, then the answer is 1250 - 750 = 500.
So slice 500 off each of the tallest towers and put it to one side.
This is the side pot that only the two big towers (Seat 7 & Seat 8) are playing for (1000).


We now have three towers that are 750 tall and one that is 700 tall, we slice again...

How much taller are the three big towers?
750 - 700 = 50
So we slice 50 off each of the three biggest towers and put it to one side. This is the side-pot that the top 3 towers (Seat 6, Seat 7 & Seat 8) are playing for (150).


Tah Dah! We now have four towers of equal height (700). This, plus the blinds in the middle is the main pot and represents the most that the smallest contributor (Seat 3) can win (2950).

Now you just have to turn over the cards and see what the deck decides.

To figure-out who gets what, start with the best hand overall.
He or she wins every pot that they have a share in.
By default they win the main pot. If they have a share in any side pots, they get them too.
Once you've given them all they're entitled to, find the next best hand.
They get every remaining pot that they have a share in, and so-on until all side pots have been distributed.

Stay tuned for part II (tips and special cases).

C U @ the table :-)

Recognising a win

You can play pub poker for quite a while before you finally win a tournament. The good news is... the problem might not be your play.

One of the fundamental differences between pub poker and casino poker is that a pub poker tourney is designed to be finished in 3 to 4 hours.
The starting stacks, and (more importantly) the 15 minute blind periods guarantee it.

The various pub-poker providers (leagues) make a living by bringing warm bodies into your local club. Once there, the club would like you to stay for a while, buy a few beers and maybe put a few dollars through the pokies. Ideally you'll hang around, socialise and maybe even buy dinner.
Your patronage keeps the club running and in return, they give you a place to play.

To me it seems a fair trade, I get a few hours entertainment in exchange for 2 or 3 beers and a calamari and chips... hard to see the downside really.

The only real catch is closing time.

The game has to be over before the bar staff turn off the lights.

The 3 hour structure leads to a situation commonly called "Final Table All-In BINGO".
By the time the game has boiled down to the last eight or ten players, the big blind can be as much as one third of the average stack. Accordingly your decisions are often all-in or fold.

It doesn't leave a lot of room for real poker playing. Luck will almost always be the deciding factor.

So what can you do about it?
The answer is not much, it's stitched into the fabric of the game. The very thing that makes pub poker so accessible is the same thing that turns final table play into a lottery.

So, accept that which you can't change; adjust your definition of winning. Probably the best measure of success is how many final tables you make. If you're frequently in the top 10, but just never quite snagging that victory, you're probably playing a decent game.

Most poker leagues recognise this and have special monthly deep-stack, long-blind events. Players qualify through consistent deep finishes over the month. Try to qualify for a few of these and see how you go in longer games.

Next time you're watching two world-class poker heavyweights in a drawn-out heads-up wrestle on the telly; don't wonder
"Why don't I ever get to play like that?"
just remember... your entry fee was two beers and you were home in time for work the next day.

C U @ the table :-)