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 :-)
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