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 :-)