A pot may be divided into main and side pots, shared by tied hands, or split between high and low hands or two boards. This chapter also covers rake and corrections to an award.
Which hand is best is chapter 2 (Hand rankings); who shows first is chapter 7 (Showdown). A bet that nobody calls goes back to the player who made it before any pot is divided; that is part of the betting rules (Betting action).
8.1 You can win from each player only as much as you put in
Poker is played table stakes: you can bet only the chips you had in front of you when the hand began. If you are all-in for less than another player's bet, you can't win the part of their bet you couldn't match. Those extra chips go into a side pot that only the players who matched them can win. The pot every player still in can win is the main pot.
8.2 Chips put in by a player who folds stay in the pot
A player who folds gives up all claim to the pot, but the chips they already put in stay there for the winners. In the side-pot count (8.3) a folded player's chips count toward each level up to the amount they put in, even though that player can't win any of them.
Return any part of the last bet that nobody matched (Betting action).
Write down how much each player put in during the whole hand, including players who folded.
Find the smallest total among the players who are all-in. Take up to that amount from every player. That is the main pot, and every player still in the hand who put in at least that much can win it.
From what's left, take up to the next smallest all-in total, minus what you already took. That is the first side pot. Only the players still in who reached that level can win it.
Repeat until every chip is in a pot. The last pot is shared by the players with the most chips in.
8.4 A worked example: three players all-in for different amounts
At a $2/$5 no-limit Hold'em game, Eve posts the $2 small blind and Dee the $5 big blind. Ana goes all-in for $100, Ben goes all-in for $250, and Cal, who has $600, calls $250. Eve and Dee fold.
Player
Put in
Can win
Ana
$100 (all-in)
Main pot
Ben
$250 (all-in)
Main pot and side pot
Cal
$250 (with $350 left behind)
Main pot and side pot
Dee
$5 (folded)
Nothing
Eve
$2 (folded)
Nothing
The smallest all-in is Ana's $100. The main pot takes up to $100 from each player: $100 each from Ana, Ben and Cal, plus Dee's $5 and Eve's $2, for $307. The side pot holds the rest: $150 each from Ben and Cal, $300. Together that's $607, every chip put in.
At the showdown:
If Ana has the best hand, she wins the $307 main pot, and the $300 side pot goes to whichever of Ben and Cal has the better hand.
If Ben or Cal has the best hand, that player wins both pots, $607.
8.5 Each pot goes to the best hand among the players who can win it
The main pot and every side pot are awarded separately. A side pot goes to the best hand among its own players, even if that hand lost the main pot to a player who was all-in for less. Each pot is also split on its own when hands tie or a hi-lo pot is divided (8.13); chips are never mixed between pots.
The dealer decides the side pots first, starting with the one contested by the players with the most chips, and works down to the main pot last. Robert's Rules asks players in a side pot to hold their cards until their pot is being settled. pagat.com describes the same order: the most recent side pot first.
Example: in 8.4 the dealer first compares Ben's and Cal's hands for the $300 side pot, then all three hands for the $307 main pot.
When two or more players tie for the best hand (2.9), they share the pot equally. When it doesn't divide evenly, the leftover is first broken down into the smallest chip in play, and then handed out one chip at a time by the rules below; nobody gets more than one odd chip.
8.8 In button games, the odd chip goes to the first tied player left of the button
In Hold'em, Omaha and other games with a button, the odd chip goes to the tied player sitting closest to the button's left, going clockwise. Robert's Rules and the TDA agree.
Example: at a $1/$2 game with $1 chips, a $301 pot is split between the small blind and the cutoff. Each gets $150, and the extra $1 goes to the small blind, who is first clockwise from the button.
Stud games have no button, so the odd chip goes to the tied player holding the highest card by suit, ranking spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs from the top (2.3). The books differ on two details.
Which cards count: the TDA looks only at each player's five-card winning hand. Robert's Rules looks at all the player's cards, not just the five that make the hand.
Low games: Robert's Rules gives the odd chip between tied low hands to the lowest card by suit. The TDA's wording gives it to the high card by suit in Razz too.
8.10 In a hi-lo split, the high half gets the odd chip
When a pot divides between a high hand and a low hand and doesn't split evenly, the odd chip goes to the high half. If players then tie within a half, that half is shared by the usual rule for that game: by position in button games (8.8), by suit in stud (8.9).
8.11 Half to the best high, half to the best qualifying low
In hi-lo games such as Omaha Hi-Lo and 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo, the pot is split in two: half to the best high hand and half to the best low hand that qualifies (2.15). If nobody has a qualifying low, the best high hand wins the whole pot. One player can win both halves, with the best high and the best low; that is called a scoop.
The split is decided only by the cards. Robert's Rules says so explicitly for Stud Hi-Lo: players can't agree among themselves how to divide it.
8.12 Quartering: a tie for one half shares that half
If two players tie for the low (or the high), they share that half, so each gets a quarter of the pot. That is called being quartered. A player can be quartered on one side and win the other side outright.
Example: in Omaha Hi-Lo, the pot is $120. Ana has the best high and the same low as Ben. The high half, $60, goes to Ana; the low half is split, $30 each. Ana takes $90 and Ben $30.
8.13 Each side pot is split high and low on its own
In a hi-lo game with side pots, every pot is divided separately between the best high and the best qualifying low among the players who can win that pot (8.5). A player all-in for the main pot may win its low half while the side pot's low goes to someone else, or, if nobody in the side pot has a qualifying low, the whole side pot goes to its best high.
8.14 With two boards, half the pot goes to the best hand on each board
In double-board games, two boards are dealt and every player's hand plays on each board separately. The pot is split in half, one half for the best hand on each board, and a player who wins both boards scoops the whole pot. Ties on a board share that board's half. Who gets the odd chip between the two halves is a house rule; the Asian Poker Tour's rules give it to the winner on the top board.
8.15 Running it twice: half the pot on each run of the board
When betting is over because someone is all-in and cards are still to come, the players can agree to deal the rest of the board twice, or three times. Each run decides an equal share of the pot. Robert's Rules allows it in no-limit and pot-limit cash games and calls it "dealing twice". It takes every player involved to agree. Card rooms that don't allow it simply deal once, and the TDA's tournament rules don't provide for it.
Example: the pot is $400 and the turn and river are still to come. Ana and Ben agree to run it twice. The dealer deals a turn and river, and Ana wins that run, $200. Then a second turn and river from the remaining cards, and Ben wins, $200.
In a bomb pot every player puts in the same agreed ante, there is no betting before the flop, and the first betting round is on the flop. The antes are live chips in the pot, so a player all-in for the ante can win the main pot made of antes, and later bets form side pots in the usual way (8.3). When it is dealt with two boards, the pot splits as in 8.14. How home games call and size bomb pots is Home-game customs.
8.17 Players can't agree to split a pot instead of playing it out
Under Robert's Rules a pot is won at the showdown, not divided by agreement between players. The one exception it allows is chopping the blinds in button games, when everyone else folds to the two blinds (9.16).
Card rooms make their money from cash games in one of two ways. A rake is a share taken from each pot, usually a percentage up to a cap: Mount Airy's posted rule, for example, is at most 10% of the pot up to $5. A time collection is a seat fee each player pays in advance, which the dealer collects before dealing, so no chips come out of the pot. Some rooms don't rake a pot that ends before the flop ("no flop, no drop"); others, Mount Airy among them, say they do. A jackpot drop may also come out of qualifying pots; Mount Airy's bad-beat jackpot takes up to $2 from a pot of $10 or more. Tournaments charge an entry fee instead (Tournaments).
8.19 A pot paid to the wrong player is corrected if it's caught in time
If the pot goes to the wrong hand, it can be put right, but only within a time limit. Robert's Rules allows a ruling if it's asked for before the next deal starts; if the chips have already been mixed into the winner's stack, the house rebuilds the betting to work out how much was in the pot and moves that amount to the right player. The TDA allows errors in counting or awarding a pot to be raised until there is substantial action on the next hand (6.15). Mount Airy's posted rules add that only the management makes the correction.