In poker what is the main pot and side pot?

Question

I saw a game where someone won the side pot and someone else won the main pot. What dos that mean?

Answer 1

You can neither win nor lose more than you have in front of you.  Therefore, if more than 2 people are in a pot and one person has less than the others, a side pot is created when one person is all-in and the other people are still betting.

Joe has $500

Matt has $800

Chad has $1000

Joe goes all-in for $500, Matt raises so that he is all-in for $800, the original 500 bet plus 300 more, and Chad calls.

Joe only has 500, so he can only win 500 from Chad and Matt each, so there is a $1500 (3players x $500) MAIN POT that all 3 people can win.  There is a $600 (2X 300) SIDE POT that Matt or Chad can win, but not Joe.

The main pot is called the main pot because it is the original pot and it's the only one that every one in the hand can win.  The side pot is called the side pot because it is on the side of the main pot.  

You're probably seen movies and TV shows where someone bets a huge amount and someone else doesn't have enough to cover it, so they take off their watch or they have to get money form someone else.  That's not realistic, and the side pots protect players who have more money and allows the action to continue after a player is all-in.

I've seen as many as 4 side pots for a hand when 4 people were all-in for different amounts and a 5th player with a bigger stack called them.

Answer 2

A side pot occurs after someone is all in therefore all there chips are in the pot. If other players continue to bet then a side pot for those players is started. The bets go into the side pot which the person who went all in previously cannot win. When hands are flipped the main pot goes to the overall winner of the hand and the side pot goes to the winner of the other players who did go all in.

Several side pots can occur in 1 hand.

Answer 3

interesting question i've seen that happen all the time but didnt know why...

Answer 4

If someone goes all in, the most they can win is what everyone else calls it with.

If there are two or more players still in the hand (not including the all-in player), they can continue to make bets "on the side".

Example:  One player is down to his last $20, and two other players each have several hundred in front of them.

During the betting, the guy with the $20 goes all in.  If the other two call, the main pot will be $60 (twenty bucks from each of the three players).

But, just because one guy went all-in, that does not stop the other two from betting each other for the hundreds of dollars they each have in front of them.  So, their big bets go into a side pot, and mister "I only have $20" cannot win it.