All-In Bet and Side Pots

Hi there!

Before I lay down my question, let me first congratulate you for having the best site. It has been a great help for many poker players. Thanks a lot for all of your efforts, great job!

Well, for my question, it’s something about going all in when making a bet and side pots. Let’s say for an instance, there are 3 players at the fifth street. Have already gone through the pre-flop, the flop, as well as all the betting. Then, fifth street comes up and eventually player 1 goes “all in” and bets $100. Assume that player 2 calls, same thing for player 3, but the difference is he wants to raise $50.

In my opinion, player 2 may call the raise of player 3 by placing either a side bet or side wager of $50 in a side pot. Typically, player 2 would have to raise or call the bet of player 3. However, I’m wondering if the rules are not the same whenever a player goes all in. Any idea?

Also, I am clueless if player 2 can simply decline to do the side bet to grab the chance of playing for an additional side pot of $100 and just play for the $300 in the main pot. Well, if player 2 can, I guess there would be no side pot.

By the way, is the side pot mandatory at all times? And is player 2 obliged to either just call the raise of player 3 by which is $50 or else just fold?

If the answer for such questions is yes, then I don’t think things will make sense. At least, why shouldn’t player 2 be able to play for the main pot? If player 2 doesn’t have an additional raise, then why should he fold?

Also, player 1 can’t meet the raise of player 3, however, he gets to stay in and play for the main pot. How come? And why should player 2 fold though he placed the same amount of money in the main pot?

Thanks!
Carl Lohanne

Carl,

In the scenario above, player one went all in on the river. Player 2 then called. If player three bets out, then player two must either call the bet or fold. Player 2 at that point forfeits his right to the main pot.

Think of it this way. After player one goes all in, Player 2 and Player 3 must then battle for the right to win the main pot. With his raise, player 3 is saying that he can bet not only player 1 but player 2 as well. If player 2 wants the right to claim the main pot, he must beat player 3 for it.

The reason that player 1 is not forced to fold is because all of his money is already in the pot and once that happens, his portion of the pot is protected.

Back in the early days of poker, if someone was out of money and the other person had more, they could just win the pot by just raising. This was determined as unfair. Someone could sit down with a larger stack than everyone else and just move all in to every bet and take every pot. This would not be fair.