The beauty of side pots

One of the beautiful things about poker is that it provides an endless amount of things to talk about. I've been writing this blog for over 3 years and have never once mentioned the beauty of side pots. I intend to remedy that right now. Side pots are beautiful because they provide some insurance against losing the main pot. If you happen to win both the side pot and the main pot, so much the better. Side pots come into existence when a short stack goes all in and is raised, or when a short stack uses the last of his chips in an attempt to call the full amount of another player's bet. The main pot is capped when the shortest stack has used all his chips; each player still in the hand matches what the shortest stack has put in, and any overage is put into a side pot. Of course, there can be multiple side pots; the first side pot is capped when the next to shortest stack has used all his chips, etc. Some of the biggest hands I've won in my career have had a main pot and multiple side pots.

Last night, on hand 17, the short stack went all in preflop and got 3 callers, including myself. I'd been dealt a suited king queen, and knew that even if the shorty had me beat, he had no chips left to bet with; I knew I stood a good chance to win a bunch of chips from the side pot. That was what ended up happening; as a bonus, I won the main pot also. I just took a look at the numbers and discovered that I would still have made a profit had I lost the main pot.

In sessions played since my tournament fling, I'm inching my way back to the golden ratio: 9 losing sessions and 14 winning sessions.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 18 hands and saw flop:
 - 1 out of 2 times while in big blind (50%)
 - 1 out of 2 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 6 out of 14 times in other positions (42%)
 - a total of 8 out of 18 (44%)
 Pots won at showdown - 3 of 3 (100%)
 Pots won without showdown - 1

delta: $49,159
balance: $6,392,992