Spreading the wealth

A very rare thing happened in the final hand of last night's session. Even though it was to my detriment, I was intrigued by the rarity of the event. Four players, including me, went to showdown. There were a total of three pots, the main pot and two side pots. I lost, in spectacular fashion. I paid everybody else off; all three pots went to different players, and none of them was me. Here are the conditions which must be met for this to occur:

1. the four players must start the hand with significantly different stack sizes

2. up to the second side pot, the quality of the showdown hands must be in inverse proportion to the starting stack sizes of the players; that is, the player with the best showdown hand, who wins the main pot, must be the player who started the hand with the smallest stack, and the player with the second best showdown hand, who wins the first side pot, must be the player who started the hand with the second smallest stack

3. all four hands must be good enough so that each player is willing to go all in with his hand

I was dealt ace ten offsuit. My pair of tens lost the second side pot, which was worth $18,716, to a set of fives. My pair of tens lost the first side pot, which was worth $76,521, to a set of tens. Finally, my pair of tens lost the main pot, which was worth $54,272, to an eight high straight. I started the hand with $47,858, and ended it with nothing. In retrospect, I should have known that with three other players remaining in the fray, my hand was almost certainly beaten. What can I say? I was being stubborn :-)

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 20 hands and saw flop:
 - 1 out of 3 times while in big blind (33%)
 - 1 out of 2 times while in small blind (50%)
 - 12 out of 15 times in other positions (80%)
 - a total of 14 out of 20 (70%)
 Pots won at showdown - 1 of 4 (25%)
 Pots won without showdown - 0

delta: $-40,000
cash game no limit hold'em balance: $3.984,119
balance: $6,433,527