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• Texas Holdem Split Pot Rules

This would be a split pot. Each person's final poker hand is the board: 9 8 7 6 5. It does not matter that Peter also has a four, because it would not make him a higher straight. For more information about tie-breakers among different poker hands, check out our Poker Hands section. Next Article: Betting Rules FAQ.

• The New Player Welcome Bonuses are only available to players who create an account and make their first deposit texas holdem regeln split pot at Vegas Hero. To be eligible to claim the New Player Welcome Bonuses, players must deposit a minimum of £10 in one instance, for each bonus.
• Dec 26, 2013  Split pot rules apply at all online poker sites, too, as are provisions for when the pots do not divide evenly. For example, here is how 888 Poker describes the procedure followed with split pots and odd chips: “In the event that two or more players hold equal ranking hands at the showdown, the pot is divided equally between those players.

In poker it is sometimes necessary to split, or divide the pot among two or more players rather than awarding it all to a single player. This can happen because of ties, and also by playing intentional split-pot poker variants (the most typical of these is high-low split poker, where the high hand and low hand split the pot).

To split a pot, one player uses both hands to take the chips from the pot and make stacks, placing them side by side to compare height (and therefore value). Equal stacks are placed aside. If there is more than one denomination of chip in the pot, the largest value chip is done first, and then progressively smaller value chips. If there is an odd number of larger chips, smaller chips from the pot can be used to equalize stacks or make change as necessary. Pots are always split down to the lowest denomination of chip used in the game. Three-way ties or further splits can also be done this way.

After fully dividing a pot, there may be a single odd lowest-denomination chip remaining (or two odd chips if splitting three ways, etc.). Odd chips can be awarded in several ways, agreed upon before the beginning of the game. The following rules are common:

• If playing a high-low split game and dividing a pot between the high and low hands, always award the odd chip to the high hand.
• If splitting a pot because of tied hands, award the odd chip to the hand that contains the highest-ranking single card, using suits to break ties if necessary (clubs ranking the lowest, followed by diamonds, hearts, and spades as in bridge).
• (Variation) Between tied hands, award the odd chip to the first player in clockwise rotation from the dealer. (Note that in a casino stud game with a house dealer and no button this gives an unfair advantage to players on the dealer's left, so the high card by suit method is preferred).
• (Variation) Leave the odd chip as an extra ante for the next deal. This is common in home games.

Sometimes it is necessary to further split a half pot into quarters, or even smaller portions. This is especially common in community card high-low split games such as Omaha hold'em, where one player has the high hand and two or more players have tied low hands. Unfortunate players receiving such a fractional pot call it being quartered. When this happens, an exception to the odd chip rules above can be made: if the high hand wins its half of the pot alone, and the low half is going to be quartered, the odd chip (if any) from the first split should be placed in the low half, rather than being awarded to the high hand.

When you’re facing a bet on the river in Texas Hold’em, the vast majority of the time you will be contemplating a call to win the entire pot.

On the odd occasion however, you will be contemplating a call to split the pot. An example of this would be facing a bet on the river on a board of K K K 3 3 with a hand like AQo.

Annoyingly, you know that you can’t win the hand. The best outcome if you make the call is to share the pot with your opponent, rather than folding and definitely not winning anything.

So, how do you work out whether or not you should call to split the pot?

Firstly, let’s look at the math for calling to win a full pot.

Whether or not we make a call on the river depends on two things:

1. The size of the bet in relation to the size of the pot.
2. What we think our chances are of having the best hand.

We then compare the bet and pot size (giving us the pot odds) to our estimation of our chances of having the best hand to work out whether or not a call is profitable.

A quick example.

We are on the river and our opponent bets $5 in to a $10 pot. This means we have to call $5 to win a $15 pot.

Therefore, our pot odds are 3 to 1, or 25%. (see the poker odds conversion table for more on this)

This means that we need to think we have the best hand here at least 25% of the time (or 1 time in 4) to make the call profitable. Easy stuff.

But what if the best we can hope for when we call is to split the pot, instead of winning it entirely?

Math of calling to win a split pot.

If you can only hope to win half the pot, you simply half the total pot size when working out your pot odds. So using the same example above where our opponent bets $5 in to a $10 pot:

• Calling to win the full pot = $15 to $5 => 3 to 1 => 25%
• Calling to split the pot = $7.5 to $5 => 1.5 to 1 = 40%

This means that instead of needing to have the best hand at least 25% of the time, you now need to have to have the “best” hand 40% of the time to break even.

I say “best”, but we’re not going to have the “best” hand because it’s only going to be equally as good as our opponents if we are hoping for a split pot. To put it another way, we need to think we are making the correct decision at least 40% of the time.

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So as a rule of thumb:

If you’re thinking of calling to split the pot, work out your pot odds using half the current pot size and go from there.

Converting the ratio odds in to a percentage is the tricky bit, but that will come with time and practice. You should ideally be familiar with the process of needing the best hand X% of the time (as mentioned at the start of the article) already anyway. This is merely a slight variant of that.

hoRatio is a handy downloadable program that converts ratio odds in to percentages and vice versa.

Example of the strategy behind calling to split the pot.

The game is $50NL.

Preflop.

We are dealt 3s 3c in the BB. Everyone folds to the button who raises to $1.25. The SB folds and well call with our pocket pair.

Flop: T Jh Qc ($2.75)

Our opponent checks and we check behind.

Turn: T J Q K ($2.75)

Our opponent checks and we check behind again.

River: T J Q K 9 ($2.75)

The 9 on the river puts a straight on the board.

Our opponent bets $2 in to the pot. Should we call to try and split the pot, or fold?

Working out the minimum % time we need to be correct.

We need to call $2 to win a $4.75. However, because we can only hope to spit the pot, we are actually calling $2 to win $2.375.

This gives us odds of roughly 1.2 to 1 (2.375 to 2 simplified), which is roughly 45%.

Poker Texas Holdem Split Pot

What are our chances of being correct?

We only lose if our opponent has an ace.

We believe that our opponent would have bet the turn for value with an ace a good 75% of the time. Therefore, because he didn’t bet the turn it means that there is a 75% chance that he does not have an ace and that we have hands of equal strength.

We only need to think we are correct 45% of the time, so because we believe we are splitting the pot around 75% of the time it makes it +EV to call.

If we fold we are making less money over the long run because we are missing out on the extra winnings from the times we are correct to make the call to split the pot.

Final thoughts on calling to split the pot.

There are two loose schools of thought that can lead you to make incorrect plays when faced with the decision to call to split the pot.

1. “If splitting the pot is the best I can hope for, then I may as well fold and save my money.”
2. “I’ve already invested so much money in this pot that I may as well call to try and get some of my money back.”

Texas Holdem Split Pot Rules

Try not to think about split pots so negatively or optimistically. Instead, use the math to work out how often you need to be correct for a call to be profitable.

All you need to do is simply half the size of the pot and work out the percentage odds from there.

• If you think your odds of splitting the pot are greater than the pot odds, call.
• If you don’t think your odds of splitting the pot are greater than the pot odds, fold.

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