Similar Threads for: This = split pot? Texas Hold'em Poker: Thread: Replies: Last Post: Forum: $10 NLHE 6-max: (2 hands) Calling River Bet for Split Pot - Defending Blinds: 7: September 10th. In Texas Hold'em, the highest combination of five cards wins the pot.
Split Pot - A pot that is split by two or more players.Sometimes, at the conclusion of the hand, more than one player is entitled to a part of the pot. A split pot is a pot that is split among 2 or more players. Depending upon the game that you are playing, this can be a relatively rare occurrence, or a commonplace event.
In a hi/lo game, like Omaha Eight or Better (O8), by rule half of the pot is awarded to the high hand and half of the pot is awarded to the low hand, so long as a player makes a qualifying low hand. This makes split pots a very common occurrence in hi/lo games. Split pots occur so frequently in these games that they are often referred to as “split pot games.”
In these games, splitting the pot has strategic implications. Players may play for the high side of the pot, the low side, or both. Here, it is best to have a multiway action hand which has the potential to win both sides of the pot. This is why players tend to focus on hands which contain A-2, along with a valuable combination of high cards. The most powerful hand before the flop in O8 is A-A-2-3, double suited. Hands with high only values or low oriented hands can also be valuable, depending upon the flop.
It is important to realize that it is much easier to make a low hand in these games than it is to make a high hand. In fact, lows occur with such frequency in O8, that it is relatively common for more than one player to make a nut low during the same hand. When this happens, multiple players must split the low side of the pot evenly. If there are one high hand and two low hands, the high hand will receive 50% of the pot, and the two low hands will each receive 25%. For the holders of the low hands, this is called “getting quartered.” If there are only three of you in the pot in this situation (one high and two lows), the low will be putting in 33% of the money, but you will only be receiving back 25% of the money at the conclusion of the hand. As you can see, it is easy to lose money getting quartered with the nut low. You will need substantial action from the rest of the field, if you are to make any profit at all on a hand which you are getting quartered on. Many newbies do not understand the math on this and insist upon raising and reraising anytime that they make the nut low. This is a bad idea and it will annoy the experienced players at the table to no end. To be effective, you must learn not to overvalue the low. Since the low must qualify in order to be eligible for any part of the pot, and the risk of getting quartered is substantial, it is often better to make the high hand than the low. Sometimes three or more people will all make the same low on a hand, but a split pot on the high side occurs with much less frequency. When a multi-way low split occurs, it can result in each low hand getting a sixth, or less, or the pot. This is why the very best hands have good potential to win both sides of the pot.
Split pots occur more infrequently in high only games like Texas Hold’em. In these games, the low is worthless and is not entitled to any of the pot. In order for a split pot to occur in a Hold’em game, two or more players must make identical high hands. Players may make identical hands using two, one, or none of their hole cards. If no hole cards are played, players will be playing the board, and all active players will be entitled to an equal share of the pot. More frequently, players will split a pot because they complete their hand with the same single hole card. This happens most often when a single card is needed to complete a straight, or when the board is such that only a one card kicker plays. It is not possible for a chop on the high side to occur when the winning player completes a flush using either one or two hole cards. Players will also split the pot anytime there are two or more winning hands with exactly the same two playing hole cards.
Usage: Stud Split, Splitting the Pot
Previous Poker Term: Small Blind
Next Poker Term: Spread Limit
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:
- The size of the bet in relation to the size of the pot.
- 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.
Poker Texas Holdem Split Pot Regeln
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.
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%.
What are our chances of being correct?
Poker Split Pot Texas Holdem Rules
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.
- “If splitting the pot is the best I can hope for, then I may as well fold and save my money.”
- “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.”
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.
Poker Split Pot Texas Holdem Tournaments
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