Family Pot

A family pot in poker is when all players who are sat at the table (in the game) stay in the hand and so enter the pot. This can be common where there are lots of players limping into the pot. The more players that are in the hand, the more limp value a players has, as getting lucky can reap far greater rewards. This is far more common in short handed games where there are only 6 or 4 players. It's fairly unusual to see all 10 players at a full table enter the same pot.

Let's look at an example:

The example shown above where all players are in the pot, shows a family pot. It also shows how likely each players is to win, based only on their starting hands. Whilst the 6-9 is only winning just a sneak over 8% of the time, if there was sufficient in the pot, it would be worth limping in for a look. Why? As when the flop hits, the pay day is significantly more fruitful. Of course, there's a greater chance this won't happen as it's 6-9 - this is the reason we need more money in the pot.

In the hand above, the pair of 10's looks like the only hand that could get into trouble. The real benefit comes with the disguise of the hand. That's not to say you start playing any old hand. But if 9 players had limped into a pot, you would be crazy not to have a look due to the value in the pot. The key to understanding when it's the right play to enter a multi-way pot is down to the value of the pot. There's a fine line between fishy play and sensible speculation.