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Main Pot (Poker)

Main pot is the term used when a player is all in and has less than other players at the table, a situation where a main pot an side pot are used to allow betting to continue. For instance, you are in a pot three way. You have $100 left in your stack and the other two players have $300 and $500 respectively. You hold big slick and decide this is your moment, you go all in.

You get a call by both players and there is over $300 in the pot. This is known as the main pot. As you have put the last of your money in the pot, you can have no more involvement and can not win more than you have staked. Let's now assume that the second player bet's another $100. You are all in so cannot commit anything further to the pot. For this reason, the main pot is ring fenced and the two remaining players start a side pot.

As you only contributed to the main pot, should you win, you can only win the main pot, not the side pot. If one of the other players wins, they would win the main pot and the side pot. It is possible for two or more different players to go all in at different stages of the hand which could result in multiple side pots being created.

The important point to remember is that the player that's all-in, can't win anything in the side pot, as they haven't contributed to it.