• What Happens In A Tie In Texas Holdem Tournament
• What Happens In A Tie In Texas Holdem Tournaments
• What Happens In A Tie In Texas Holdem Play
• What Happens In A Tie In Texas Holdem Rules

Play the Board - In a Hold’em game, using all five community cards to make your best hand.

– A tie break is not possible as two players cannot have a Straight Flush which is ranked the same in Texas Hold’em Poker. – If the dealer deals a Straight Flush via the 5 community cards, then the pot is split amongst all players provided no player holds a Royal Flush (meaning the Straight Flush is the strongest hand on the table). Commonly used alternative words for tie include “split” and “chop”. Example of Tie used in a sentence - The Hold’em board read TJQKA, so all players involved tied resulting in a split pot. How to Use Tie as Part of Your Poker Strategy. Certain types of board texture make a tie more likely. For example, imagine the following board in.

In a Hold’em game, players receive two hole cards and five community cards. Players must use five of the seven cards, in any combination, in order to make their best five card poker hand. The two hole cards are delivered face down at the start of the hand, and are not seen by the other players at the table. The five community cards are delivered face up, in the center of the table. First there is a three card flop, followed by a turn card, and finally a river card. This is called “the board.” The board consists of the “community cards,” so named because these cards are shared by all players in the game, so that only the hole cards differentiate the player’s hands.
Usually, when a player considers his best five cards, he will use one or both of his hole cards to complete his hand. Occasionally, a player will not be able to use either one of his hole cards when forming his best five card hand. When this occurs, that player must instead use only the five community cards from the board, and therefore must “play the board.” Playing the board is usually a bad thing, because it means that you were unable to improve upon the five card poker hand that all players automatically share as community cards. This means that if you play the board, you can do no better than tie the other players in the game, and even that can be unlikely. To achieve this tie, every other player must not be able to play either of their hole cards, and must play the board as well. Any player who is able to improve upon the hand represented by the board, by playing either or both of their hole cards, will make a better five card poker hand than anyone who is forced to play the board. On rare occasions, playing the board can be a good thing, and give you a piece of the pot when otherwise you would have lost. This happens when your opponent loses his lead over you on the river and must also play the board.
Sometimes, when a player plays the board, it is because their hole cards are trash. This happens frequently if your hole cards are of small denomination, and do not form a pair, straight, or flush when combined with the cards from the board. Of course, in order to play the board, a player must make it to showdown, and this type of hand is often mucked before that occurs. When you do make it to showdown with trash, and are required to play the board, it is often because you did not face a bet during the course of the hand.
Other times, playing the board will not be a result of you holding trash, but will result from the board consisting of a strong five card hand. This happens frequently when a straight, flush, or full house appears on the board. It can also happen when two pair with a high kicker appears on the board, and the existing players are unpaired or have pocket pairs smaller than those on the board. This situation, where the board is strong, is much more likely to result in a tie among existing players than when you play the board because you hold trash. In extreme cases, it is even possible for the board to be the nuts, in which case all players with live hands must chop the pot. There are only three situations where the board can contain the nut hand. One is when there is a royal flush displayed on the board. The second is when the board contains four of a kind with an ace kicker, or in the case of four aces, a king kicker. The third is when an ace high straight (or “Broadway”), without the possibility of a flush, appears on the board.
Most of the time, when you play the board, you will lose the hand. Even when the board contains a flush or a straight, another player will often be able to play one of his hole cards to make a bigger flush or bigger straight. When playing the board, some players will muck their hands prior to showing down, because they have missed their draw and assume that they have lost. This can be a bad assumption to make. If it turns out that the other players are playing the board also, you will not be eligible for your share of the pot if you do not show your hand. Sometimes, when you least expect it, you will win a piece of the pot by playing the board. Even if you have missed a flush draw or straight draw, and you hold trash, your opponent may have also missed a similar non playing draw. When you are not facing a bet, it is always better to hold onto your hand until you see the hand that beats you, rather than to muck your hand out of frustration when you miss.
Usage: Played The Board, Board Plays
Previous Poker Term: Play Money Games
Next Poker Term: Pocket

In our lesson on the three main betting variations of poker, we used an example where a player in a no-limit game could bet far more than anyone else at the table, provided the player had such an amount. Poker is always played at table stakes, and this means you can only wager the amount of money you have in front of you when the hand begins. It is quite common for a player to run out of money during a hand. If you have more money than another player, it doesn’t mean you can bet them out of the pot because they can’t afford to call your bet. Otherwise the poker player with the most money would always win if he bet all his chips, and it wouldn’t be a very enjoyable game.

All-in Bets

When a player puts all his chips into the pot he is said to be “all-in”. The important thing to know is that a player can never be bet out of a pot because he always has the option to call for all of his chips. For example, a player with $50 goes all-in, and everyone folds apart from a player who only has $30 left:

What Happens In A Tie In Texas Holdem Tournament

Figure 1

What Happens In A Tie In Texas Holdem Tournaments

This player cannot match the $50 bet, but he can also go all-in for his last $30. When nobody else is involved, the first player would get back the unmatched $20 bet (i.e. his bet is $30 rather than $50). This is shown in figure 2, below:

Figure 2

In this example the shorter-stack wins the pot, but the surplus $20 is returned to player 5.

The whole point of this is that players can take back any extra money when another player is all-in for less, when nobody else has called. The same applies to an extreme no limit example, where a player might bet $10,000 in a $1/$2 game. Here’s an example where it’s folded around to the big blind, who has $10 remaining in his stack.

Figure 3

He has $12 in total and clearly can’t match the $10,000 – but he can go all-in. If he does then the player with $10,000, would take back $9,988. No more betting would take place, as there isn’t anything left to wager. After the flop, turn and river, the player with the best hand would win the $25 pot ($12 from each plus the small blinds $1).

Side Pots

It can be a little more complicated when there’s more than two players involved in a hand. This is when a side pot is created for the other players, and any further bets cannot be won by the all-in player. The all-in player is eligible for the main pot only.

Take a look at figure 4, below, which shows three players remaining in a hand. Two players have $50 each, and another has just $10 remaining. In this example the pot already contains $40 from the previous betting rounds. Player 5 makes a bet of $20:

Figure 4

What Happens In A Tie In Texas Holdem Play

Player 6 only has $10 but he can call for his last $10 (and would therefore be “all in”) or fold. If player 6 decides to go all-in for his last $10, then the last active player (player 7), who has $50, can call, but must call for $20, which is the original bet, or he can raise. If he calls then a side pot is created, as is shown in figure 5:

Figure 5

The main pot now contains $70, which is made up of the existing $40 in the pot, plus $10 x 3. Player 6 is “all in” and can only win this main pot. A side pot containing the extra $20 is created, and can only be won by the players who contributed to this side pot (players 5 and 7). The next card will be dealt and further betting will take place. Any further bets are added to this side pot, and not the main pot. Players 5 and 7, who contributed to the side pot, can win the side pot and the main pot, if their hand beats the “all in” player. If player 6 has the winning hand after the final betting round, then he will win the $70 pot, but the side pot will be won by either player 5 or player 7.

Conclusion

There has been quite a bit of information in this lesson, which to the uninitiated could be confusing. As soon as you start playing poker you’ll quickly become familiar with these betting basics because they occur very frequently. Sometimes there can be lots of different side pots during a hand involving lots of different players – whether it’s limit, pot limit, or no limit poker. This is because not everyone has the same amount of chips – and players who have fewer chips than an opponent cannot win more from a player than they contributed themselves. The important thing to remember is that a player can never be bet out of hand because he doesn’t have enough to call.

By Tim Ryerson

Tim is from London, England and has been playing poker since the late 1990’s. He is the ‘Editor-in-Chief’ at Pokerology.com and is responsible for all the content on the website.

What Happens In A Tie In Texas Holdem Rules