splitting pots

Last weekend I was in a tournament and saw a dispute over how the dealer split the pot. At this stage in the tournament we had colored up to where we only used $500 chips. It was folded to the button who shoved with a rag ace and was called by the bb with something similar but was worse than the buttons hand. The board made a straight and they had to split the pot. the dealer gave each person back the same amount of chips they had before but gave the guy in the bb the extra chip from the sb. The guy on the button starts to bitch about it and how his hand was better etc. The dealer just ended up throwing him a chip from the raci so he'd quit whining. My question is who did the sb's really belong to in that situation?

Because the straight on the board was the best hand, that's why they split the pot, they both tied for the high straight bc it was on the board. This also will happen if the board pairs, flushes, etc. However whoever covered who should get the sb

The dealer was right. The person most OOP gets the extra chip, SB>BB>UTG>UTG+1 ect and the person on the BTN never gets the extra chip.

Why don't they just split even, and break the $500 chip?

Because they allready coloured up. Yeah sure it isnt hard to do but quickly becomes a hazzle when its a a big tourney and they need to be constantly reintruducing old chips back into the game.
Its just easier to give the odd chip to the person OOP.

Plus once a particular denomination chip has been coloured up it's often removed from the tables altogether.

FWIW, here's what Robert's Rules has to say on the situation:

SECTION 3 - GENERAL POKER RULES (TIES)

5. If two or more hands tie, an odd chip will be awarded as follows:

(a) In a button game, the first hand clockwise from the button gets the odd chip.

(b) In a stud game, the odd chip will be given to the highest card by suit in all high games, and to the lowest card by suit in all low games. (When making this determination, all cards are used, not just the five cards that constitute the player's hand.)

(c) In high-low split games, the high hand receives the odd chip in a split between the high and the low hands. The odd chip between tied high hands is awarded as in a high game of that poker form, and the odd chip between tied low hands is awarded as in a low game of that poker form. If two players have identical hands, the pot will be split as evenly as possible.

(d) All side pots and the main pot will be split as separate pots, not mixed together.

It's a button game and the big blind is the first player clockwise from the button, so they get the extra chip. Also, LOL at the button trying to suggest that he had a "better" hand.

Yeah that guy was pretty ridiculous. He was one of those loud "think-they-know-it-all" types and would constantly critique hands/talk about pot odds and such

Players like that know enough only to be dangerous to themselves. I also find such blowhards tend to have tilt control issues. So I like having them at my table.

omg I just have to say I hate splitting pots online at cash games... with rake you're losing money. Once I got aces, and the other guy had aces... was funny until I saw I was actually down because we split...

This is why I no longer play Omaha h/l I get the lock low and some idiot raises his high hand like he is going to get me to fold then when we split we actually lose money because of the rake

In regards about splitting pots I personally do not like games such as Omaha where the pot is split.It's just not happening.