All-in

As most people probably know, I'm fairly new to poker...just starting my 8th week. When you go 'All-in', why does it wipe you out when you lose, while others still have some remaining after losing 'All-in'? I'm sure it's a fairly reasonable answer, but it makes no sense to me yet.Thanks for your help.

In a 1-on-1 pot, a player can only win what is equal to the lowest stack of either player. EX: Let's say everyone folds to you and you have $60 that you put all-in. I'm next and I call but I only have $40. If I win, I can only win $40 since that's all I have to risk. It wouldn't be fair if I only risked $40 but won all your $60, would it?

It's the way online poker software depicts it that is confusing. If it were live poker and you shoved 60 and I called w/my 40, you would get to physically pull back 20 before the next card since the 20 wouldn't be at risk.

Now it gets more confusing when there is 3 or more players all-in and they all have different stack amounts. But I'll let you digest the above part first.

^^^ Yeah.

If Player-A shoves for $123, and Player-B shoves for $300, and everyone else folds, then Player-A is can only win $123 of Player-B's stack, so the remaining $177 goes back to Player-B.


To make it morecomplex...
Lets say Maid Marian goes all-in for $1,000. All her chips go into the pot.
MrSticker has good cards and wants to isolate, going all-in for his $2,000. All his chips go into the pot.
I look down and see Kings, so I go all-in for my $3,000. All my chips go into the pot.
Dakota-xx with $4,000 dislikes her hand in the small blind and folds.
Enty with $5,000 (rigged!) dislikes his hand in the big blind and folds.

If Maid Marian wins, she can only get $1,000 from MrSticker and $1,000 from me, plus she takes the blinds and any antes as that's all part of the main pot she was a part of.
So if she won, there would appear to be $3,000 left in a side pot between MrSticker and I. (Because MrSticker put in $1,000 more than she could take, and I put in $2,000 more than she could take) But MrSticker is only entitled to $1,000 of what I went all-in with, because he only put in $1,000 into that side pot.
So if MrSticker wins that hand he gets $2,000 and the remaining $1,000 gets returned to me. (I still lost $2,000 that hand, $1k to each player)

The reason my entire stack was pushed into the pot even though I had $1,000 more than MrSticker is because Dakota-xx and Enty had me covered so they get to see how much they can potentially win. When I go all-in I can potentially lose my entire $3k. But as soon as they both folded, I knew that no matter what happened I'd be getting $1,000 back.

Well stated. Good luck in your endevors.

Thanks so much for the advice! That makes much more sense to me now...it will help me with my betting in the following tourneys! I think I would have made it higher than #15 today in the Twitter Freeroll if I had known those facts! Again, thanks alot!