Two equal hands can receive different amounts. Put 1,025 tournament units in a pot, with 25 as the smallest denomination in play, and two winners cannot each collect 512.5. Someone must receive the remaining 25.
An odd chip is the remainder after a pot has been divided as evenly as the permitted denominations allow. Deciding who receives it comes after deciding which hands tie. The extra chip does not make either hand stronger.
Forty-one chips cannot make two equal piles
Our invented example has 1,025 units available for two tied, eligible hands, A and B. Both hands have been properly shown, betting has finished, and no deduction or uncalled bet remains. Every amount can be expressed in units of 25. These are tournament units, not pounds or a quoted event's actual denominations.
Divide 1,025 by 25 and there are 41 minimum units to distribute. Each player first receives 20, worth 500. One unit remains. The applicable odd-chip rule awards that 25 to one of them, producing payments of 525 and 500.
| Distribution | A | B |
|---|---|---|
| Equal portion | 500 | 500 |
| Remainder, assuming A qualifies for it | 25 | 0 |
| Final award | 525 | 500 |
The payments total 1,025. Neither payment is a profit figure: that would require each player's contributions to the hand. Our tournament-chip explainer also distinguishes a stack from a cash prize.
The denomination matters before the position does. Change the pot to 1,050 units and each player can receive 525 exactly. Even if those units initially sit in two 500 chips and one 50 chip, changing denominations can remove the apparent remainder. The number of physical discs on the felt is not the calculation.
In a board game, find the tied hand after the button
The Poker Tournament Directors Association's 2026 rules, version 1.1 dated 21 September, require division into the smallest denomination in play. Rule 21-A awards an odd chip in a board game to the first tied winning seat to the left of the button. The TDA is a voluntary tournament association; an event must adopt its rules.
Apply that rule to the 1,025-unit example. Put the button at seat six, A at seat one and B at seat four on a six-seat table numbered clockwise. Both A and B tie for this pot. The first eligible hand clockwise after the button is A, so A receives 525 and B receives 500. Empty seats and players who cannot win this pot do not collect its remainder.
Moving the button to seat two, while keeping those two tied hands at one and four, puts B first. The allocation reverses: A receives 500 and B receives 525. We have changed position, not the winning cards. Our Hold'em showdown article explains the five-card comparison that must already be complete.
The 2026 WSOP tournament rules, rule 73, give the same positional procedure for tied hands in button games. That document covers the named Las Vegas series, rather than every tournament using the WSOP name.
Stud and high-low splits ask different questions
The button procedure cannot simply be carried into stud. TDA rule 21-B and WSOP tournament rule 73 use the highest card by suit within the player's winning five-card hand for stud, razz and tied portions in stud/8. Cards outside those five do not supply an alternative tiebreak.
That limited use of suits allocates an indivisible remainder between tied hands. It does not mean a spade beats a heart when comparing otherwise equal Hold'em hands for the whole pot.
High-low games involve an earlier split between the high and low sides. TDA rule 21-C sends the total pot's odd chip to high. For an invented 1,025-unit pot with a 25-unit minimum and a different sole winner on each side, high receives 525 and low receives 500. A tie within either portion needs its own applicable allocation rule. The WSOP tournament wording also specifies an even-as-possible split when identical hands win both high and low, such as two wheels in Omaha/8; the simple two-winner example does not cover that case.
A cash room needs its own denomination rule
The 2026 WSOP Live Action rules govern a separate cash-game setting at Paris Las Vegas. Rule 152 reduces an odd chip to the smallest unit used to make the blinds. Its example uses dollar units in a $2-$5 game because the small blind uses dollar chips. Rule 153 then assigns a button game's remainder clockwise from the button.
A cash pot's available denominations and deductions therefore need checking before importing our tournament arithmetic. These two WSOP documents are specific published procedures, not evidence that every cash room or online client uses the same unit.
Keep each side pot separate
TDA rule 23 and WSOP tournament rule 74 require separate side-pot splits. An odd chip stays attached to the pot whose eligible hands tied; pooling everything could award money to someone who never qualified for that side pot.
For a hand with unequal contributions, use our side-pot reconstruction first. Then record each pot's amount, its eligible tied hands, the minimum denomination and the rule selecting the remainder's recipient. The main pot's winner cannot absorb a side pot's odd chip merely because the combined total divides more neatly.
In the 1,025-unit example, the difference between 525 and 500 can be correct. To check it, the record needs the button and the governing rules as well as the cards.
