Side pots are created in a poker game when one or more players go all-in and their stacks are not equal. The all-in players create a side pot with their remaining chips, and the remaining players continue to play for the main pot. Side pots are important because they can significantly increase the amount of money a player can win in a hand, and they can also affect the strategy of players involved in the hand.
To calculate the amount of money in a side pot, first determine the total amount of chips that each all-in player has contributed to the pot. Then, subtract the amount of chips that each all-in player has already contributed to the main pot from the total amount of chips that they have contributed to the pot. The remaining amount is the size of the side pot.