Hi I am developing a poker application and I am having some trouble distributing side pots.
The main issue is that I don't know how to distribute chips of players who have folded(dead chips).
Now my code does the following:
This is working when all players go all-in, but if one folds things get tricky.
For instance:
A bet(200).
B all-in (80).
C all-in (400).
A folds.
B wins the hand.
So the first pot will be B(80) + C(80) and the remaining will be given to C.
A: +0.
B: +80.
C: +520.
Clearly doing something wrong here as B has the right to fight for 80 chips that A has bet.
This code should handle all situations, and it handles distributing chips to folded players. I'm guessing your code has been completed for a LONG time, but I wasn't able to find code examples on StackOverflow that made sense when I was working on this poker side pot problem, so I'm sharing my own...
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
public class Player
{
public ulong potCommitment;
public uint handStrength;
public ulong chipsRemaining;
public bool folded = false;
public Player(ulong pc, uint hs, ulong chipsBehind, bool isFolded): this(pc, hs, chipsBehind)
{
folded = isFolded;
}
public Player(ulong pc, uint hs, ulong chipsBehind)
{
potCommitment = pc;
handStrength = hs;
chipsRemaining = chipsBehind;
}
}
public class Program
{
public static List<Player> winners = new List<Player>();
public static List<Player> players = new List<Player>();
public static void Main()
{
players.Add(new Player(200, 60, 0, true));
players.Add(new Player(80, 100, 0));
players.Add(new Player(400, 85, 0, false));
// Loop through players until no unclaimed chips in pot.
while (PotChipsRemaining(players) > 0)
PayOutWinners(CalculateAndSortWinners(players), players);
// Refund players if remaining chips in pot (bigger/folded stacks)
foreach (var player in players)
{
player.chipsRemaining += player.potCommitment;
player.potCommitment = 0;
}
Console.WriteLine($"***********************\nFinal results:");
PotChipsRemaining(players);
}
public static List<Player> CalculateAndSortWinners(List<Player> playersInHand)
{
uint highHand = 0;
// Get highHand, skipping folded and empty pots
foreach (var player in players) if (player.potCommitment > 0 && !player.folded)
{
if (player.handStrength > highHand)
{
winners.Clear();
highHand = player.handStrength;
winners.Add(player);
}
else if (player.handStrength == highHand)
{
winners.Add(player);
}
}
winners.Sort((x, y) => x.potCommitment.CompareTo(y.potCommitment));
return winners;
}
public static void PayOutWinners(List<Player> winners, List<Player> playersInHand)
{
ulong collectedSidePot;
ulong currentCommitment, collectionAmount;
List<Player> paidWinners = new List<Player>();
foreach (var playerPot in winners)
{
collectedSidePot = 0;
currentCommitment = playerPot.potCommitment;
// Collect from all players who have money in pot
foreach (var player in playersInHand) if (player.potCommitment > 0)
{
collectionAmount = Math.Min(currentCommitment, player.potCommitment);
player.potCommitment -= collectionAmount;
collectedSidePot += collectionAmount;
}
int winnersToPay = 0;
Console.WriteLine($"winners.count {winners.Count}");
foreach (var player in winners) if (paidWinners.IndexOf(player) == -1) winnersToPay++;
Console.WriteLine($"collectedSidePot: {collectedSidePot} winnersToPay: {winnersToPay}");
// Pay unpaid winners, tip dealer with remainders...
foreach (var player in winners) if (paidWinners.IndexOf(player) == -1)
{
player.chipsRemaining += collectedSidePot / (ulong)winnersToPay;
if (player.potCommitment <= 0)
{
paidWinners.Add(player);
Console.WriteLine($"Player {players.IndexOf(player)} paid out.");
}
}
}
winners.Clear();
}
// Only count potchips for unfolded players. Also prints status to Console.
public static ulong PotChipsRemaining(List<Player> playersInHand)
{
ulong tally = 0;
foreach (var player in playersInHand) if (!player.folded)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Player {players.IndexOf(player)} chips: {player.chipsRemaining} Commitment: {player.potCommitment} \tHandStrength: {player.handStrength}\tFolded: {player.folded}");
tally += player.potCommitment;
}
foreach (var player in playersInHand) if (player.folded)
Console.WriteLine($"Player {players.IndexOf(player)} chips: {player.chipsRemaining} Commitment: {player.potCommitment} \tHandStrength: {player.handStrength}\tFolded: {player.folded}");
return tally;
}
}
Based on your example, I get this result:
Final results:
Player A chips: 0 HandStrength: 60 Folded: True
Player B chips: 240 HandStrength: 100 Folded: False
Player C chips: 440 HandStrength: 85 Folded: False
if you have any questions let me know.
Here's the fiddle, so scenarios can be tested: https://dotnetfiddle.net/P0wgR5