who takes the split?

[lanap13]

Three persons left in game. First goes all in, other two follow. "Fourth street" opens, second person raises, third follows and we make the side pot."Fifth street" opens, second raises, third faulds. We open the cards in the hand and first and second person have same cards, and the one that faulded has the strongest hand. Which persons split the main pot, and which split the side pot?

[HalfSugar]

The side pot belongs to the second player for two reasons - #1 the first player did not put any money into it and #2 because the third player folded his hand (note the spelling, really). Whether his hand was strongest at any time is irrelevant now - he cannot win either pot.

In this case, the main pot is split between first and second players because they have the same hand but otherwise whoever was stronger out of these two would win it. The third player can never win it.