Introduction to Poker Hand Stories
- January 17, 2020
This article will give you a basic understanding of poker hand histories and how you can use them to become a better player.
A hand history is a short text document that contains information about a hand that you played in an online poker room. They come in many forms, and while some of them may be quite difficult to understand, you can always recreate everything that happened on the hand if you have the history of the hand.
You can see an example of Full Tilt Poker (dominoqq) below.
Full Tilt Poker Hand History
Full Tilt Poker Game # 17773064601: Table Horizon Ridge (Max 6, Shallow) – $ 0.10 / $ 0.25 – No Limit Hold’em – 0:11:06 ET – 01/01/2010
Seat 1: Lowballed60 ($ 9.10)
Seat 2: DpokerPrick ($ 14.17) is out
Seat 3: TOMMYBOYFOLD ($ 22.94) is out
Seat 4: franc114 ($ 7.74)
Seat 5: INTELECTUAL5 ($ 14.19)
Lowballed60 posts $ 0.10 small blind
franco114 launches the $ 0.25 big blind
The button is on seat # 5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
INTELECTUAL5 folds
Lowballed60 Calls $ 0.15
franco114 checks
*** FLOP *** [2h 9c 8d]
Lowballed60 Checks
TOMMYBOYFOLD returned
franco114 checks
*** BACK *** [2h 9c 8d] [Qh]
Lowballed60 Checks
free bet114 $ 0.72
Lowballed60 folds
$ 0.72 Unallocated bet returned to franco114
franco114 mucks
franco114 wins the pot ($ 0.48)
*** RESUME ***
Total Pot $ 0.50 | Rake $ 0.02
Frame: [2h 9c 8d Qh]
Seat 1: Lowballed60 (small blind) doubled on turn
Seat 2: DpokerPrick is out
Seat 3: TOMMYBOYFOLD is out
Seat 4: franco114 (big blind) collected ($ 0.48), cut out
Seat 5: INTELECTUAL5 (button) didn’t bet (gave up)
Common Uses for Poker Hands
Serious players share hand histories on forums like “2 + 2” and “Flop Turn River” to get other players’ opinions on whether they played their hand the best way possible. Before someone posts a hand on the forum, it is usually passed through a “hand converter”, which removes unnecessary information and formats it for readability.
Pokertracker Software
Serious players regularly check their hands for leaks in the game (mistakes they have made). Since it is difficult to read raw text files as they come from poker rooms, most players use a “poker tracker”.
