Introduction to Poker Hand Stories

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”.