Post by Jughead on Aug 29, 2012 15:25:31 GMT -5
POSTING GUIDELINES
This forum is for hand history and strat posts, we ask that you adhere to the following guidelines. Note, these are not hard-and-fast "rules", but rather what experience has taught us is necessary to make a quality hand post.
DO: try using the search function of the forums
Some questions you might want to ask have probably been covered in a thread started by somebody else in the past. The search function is located on the top menu tabs.
DO: convert the hand into a readable format
There are several online hand converters such as handconverter.com which convert raw hand history formats, such as those taken directly from PokerStars or from Hold 'Em Manager or PokerTracker, into an easily-readable format. The converter also hides the actual screennames of the players (see below).
"I can't get the converter to work" is an unacceptable excuse for not converting the raw hand history. If you still can't get it to work, PT3 and PT4 have a built-in converter. If all else fails, you can convert it by hand; scan a few other posted hands to see what the basic format looks like.
DON'T: use real screennames in discussions of hands
The converter automatically identifies you as "Hero" and identifies the other players in the hand based on their position (SB, BB, UTG, UTG+1, MP1-3, HJ, CO, BTN for a 10-handed table), and you should do the same if you have to convert your hand manually. Some players would prefer to not have their screenname broadcast on the forum, and we ask that you respect that.
DO: cut off the action at the point where you have a question
Posting a hand where you limp 73o UTG preflop, flop 777 and all 3 postflop streets are capped and asking, "Should I have raised this preflop?" is going to get you nothing but flames. The cards that fall on later streets, and the action on later streets has no bearing on the decision you're facing, but seeing that can influence other posters' answers to your question.
Be careful to take out the color tags the converter puts in to code bets and raises when youo break the hand to ask a question.
DO: include any and all information you might have that is relevant
This might be a read you have on a player, statistics you've compiled, etc. It is not things that you don't know at the time you're making the decision you are asking about.
DON'T: post more than one hand to start a thread
If there's more than one hand in an originating post, or even in a thread as a whole (although this sometimes happens and the world doesn't end), the thread quickly becomes unreadable and confusing.
Exception 1: including a previous hand by way of providing a read. This can be a good change of pace, but you will almost always get somebody trying to discuss the "read" hand. It's usually better to just describe your read.
Exception 2: you have more than one hand that are examples of the same situation. This is more than, "This villan c/r'd me on the turn in both these hands," or, "I had overpairs in these three hands;" most experienced posters have difficulty identifying two hands that meet this standard, so be careful when employing this exception. If you try to do this and fail, your post comes off as a whine or a bad-beat.
DON'T: include results
Be careful to not hint at the results in your text or subject (e.g. "Should I have known that Villan had trip 8s when he c/r'd the turn?"). Much like not cutting off the action where you have a question, knowing how the hand turned out might influence the opinions of other respondents.
DO: preview you post
Down next to the "Post Message" button there's a "Preview" button. Use it the first few times you post a hand history to make sure that everything looks the way you expect it to. After a while you'll get conditioned enough to posting that you'll stop doing this.
DON'T: post bad-beats, suckout wins, lolbad plays by other players, etc. unless you are posting for Exchange credit of Sklansky Bucks.
There's no strategy to these hands. When somebody gets lucky, that's little you are able to analyze or strategize for, so there's no interesting discussion to be had.
DON'T: post open-ended, hypothetical or theory-related questions
While some theory questions are good for discussion, most of the time there's an ulterior motive for posting these types of questions (e.g. when somebody posts, "Is 93o a good hand to raise from CO?" it usually turns out that they just got sucked out by somebody that raised 93o from CO and they were holding a good hand in the blinds) and these turn out to be bad-beat posts (see above).
A properly formatted hand should look something like the following:
Party Poker $25 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 1871986
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
Hero (CO): $27.38
BTN: $26.64
SB: $8.05
BB: $28.05
UTG: $40.57
Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is CO with Q Q
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.75, BTN calls $0.75, 2 folds
Flop: ($1.85) J 3 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.47, BTN calls $1.47
Turn: ($4.79) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $3.98, BTN calls $3.98
River: ($12.75) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $7.01, BTN calls $7.01
Final Pot: $26.77
Please ask questions here if you don't understand these guidelines or if you need help with posting.
This forum is for hand history and strat posts, we ask that you adhere to the following guidelines. Note, these are not hard-and-fast "rules", but rather what experience has taught us is necessary to make a quality hand post.
DO: try using the search function of the forums
Some questions you might want to ask have probably been covered in a thread started by somebody else in the past. The search function is located on the top menu tabs.
DO: convert the hand into a readable format
There are several online hand converters such as handconverter.com which convert raw hand history formats, such as those taken directly from PokerStars or from Hold 'Em Manager or PokerTracker, into an easily-readable format. The converter also hides the actual screennames of the players (see below).
"I can't get the converter to work" is an unacceptable excuse for not converting the raw hand history. If you still can't get it to work, PT3 and PT4 have a built-in converter. If all else fails, you can convert it by hand; scan a few other posted hands to see what the basic format looks like.
DON'T: use real screennames in discussions of hands
The converter automatically identifies you as "Hero" and identifies the other players in the hand based on their position (SB, BB, UTG, UTG+1, MP1-3, HJ, CO, BTN for a 10-handed table), and you should do the same if you have to convert your hand manually. Some players would prefer to not have their screenname broadcast on the forum, and we ask that you respect that.
DO: cut off the action at the point where you have a question
Posting a hand where you limp 73o UTG preflop, flop 777 and all 3 postflop streets are capped and asking, "Should I have raised this preflop?" is going to get you nothing but flames. The cards that fall on later streets, and the action on later streets has no bearing on the decision you're facing, but seeing that can influence other posters' answers to your question.
Be careful to take out the color tags the converter puts in to code bets and raises when youo break the hand to ask a question.
DO: include any and all information you might have that is relevant
This might be a read you have on a player, statistics you've compiled, etc. It is not things that you don't know at the time you're making the decision you are asking about.
DON'T: post more than one hand to start a thread
If there's more than one hand in an originating post, or even in a thread as a whole (although this sometimes happens and the world doesn't end), the thread quickly becomes unreadable and confusing.
Exception 1: including a previous hand by way of providing a read. This can be a good change of pace, but you will almost always get somebody trying to discuss the "read" hand. It's usually better to just describe your read.
Exception 2: you have more than one hand that are examples of the same situation. This is more than, "This villan c/r'd me on the turn in both these hands," or, "I had overpairs in these three hands;" most experienced posters have difficulty identifying two hands that meet this standard, so be careful when employing this exception. If you try to do this and fail, your post comes off as a whine or a bad-beat.
DON'T: include results
Be careful to not hint at the results in your text or subject (e.g. "Should I have known that Villan had trip 8s when he c/r'd the turn?"). Much like not cutting off the action where you have a question, knowing how the hand turned out might influence the opinions of other respondents.
DO: preview you post
Down next to the "Post Message" button there's a "Preview" button. Use it the first few times you post a hand history to make sure that everything looks the way you expect it to. After a while you'll get conditioned enough to posting that you'll stop doing this.
DON'T: post bad-beats, suckout wins, lolbad plays by other players, etc. unless you are posting for Exchange credit of Sklansky Bucks.
There's no strategy to these hands. When somebody gets lucky, that's little you are able to analyze or strategize for, so there's no interesting discussion to be had.
DON'T: post open-ended, hypothetical or theory-related questions
While some theory questions are good for discussion, most of the time there's an ulterior motive for posting these types of questions (e.g. when somebody posts, "Is 93o a good hand to raise from CO?" it usually turns out that they just got sucked out by somebody that raised 93o from CO and they were holding a good hand in the blinds) and these turn out to be bad-beat posts (see above).
A properly formatted hand should look something like the following:
Party Poker $25 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 1871986
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
Hero (CO): $27.38
BTN: $26.64
SB: $8.05
BB: $28.05
UTG: $40.57
Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is CO with Q Q
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.75, BTN calls $0.75, 2 folds
Flop: ($1.85) J 3 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.47, BTN calls $1.47
Turn: ($4.79) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $3.98, BTN calls $3.98
River: ($12.75) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $7.01, BTN calls $7.01
Final Pot: $26.77
Please ask questions here if you don't understand these guidelines or if you need help with posting.