This forum really needs a sticky for posters to improve their posting. Too many people are posting results in the hand history, which really affects people's responses. Others are posting title of a nature that also direct responses by indicating you lost the hand. Anyway, feel free to delete if I am out of line, but cross posted from the 2+2 sticky:

1. Guidelines for Posting Hands:

a) Do NOT post bad beats:
Step away from the keyboard. No one cares. Your bad beat is not special. We've all had ‘em. I don’t care if someone runner runner runner runner'd your quads with a straight flush. My dog doesn’t care either. My cat might, but he's a donk. Cliffs notes version: Don’t post bad beats, we don’t care.

Finally, keep in mind that bad beat posts are no less unacceptable if you try to disguise them behind a silly question like ‘should I waited until the river to go all in with AA since I knew he would call with anything?’.

b) Use the converter:

Raw Hand Histories are difficult to read and cumbersome, using the converter will be doing everyone a favor and making your post more likely to get replies. Note that you should try and use the converter even when posting hands in “Official” tournament threads.

c) Have an informative title:
A quick summary of the hand in the title is helpful. “Calling all-in with 99 on the bubble in a $55' is a lot better as a title than 'Should I have folded this instead?”

d) Introduce the hand clearly:
First off, what’s the situation here: Online or live? What’s the buy-in? Secondly, you should set up the context in which you want to discuss the hand. Basically, what you should do, in one sentence at the top of your post, is answer the following question: Why am I posting this? This will give us a good idea of where you’re coming from and make the discussion more productive. i.e.: “By not controlling pot size early in the hand, I think I paint myself in a corner by the river' or 'I really think this was a solid execution of the squeeze play.”

e) Include pertinent information:
Buy-in, stage of the tournament, reads on the villains, your image at the table. This stuff is generally very brief, but crucial (consider the problems in HoH an indicator of how to do this). Also, thinking of reads and such when you post hands is good practice to make sure you’re thinking about it at the table. Notice how the great players always seem to have reads to include, this isn't a coincidence.

f) Do not post results (at least initially):
Consciously or not, it’s impossible not to be impacted by the results of hand. Accordingly, not posting them is necessary to getting the best possible discussion. Therefore, results should always be absent, and should not be implied in the title or preamble to the hand (incidentally, if you only seek out advice on and discussion of hands that you lose, you probably have a lot to learn about poker). Not only should you not post results, you should stop all the action at the point in the hand that you want to discuss.