BHC is a Poker Hand History Converter, meaning it takes the long technical and hard to read hand histories that online poker rooms use, and converts it into an easy to read, color coded play by play of the hand. I will address in this little howto the basics of using BHC, there are more help's on the BHC page itself. BHC is very simple and easy to use, and we would ask that all hand histories be run through a converter before being posted.

1. Make sure you have the right Format, ITH. There are multiple formats to choose from on the BHC page. There are a lot of poker forums that use BHC, and they all have different engines that run them. Apparently we use the same format as ITH, so make sure ITH is selected. This critical or else when you post, you will only get goobly-gook (thats a technical term) in your post.
2. Select your identity. A lot of peole don't like having their screen names or aliases being posted, so the default setting on this is HERO. Unless you want to change this, leave it as is.
3. Choose your options. Highlight all bets will color each bet or raise in the converted hand, default is on. Condense 1st round will condense the pre-flop action by grouping consecutive players folding into X folds, default is on. Side-pot details will show the amounts in each pot created during a hand, default is off. Hide your cards & identity will do just that. If you do not want your identity or hole cards to be known, select this. This is excellent for impartial opinions on how the hand was played, default is off. Converter link adds the link to the BHC page, default is on. Mark important stacks will highlight the key players' stacks in a hand, default is off. Show results will do jsut that. Normally, results are not displayed in BHC, but if you check this box, then the outcome will be displayed, but in white Text, like this: This is white text. To view the text, just select it withthe mouse cursorThis is to hide the outcome to help with impartial opionions of how the hand was played. The default is off, but most people do liek to display the results.
4. Set your opponents aliases. You can change how players are displayed in the converted HH. Normally they are displayed by position; UTG, MP, MP+2, Button, etc. You can change this by selcting how players you want to re-alias (you can choose upto 20, thats a big table), then type in each box their name as it appears in the original HH and how you want it to appear in the converted one in the lower box. Example. Type Girevik in the top box, and KettleBells in the lower box.
5. Copy/Paste the original HH into the "Input" box. From whateever site you get your HH from, make sure you copy the entire thing. From Site and hand number all the way to the dashes that signify the end of the HH. You need this because BHC needs to look at the site name to determine what format it's looking at.
   
   
   
   
6. Click "Convert Hand". This will start BHC converting the Hand History you pasted into the Input box.The converted History will appear in the Output box. If there are any errors, they will also be shown in the Output box.
   
   
   
   
7. Copy/Paste the converted hand into PokerForums.Org. The converted hand will look like gibberish, but its actually jsut formatting code. Make sure you get from the very upper left corner to very bottom right corner, this will ensure you get all the formatting code. After pasting into PFO, the formatting code will still be there. This may cause you difficulty in finishing your post. If so, just immediately click "Preview Thread", then go back and edit the post. The Converted HH should be now correctly formatted in the editor.

Example:

BHC will take this style of Hand History and convert into the more managable format below. This history is one of my own, taken from a Party Poker $.50/$1 Limit table. As you can easily see, the converted HH is much easier to read and follow.

***** Hand History for Game 1676757073 *****
$0.5/$1 Hold'em - Thursday, March 03, 01:04:06 EDT 2005
Table Table 36442 (Real Money)
Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: markchow5 ( $5 )
Seat 2: wfwrx23 ( $42 )
Seat 4: deadmoney_55 ( $54.88 )
Seat 5: armybrathood ( $25.37 )
Seat 6: trojanmikey1 ( $25.75 )
Seat 10: sordebk ( $1.75 )
Seat 9: x_Marm_x ( $27 )
Seat 3: Crazy4Elk ( $15.75 )
Seat 8: The_Lift ( $25.75 )
Seat 7: spudgun34 ( $14 )
markchow5 posts small blind [$0.25].
wfwrx23 posts big blind [$0.5].
spudgun34 posts big blind [$0.5].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to x_Marm_x [ 6s 5s ]
Crazy4Elk calls [$0.5].
deadmoney_55 calls [$0.5].
armybrathood calls [$0.5].
trojanmikey1 folds.
spudgun34 checks.
The_Lift folds.
x_Marm_x calls [$0.5].
sordebk folds.
markchow5 calls [$0.25].
wfwrx23 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qd, 3s, 8s ]
markchow5 checks.
wfwrx23 checks.
Crazy4Elk bets [$0.5].
deadmoney_55 folds.
armybrathood calls [$0.5].
spudgun34 calls [$0.5].
x_Marm_x calls [$0.5].
markchow5 folds.
wfwrx23 folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qs ]
Crazy4Elk bets [$1].
armybrathood calls [$1].
spudgun34 folds.
x_Marm_x raises [$2].
Crazy4Elk raises [$2].
armybrathood calls [$2].
x_Marm_x raises [$2].
Crazy4Elk calls [$1].
armybrathood calls [$1].
** Dealing River ** [ 7h ]
Crazy4Elk bets [$1].
armybrathood folds.
x_Marm_x raises [$2].
Crazy4Elk calls [$1].
x_Marm_x shows [ 6s, 5s ] a flush, queen high.
Crazy4Elk doesn't show [ Qh, 4c ] three of a kind, queens.
x_Marm_x wins $20.5 from the main pot with a flush, queen high.
trojanmikey1 has left the table.

Party Poker 0.5/1 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is CO with , . MP2 posts a blind of $0.5.
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, 1 fold, MP2 (poster) checks, 1 fold, Hero calls, 1 fold, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: (7 SB) , , (7 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls, MP2 calls, Hero calls, SB folds, BB folds.

Turn: (5.50 BB) (4 players)
UTG bets, UTG+2 calls, MP2 folds, Hero raises, UTG 3-bets, UTG+2 calls, Hero caps, UTG calls, UTG+2 calls.

River: (17.50 BB) (3 players)
UTG bets, UTG+2 folds, Hero raises, UTG calls.

Final Pot: 21.50 BB
Main Pot: 21.50 BB, between UTG and Hero. > Pot won by Hero (21.50 BB).

Results in white below:
UTG has Qh 4c (three of a kind, queens).
Hero has 6s 5s (flush, queen high).
Outcome: Hero wins 21.50 BB.