Poker hand histories: how to export them from every major poker room

Hand histories are the raw material of every serious poker review. They're text records of each hand you play: positions, stacks, actions, bet sizes and showdowns. Every major poker room produces them, but each one stores and exports them a little differently. This guide covers how to get your hand histories out of the most popular rooms and what to do with them once you have them.

What a hand history contains

A hand history records everything that happened in a hand from your seat: the blinds and antes, your hole cards, every action and bet size on every street, the board, and the cards shown at showdown. Opponents' hole cards appear only when they were shown.

That's enough to replay every decision you made and compare it with a strategy, which is exactly what a poker hand history analyzer does.

How to get hand histories from each poker room

Client menus change between versions, so treat the paths below as where to look rather than exact clicks. In almost every desktop client, the option lives in the settings or options menu under a name like Hand History or Playing History.

PokerStars

PokerStars can save your hand histories to a folder on your computer automatically. Turn it on in the client settings under the playing-history options, and choose the save folder there. Hand histories for past sessions can also be requested through the client.

GGPoker

GGPoker hand histories are available through PokerCraft, the stats section of the client, where you can download hands by session. Opponents' hole cards are hidden unless they were shown at showdown.

Winamax

Winamax saves hand histories locally. Check the client options for the hand history setting and folder location.

888poker

Enable hand-history saving in the client settings; files are then written to a local folder after each hand.

WPN (ACR)

Clients on the Winning Poker Network write hand histories to a local folder. The location can be checked and changed in the client settings.

iPoker network

iPoker is a network of many branded rooms that share software. Hand-history saving is enabled in the client settings of whichever skin you play on.

partypoker

partypoker stores hand histories locally once the option is enabled in the client settings.

Ignition and Bovada

These rooms use anonymous tables, so opponents appear without usernames. Hand histories are available to download from your account, typically after a delay rather than in real time.

PPPoker and club apps

Club apps such as PPPoker are mobile-first. Hand records are kept inside the app; export what the app lets you save from your club tables.

What to do with your hand histories

Raw hand histories are just text. Their value comes from analysis:

1. Import them into a tool that understands the format.
2. Compare every decision with a strategy: your chart pack or a GTO solution for that spot.
3. Sort deviations by frequency and cost, so the biggest leaks come first.
4. Turn the top leaks into drills, then re-check with new hands.

That process is covered in detail in how to find leaks in your poker game, and the human side of review in how to review poker hands.

Analysing hand histories in PokerHero

Upload your hand histories to PokerHero and it compares each decision with your strategy (a ready-made pack or your own edited ranges), then shows where you deviated, how often and what it cost. Each leak can go straight into a drill, so review turns into practice instead of a list of regrets.

Tips for cleaner analysis

• Save everything, review selectively. Keep all your hands, but focus each review on one format and stack depth.
• Match the strategy to the game. Analyse 100bb cash hands against a cash strategy and short-stack Spin hands against a Spin strategy; mixing them produces false leaks.
• Use enough hands for mixed spots. Pure spots show leaks quickly; mixed ones need volume before frequencies mean anything.

Frequently asked questions