How to Find Your Poker Hand Histories (Every Major Site)
Every stat you have ever read about your own game came out of a text file your poker client wrote while you played. Most players never find theirs.
Two kinds of poker site
Rooms split into two camps, and which camp yours is in decides everything else.
Some write a file to your computer as each hand finishes. Nothing exists for the sessions you played before you switched the setting on, so the job is to switch it on today. Others keep your hands on their own servers and let you export a date range whenever you like, which means you can pull months of play you'd already written off.
Either way the file is plain text, it's yours, and reading it after the session is allowed everywhere. That isn't the same as running a display on the table while you play, which several rooms ban.
Where each site keeps them
| Site | How you get the hands |
|---|---|
| PokerStars | Settings, then Playing History, then Hand History. Tick "Save My Hand History" and apply |
| GGPoker | No local file. PokerCraft on the top menu, pick game type and dates, then Download |
| America's Cardroom and WPN | Settings cog, top right of the client, then Hand Histories. Choose a folder |
| Ignition, Bovada and Ozoon | Account, then Hand History, then Game Transactions. Download within 7 days |
| iPoker rooms | My Account, Settings, General. Tick "Store Hand History Locally" |
| partypoker | Your avatar, then My Game, then Export Hands. Choose the period |
| 888poker | User Settings, Game Settings tab, Hand History. Tick "Save My Hand History" |
| Winamax | Nothing to switch on. It saves everything already |
PokerStars
Files land in the folder shown under "Where To Save", and you can move it there. For anything older, Tools, then History and Stats, then Get Hand History will send your last 100 hands, a date range or a whole tournament. Stars keeps them for seven years.
One catch. Saving doesn't work in the mobile app, so hands you played on your phone have to be requested from the desktop client.
GGPoker
There's no folder to find. PokerCraft sits on the top menu of the client, left of the settings cog. Choose the game type, set your dates, click Show, then Download History.
Two hard limits, both GG's own: 9,999 hands per download, and 90 days. Once a hand passes 90 days it can't be exported at all, so a GG player who doesn't export monthly is losing their record permanently.
GG also has rules about what you may do with the file afterwards, and they're stricter than any other room's. The GGPoker page goes through them.
America's Cardroom and the Winning Poker Network
The 2023 client redesign moved this. It's the settings cog at the top right, then Hand Histories, then pick your folders. Older guides still say Game Info, then View Hand History, and that menu is gone.
Windows puts the files in C:\AmericasCardroom\handHistory by default. There's no Mac path anyone publishes, ACR included, so read yours from that same panel.
Only hands played after you set this up get written. There's no way to ask ACR for older ones, so do it before your next session.
Ignition and Bovada
Export from Account, then Hand History, then Game Transactions. Nothing is written as you play, so there's no folder to find.
The window is short and it's the tightest of any room here. Hands appear about 24 hours after you play them, and you can download the last 7 days. Anything older is view-only, then gone. Miss a week and those hands don't exist any more.
The tables are anonymous, so opponents show up by seat rather than by name. Opponent stats are out. In exchange the files show every player's hole cards, which no other room gives you.
iPoker rooms
Look in %appdata%\Local\<client name>\data\<screen name>\History\Data. Nothing before you tick the setting is kept. Each skin on the network is a separate client with its own folder, so if you play two, you have two.
partypoker
The export runs from party's servers, not your hard drive, which is the useful part. Pick a period and you can pull hands from long before you thought about tracking. Each request arrives as its own file, so keep them together in one folder.
888poker
The setting sits in Game Settings rather than Account Settings, which is where most people look first. The path is shown in the same panel. Local saving only, from the moment you tick it.
Winamax
Nothing to do. Windows keeps them in Documents\Winamax Poker\Accounts\<your username>\History, Mac in Documents/Winamax Poker, and everything since your first session should already be sitting there. The folder can't be moved, so point your import at that path.
What to do once you have them
Keep every file in one folder, one sub-folder per site, and leave the names alone. Trackers read the names, and a helpful rename is the most common reason an import comes back empty.
Back the folder up somewhere that isn't your poker computer. Hands are the one thing you can't replay.
Then they need something to read them. A tracker turns the files into your win rate, your red line and the spots that cost you money. Zayrion Analytics is being built for exactly that, with nothing to download and no display on the table, which suits the rooms that ban them.
Paths for PokerStars, GGPoker, America's Cardroom and Ignition were checked against those rooms' own help pages in September 2026. The rest come from tracker vendors' documentation, which does go stale. If a setting has moved, tell us on Discord and we'll fix it.
Educational only. No real-money play. 18+. On Google Play now; iPhone coming soon.
Frequently asked questions
What is a poker hand history?
A plain text file your poker client writes for every hand you play. It records who was in the hand, the cards, the size of every bet and who won. It's the raw material behind every stat you've seen: your VPIP, your win rate, your red line. Without the files there's nothing to analyse, which is why switching saving on is the first thing a serious player does.
Which poker sites let you download hand histories?
Nearly all of them, in one of two ways. PokerStars, America's Cardroom, iPoker rooms, 888 and Winamax write a text file to your own computer as you play. GGPoker, partypoker and Ignition keep your hands on their servers and let you export a date range afterwards, which covers sessions you played before you ever thought about tracking.
Can I get hand histories from before I turned saving on?
Sometimes. If the room writes files locally, no. Nothing exists for the sessions you played with the setting off. If the room exports from its servers, yes. PokerStars will send older hands on request, and partypoker and GGPoker both export a date range. Worth knowing before you delete anything.
Do I need a HUD to use my hand histories?
No, and on several sites you aren't allowed one anyway. A heads-up display shows stats on the table while you play. A hand history is read afterwards, which is a different thing and permitted everywhere. GGPoker bans the first and expects the second.
Why does my hand history show numbers instead of player names?
You were playing at anonymous tables, which Ignition and Bovada use by default. Opponents appear as seat numbers, so opponent stats are off the table. Every decision you made is still there in full, and for working on your own game that's the part that matters.
How often should I download them?
Weekly, if your room exports from a server rather than saving locally. Those exports are capped, so a year of play won't come down in one go. Rooms that write files as you play need no schedule. Just back the folder up now and then.