Which poker sites write hand histories to my computer?

PokerStars, Winamax, 888poker, the iPoker network skins and the WPN rooms (ACR, Black Chip, True Poker) all write plain files to a folder on your machine. GGPoker, partypoker, Bovada/Ignition and CoinPoker do not: they hand your history over through an export you request in the client. Full Tilt wrote files, but the room no longer exists. On several of the disk-writing rooms saving is off until you switch it on, and it is never retroactive, so the sooner you tick the box the more history you have.

Why is my hand history folder empty?

Almost always one of three things. Saving was never switched on (888poker, iPoker and WPN all ship with it off, and nothing before you enable it exists). The client pruned it, because PokerStars, 888poker and the old Full Tilt client all have a days-to-keep field that deletes. Or the room simply does not write files at all, which is the case on GGPoker, partypoker, Bovada and CoinPoker.

How far back can I get my hands?

On the rooms that write to disk, as far back as your files go - the limit is your own days-to-keep setting and your backups. On the rooms that export, the window is the real constraint: GGPoker reaches back about 90 days, partypoker is reported at about 40, and Bovada is roughly the last seven with a 24-hour delay before a hand becomes available. If you are on one of those three, export on a schedule. Nothing recovers hands past the window.

Can I import a hand history from a poker room that is not listed?

Try it. Detection is by content rather than by file name, so an unlisted room whose client writes one of these grammars will often just work. If it does not, the import reports which room it thinks the file came from, or says it could not recognise the format, and skips that file instead of failing the whole batch. Send us a sample and we will look at it.

Do I need a HUD to use my hand histories?

No, and on a growing number of rooms a HUD is not permitted anyway while downloading your own hands still is. A hand history is just a record of what happened. Read after the session it tells you your real win rate, which positions pay you, and which decisions you keep getting wrong - none of which needs anything attached to the table while you play.

Where to Find Your Poker Hand History Files

Every room does this differently, and three of the big ones do not write files at all. Below is the folder, the setting you may have to switch on first, and how far back each room will let you reach - for the ten hand-history formats our tracker reads. Paths are corroborated across at least two sources; where a path rests on one old source, it says so.

Rooms come in three kinds

Knowing which kind you are on saves most of the searching. If your room writes to disk, your history is as long as your files and your only enemy is a days-to-keep setting quietly deleting it. If your room exports on request, the window is the whole game: hands outside it are gone, permanently, and no tool recovers them.

Writes as you play

Winamax, and PokerStars once you tick the box.

Writes, but off by default

888poker, iPoker, WPN. Nothing before you enable it exists.

Export on request

GGPoker (~90 days), partypoker (~40), Bovada (~7). Export on a schedule.

PokerStars

Written to disk, once you switch it on

Settings > Playing History > Hand History. Tick "Save My Hand History", and tick "Save in English" - every tracker, ours included, parses the English grammar and rejects the localised ones. The folder is shown under "Where To Save".

Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\PokerStars\HandHistory\<screen name>\
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/PokerStars/HandHistory/<screen name>/

The same settings screen has a days-to-keep field, and it really does delete. Set it high before you go looking for last month.
Only hands played after you ticked the box exist on disk. For older ones, request them from the client under Playing History.
~/Library is hidden on macOS. Finder > Go > Go to Folder, then paste the path.

Worth knowing: The macOS path traces to vendor docs that are several years old. If it is not there, read the live folder out of "Where To Save" rather than trusting us.

GGPoker

Nothing on disk. Export from PokerCraft

There is no setting, and no folder to hunt for. Open PokerCraft from the poker client, pick the game-type tab, set a date range, run the search, tick the sessions you want and download.

Each game-type tab exports separately. A PLO player who only exports the Hold'em tab gets an empty file and concludes the feature is broken.
Roughly the last 90 days. Older hands are gone, so export on a schedule if you want a history worth analysing.
It arrives as an archive of .txt files. Drop the zip straight in - we unpack it in your browser.
For tournaments, download the game summaries as well as the histories, or finishing positions and bounties are missing.
You are "Hero" and opponents are rotating strings, so stats and leaks work but opponent tracking cannot.

Worth knowing: Per-export hand caps get quoted around the web and we could not confirm any of them. If a wide date range fails or comes back short, narrow it and export in chunks.

iPoker network

Written to disk, off by default

From the lobby: My Account > Settings > General, tick "Store Hand History Locally", then restart the client. It is not retroactive - nothing before you ticked it exists.

Windows: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\<skin name>\data\<screen name>\History\Data

Covers the whole network: bet365, Betfair Poker, Red Star, Titan, William Hill, Guts, NetBet, PMU and the rest. The skin name is the folder name.
Older or administrator installs put it under C:\Poker\<skin name> instead. If AppData is empty, look there.
iPoker writes XML, not text. That is normal - drop the .xml files in as they are.

Worth knowing: A native macOS client only appeared recently and no source states its folder. Mac players: use your tracker's auto-detect, or search your drive for a folder named History.

partypoker

Nothing on disk since 2019. Export from My Game

The client stopped writing hand histories to disk on 17 June 2019 and the option never came back. Request them from "My Game" in the client instead.

Reported as roughly the last 40 days, and today's session is not available until tomorrow.
Up to 10,000 hands per export, so a heavy month takes several passes.

Worth knowing: The 40-day figure comes from sources that are several years old, and our partypoker parser is verified against the older on-disk grammar. If a fresh export does not read, send it to us - that is a file we want.

WPN: ACR, Black Chip, True Poker

Written to disk, off by default

In the client: Game Info > View Hand History > Options, then tick "Save Hand History". The button is labelled Settings on some builds.

Windows: C:\<skin folder>\handHistory (for example C:\AmericasCardroom\handHistory), with tournament summaries alongside in C:\<skin folder>\TournamentSummary

Tournament summaries live in their own folder, but we do not read summary files yet - finish and payout only appear where the room writes them into the final hand. Import the hand history files.
The client writes UTF-16, which is why these files look like garbage in some editors and get rejected by some tools. Ours reads them.

Worth knowing: No source states the macOS folder. Read the live path out of the same Options screen.

Winamax

Written to disk by default

Nothing to switch on. Winamax writes hand histories as you play, and creates the folder after your first hand.

Windows: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\winamax\documents\accounts\<screen name>\history
macOS: /Users/<user>/Library/Application Support/Winamax/documents/accounts/<screen name>/history

One file per cash table. Tournaments and Expresso also write a separate summary file, but we do not read summary files yet - import the hand history files.

888poker

Written to disk, off by default

Saving is off until you turn it on in Game Settings, and only hands played afterwards are written.

Windows: C:\Users\<user>\Documents\888poker\HandHistory
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/888poker/888poker/HandHistory

Game Settings also holds a "Days to keep Hand History" field. Raise it before it prunes the month you wanted.
Files from before the rebrand carry a Cassava banner instead of an 888poker one. Both read.

Worth knowing: The macOS path has a single undated source. If it is not there, check Documents first.

Bovada, Ignition and Bodog

Nothing as you play. Request it afterwards

The client does not write hands while you play. You request a download after the session, from the desktop client - the browser version cannot do it.

Windows: A "Hand History" folder the client creates on first download. The location differs by skin and install: check both C:\<skin name>\Hand History and %LOCALAPPDATA%\<skin name>\Hand History.
macOS: Inside the app bundle: Applications, right-click the app, Show Package Contents, then Contents/MacOS/Hand History/<user>

There is a 24-hour delay before a hand can be downloaded, and the window is roughly the last seven days. This is the room that punishes waiting.
Tables are anonymous, so seats are named by position and you are "[ME]". Everything works except opponent tracking, and nothing can fix that - the names are not in the file.

CoinPoker

Nothing on disk. Export a date range from the client

Two routes, and both are in the client. Avatar (top right) > Hand History exports a session at a time. For a whole stretch at once, open PokerIntel from the account menu, go to the EV Chart page, pick your date range and use Download Hands - that is the route that produces one file named after you and the dates.

Tables are denominated in Tether. The client writes a splash fee out of the pot alongside rake; we subtract both before your result, because the room does.
Seat handles are short hex strings that change from hand to hand, so opponent tracking cannot work here and the Players tab says so. Stats, leaks and the replayer are unaffected.

Worth knowing: Our parser is verified against a 3,797-hand cash export covering Aug-Sep 2026. Tournament files are unverified - if you have one, send it, because that is a file we want.

Full Tilt

Historic archives only

The room is gone. This is only useful if you still have an old drive or a backup.

Windows: C:\Program Files\Full Tilt Poker\HandHistory\<screen name>
macOS: ~/Documents/Full Tilt/Hand History

Two shapes exist: the client's own UTF-16 files, and archive exports whose header runs the room name together as "FullTiltPoker". Both parse.

When an import does not read

An import never fails as a whole. Each file is handled on its own and reports what happened, so one bad file in a folder of two hundred costs you that one file. These are the messages worth decoding.

What it says	What it means
unrecognized hand-history format	Nothing in the file matched a room we know. Usually a tournament summary, a note file, or a converter's output rather than a raw hand history. Send it over if you think it should read.
site X not yet supported	We recognised the room and have no parser for it. OnGame, Microgaming and Merge files land here. The rest of your import is unaffected.
header not recognized	The file starts mid-hand, usually because it was truncated or edited. Re-export it.
fewer than 2 seats	A hand with one player in it, which normally means the file was cut off partway through.
game type not supported (non-flop game)	A stud, razz or draw hand inside a mixed-game file. It is skipped by itself; the hold'em and Omaha hands in the same file still import.

Found them?

Drop the folder into the tracker. It reads all ten formats, sorts out which room each file came from on its own, and skips duplicates rather than double-counting them. Free to 100,000 hands, nothing to install.

Open the Hand Tracker

Questions

Which poker sites write hand histories to my computer?: PokerStars, Winamax, 888poker, the iPoker network skins and the WPN rooms (ACR, Black Chip, True Poker) all write plain files to a folder on your machine. GGPoker, partypoker, Bovada/Ignition and CoinPoker do not: they hand your history over through an export you request in the client. Full Tilt wrote files, but the room no longer exists. On several of the disk-writing rooms saving is off until you switch it on, and it is never retroactive, so the sooner you tick the box the more history you have.
Why is my hand history folder empty?: Almost always one of three things. Saving was never switched on (888poker, iPoker and WPN all ship with it off, and nothing before you enable it exists). The client pruned it, because PokerStars, 888poker and the old Full Tilt client all have a days-to-keep field that deletes. Or the room simply does not write files at all, which is the case on GGPoker, partypoker, Bovada and CoinPoker.
How far back can I get my hands?: On the rooms that write to disk, as far back as your files go - the limit is your own days-to-keep setting and your backups. On the rooms that export, the window is the real constraint: GGPoker reaches back about 90 days, partypoker is reported at about 40, and Bovada is roughly the last seven with a 24-hour delay before a hand becomes available. If you are on one of those three, export on a schedule. Nothing recovers hands past the window.
Can I import a hand history from a poker room that is not listed?: Try it. Detection is by content rather than by file name, so an unlisted room whose client writes one of these grammars will often just work. If it does not, the import reports which room it thinks the file came from, or says it could not recognise the format, and skips that file instead of failing the whole batch. Send us a sample and we will look at it.
Do I need a HUD to use my hand histories?: No, and on a growing number of rooms a HUD is not permitted anyway while downloading your own hands still is. A hand history is just a record of what happened. Read after the session it tells you your real win rate, which positions pay you, and which decisions you keep getting wrong - none of which needs anything attached to the table while you play.