Hand history
A hand history is a record of the action in an online poker hand. These records are generated by poker sites, and used internally to track player behavior and provide a verifiable log to resolve player disputes. If the poker site and client permit it, plain text versions of hand histories may be made available to players, which facilitates personal record-keeping and the sharing of interesting or problematic hands. A typical hand history will contain the following information:
- The game type and limit for the table (for example, limit Texas hold 'em $3/$6).
- The names and seating positions of all players at the table.
- The size of player stacks at the beginning of hand.
- Any hole cards known to the requestor.
- Any cards dealt face up on the table.
- The betting actions of each player in each betting round.
While the internal version of the hand history will display all hole cards, the version made available to a player will show only those of the player himself and any hole cards revealed at showdown or voluntarily shown by a player. Some commercial software products make use of hand histories to assemble a record of a player's winnings and losses, and track their playing habits as well as those of their opponents.
Sample hand history
PokerStars Game #27738502010: Tournament #160417133, $0.25+$0.00 Hold'em No Limit - Level XV (250/500) - 2009/05/02 13:32:38 ET Table '160417133 3' 9-max Seat #8 is the button Seat 1: LLC 4Eva (9182 in chips) Seat 2: 618shooter (25711 in chips) is sitting out Seat 3: suposd2bRich (21475 in chips) Seat 4: ElT007 (60940 in chips) Seat 5: Orlando I (18044 in chips) Seat 6: ih82bcool2 (8338 in chips) Seat 7: kovilen007 (8353 in chips) Seat 8: GerKingTiger (4404 in chips) Seat 9: Phontaz (23553 in chips) LLC 4Eva: posts the ante 60 618shooter: posts the ante 60 suposd2bRich: posts the ante 60 ElT007: posts the ante 60 Orlando I: posts the ante 60 ih82bcool2: posts the ante 60 kovilen007: posts the ante 60 GerKingTiger: posts the ante 60 Phontaz: posts the ante 60 Phontaz: posts small blind 250 LLC 4Eva: posts big blind 500 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to ElT007 [Qd Qc] 618shooter: folds suposd2bRich: folds ElT007: raises 2000 to 2500 Orlando I: raises 15484 to 17984 and is all-in ih82bcool2: folds kovilen007: calls 8293 and is all-in GerKingTiger: folds Phontaz: calls 17734 LLC 4Eva: folds ElT007: raises 15484 to 33468 Phontaz: calls 5509 and is all-in Uncalled bet (9975) returned to ElT007 *** FLOP *** [2d 2c 3c] *** TURN *** [2d 2c 3c] [8h] *** RIVER *** [2d 2c 3c 8h] [4d] *** SHOW DOWN *** Phontaz: shows [9s 9h] (two pair, Nines and Deuces) ElT007: shows [Qd Qc] (two pair, Queens and Deuces) 618shooter has returned ElT007 collected 11018 from side pot-2 Orlando I: shows [5d 5h] (two pair, Fives and Deuces) ElT007 collected 29073 from side pot-1 kovilen007: shows [Kh As] (a pair of Deuces) ElT007 collected 34212 from main pot *** SUMMARY *** Total pot 74303 Main pot 34212. Side pot-1 29073. Side pot-2 11018. | Rake 0 Board [2d 2c 3c 8h 4d] Seat 1: LLC 4Eva (big blind) folded before Flop Seat 2: 618shooter folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 3: suposd2bRich folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 4: ElT007 showed [Qd Qc] and won (74303) with two pair, Queens and Deuces Seat 5: Orlando I showed [5d 5h] and lost with two pair, Fives and Deuces Seat 6: ih82bcool2 folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 7: kovilen007 showed [Kh As] and lost with a pair of Deuces Seat 8: GerKingTiger (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 9: Phontaz (small blind) showed [9s 9h] and lost with two pair, Nines and Deuces