Export Hands Frequently Asked Questions

Export Hands - Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I find the Export feature? ^Top

At the bottom of the grids on the My Hands Played and My Sessions Played pages, there is an "Export" button.

What is the purpose of the Export feature? ^Top

The Export feature allows you to export some or all of the hands in your database, in a format that can be read in by other poker database software programs, for example, PokerTracker 4 or Holdem Manager. This would allow you to read all your hands into another program, and analyze your play using the features of that program.

For what purposes was the Export feature not intended? ^Top

If you just want to share hands with your friends, you can use the "Share These Hands" button instead. To watch a replay of a hand or session, use the "View" or "Replay Selections" button instead.

Ideally, should I export hands from the “My Hands Played” or “My Sessions Played” page? ^Top

In almost all cases, it is preferable to use the "My Sessions Played" page. On this page, each session will be exported as a separate file, allowing programs like PokerTracker to keep your playing sessions separate.

What hands will be exported? How do I export every hand in my database? ^Top

Hands or sessions that you’ve specifically selected (checked the box to the left of) will be exported. However, on the “My Sessions Played” page, if you don’t check any of the boxes, all sessions that meet the current filters will be exported. In other words, if you haven’t used any filters, and don’t check any boxes, then every hand in your database will be exported.

Once I press the Export button, what happens? ^Top

First, we'll alert you how many hands you're about to export, the size of the file you'll need to download, and how long it will take us to convert all the hands. If you choose to proceed, there will be a delay while the hands are converted, and then you'll see a file download begin. This will be a .zip (compressed) file. You must unzip this file before attempting to read the hands into programs like PokerTracker. Instructions on how to unzip a file are beyond the scope of this document, but web resources will help you if you are unfamiliar with the process.

Will exporting hands delete them from my Advanced Poker Training database? ^Top

No, your personal APT database will not be affected.

To what format are the hands exported? ^Top

The hands are exported to a format that will make them appear to have been played in an actual online cardroom. Most poker software will support this format. You must unzip the file produced first!

I tried to export some hands and read them into PokerTracker, and it reported that several hands had errors in them. What should I do? ^Top

You can contact us with the hand number and, time permitting, we will try to reproduce the problem. Please note that we have done most of our testing with PokerTracker 4, and 99.999% of all hands will convert properly. However, occasionally there is an unusual hand that is not supported by other formats. [This is usually due to the fact that you can immediately fold out of turn (even after making a bet or going all-in) on APT, which is not supported on a typical poker site.]

Why is there a limit on how many hands I can Export per day? ^Top

Since exporting hands takes significant resources, we initially limit how many hands you can export per day (current 10,000 as of June 2015), to prevent malicious use of the feature. However, you can contact us at any time, and we will gladly raise your limit.

I asked you to raise my daily export limit, but I am still be limited to 100,000 hands at a time. Why? ^Top

Each individual export is still limited to 100,000 hands due to system resources. If you have more than 100,000 hands in your database and you want to export them all, use the "Date Range" filters on the My Sessions page, to break the hands into several distinct groups. For example, if you have 250,000 hands in your APT database, break them into 3 groups by date range, keeping each group under 100,000 hands.

Why don't my statistics on APT and in PokerTracker match up exactly? ^Top

Your statistics should be very close, but may not be exactly the same, because of differences in the ways we compute them. For example, when computing VPIP and PFR percentages, PokerTracker 4 throws out walks (hands where you were the big blind, and everyone folded to you). We don't throw those out. Also, your "Total AFq" reported in PT4 is different than our Aggression Factor (AF). You can find the "Total AF" (different from AFq) on the PokerTracker Advanced Tab.