PokerStars Hand History Format Explained, Line by Line

Example hand (names changed):

PokerStars Hand #260206801190: Tournament #3984979097, $0.13+$0.36+$0.06 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (200/400) - 2026/03/24 12:47:36 CET [2026/03/24 7:47:36 ET]
Table '3984979097 13' 5-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Player1 (7597 in chips, $0.72 bounty)
Seat 2: Hero (6087 in chips, $0.36 bounty)
Seat 3: Player3 (13014 in chips, $1.03 bounty)
Seat 4: Player4 (32809 in chips, $0.36 bounty)
Seat 5: Player5 (8136 in chips, $1.08 bounty)
Player1: posts the ante 80
...
Hero: posts small blind 200
Player3: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [3s Qd]
Player4: calls 400
Player5: folds
Player1: calls 400
Hero: folds
Player3: checks
*** FLOP *** [4c Kh 2s]
...
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Player3: shows [5d Tc] (a pair of Deuces)
Player4: shows [8c Ts] (two pair, Eights and Deuces)
Player4 collected 1800 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1800 | Rake 0

The header line

Hand #260206801190: unique hand number; an import uses it to skip duplicates.
Tournament #3984979097: tournament ID; cash games show the stakes instead, e.g. Hold'em No Limit ($0.01/$0.02 USD).
$0.13+$0.36+$0.06: buy-in as prize pool + bounty + fee (two parts in tournaments without bounty).
Level VI (200/400): blind level, small and big blind.
Time appears twice: your time zone, and US Eastern Time (ET) in brackets.

Table and seats

Table '3984979097 13' 5-max Seat #1 is the button names the table, its size and the button seat; every position follows from it. Each Seat line names the player, the starting stack and, in bounty tournaments, the bounty. A seat marked out of hand is not dealt in; is sitting out still posts ante and blinds.

Antes and blinds

posts the ante, posts small blind, posts big blind are forced bets. For stats they are not voluntary and do not count toward VPIP.

Actions

After *** HOLE CARDS ***, Dealt to Hero [3s Qd] shows your cards (rank + suit: s, h, d, c; T = ten). Then one line per action:

folds, checks, calls 400, bets 600
raises 400 to 800: the second number is the total on this street, not the increment.
and is all-in at the end of the line
Uncalled bet (300) returned to …: the uncalled part goes back and is not part of the pot.

These two details are the most common source of wrong pot sizes.

Board and showdown

*** FLOP *** [4c Kh 2s], *** TURN *** [4c Kh 2s] [2d], *** RIVER *** … [8d] show the board so far and the new card. At *** SHOW DOWN *** players show or muck; collected … from pot names the winner.

Summary

Total pot 1800 | Rake 0, then one summary line per seat. Cash games show the rake here.

Localised hand histories

With another language than English, the client writes localised terms and number formats, also in tournament summaries. During the closed beta Poker Studio reads English hand histories, so set the language to English. More languages follow as needed.

In short

Header: hand number, tournament or stakes, buy-in, level, time.
Raise amounts are totals; returned bets are not part of the pot.
Blinds and antes are not voluntary actions.

PokerStars hand history format explained