Help with pokertracker

[kurto]

I know everyone here knows how to do this but me...

How do you datamine? Doesn't it only track stats if you're playing? How do I make it record from tables I'm only observing?

[JMBills]

Got pokertracker earlier this week and noticed this in the help files under the "Auto-Import Hand Histories/Tournament Summaries - Setup" box in the file menu... below's the recap though.

"... how to get hand histories from tables you are observing to load...

The observed hand history files are stored as ".HHF" files in the main Party Poker (or Empire, InterTops, etc) folder which is C:\Program Files\PartyPoker if you used their default.

These files get created the second you open a table, you don't even have to site down at the table.

Why would you want to do this? Basically the reason is that it gives you the ability to capture data on players that you otherwise would never be able to obtain data on because there are just so many players at Party now.

Is it right to do this, obtaining information from hands you didn't participate in? Party Poker, with the upgrade to their software on Sept. 10, 2004, has made this possible. It doesn't necessarily mean it's right to do, some people think it's unfair to gain this type of advantage without playing a hand. Party provides the capability and Poker Tracker allows you to import these hands but it's up to the individual player whether or not they want to use this feature.

It should also be noted that Poker Tracker was not designed to handle the numbers of hands that this feature gives you the ability to import. Poker Tracker uses an Microsoft Access database file as the database engine. These files have are not unlimited. Eventually, you will reach the maximum file size limit and will have to start a new database (using the Maintain Database Names option under the file menu).

In order to get these .HHF files to load, you need to configure Poker Tracker to tell it where the files are located."

Click the button...

"Configure Import of Observed Hands (Party and Affiliates Only)" (this is under File > Auto-Import Hand Histories and Tournament Summaries Setup > Ok)

A new window will pop up:

"Here you can tell Poker Tracker what database these files should be stored in, what folders to search for .HHF files in, whether or not to save the hand history text in the database and you can also disable this option if you want to stop it for any reason (initially, when you first open this window to configure these settings for the first time, the disable box will be checked so make sure to uncheck it before closing the window).

Selecting a database. Click the "..." button to choose from a list of existing databases. When you open this window for the first time, Poker Tracker will select your current database as the default for this field. Many people have stated they wanted to keep these observed hands in a separate database, this is the intention of this field.

Folders to be searched. Click the "..." button to tell PT what folders to look in. Again, these files are in the main folder for the site (ex. C:\Program Files\PartyPoker or C:\Program Files\EmpirePoker).

NOTE: the dropdown list under the "Folders to be searched" field is strictly informational. Selecting a value from this list does not do anything. It does not cause Poker Tracker to just search for files in the selected folder.

Saving the hand history text. Choosing not to save the hand history text for these observed hands is up to you. Since you are most likely importing these hands to get stats on your potential opponents, I recommend not saving the text of the hand histories so as to keep the hand history database from growing by a huge amount. If you want to be able to use the replayer to play back the observed hands, then you need to allow the hand history text to be saved.

Note that these .HHF files are only temporary. They get deleted when you close the poker client software so if you want to load them, make sure you do it while the poker window is still open."