Hands Filter help screen
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I. Overview

The hands filter is a very powerful part of the PokerStat program. The filter lets you specify what hands to use in the processing when you click "Get Data" for a query. For example, to see how well you do in late position at a full table, you can set the filter to only view hands where you are in late position in a table with 8-10 players, and where not in the blinds.

The hands filter is one of the most complex parts of PokerStat. It's usage may not be apparent at first, but efforts spent learning how to use the hands filter properly will allow you to find things you couldn't find out in any other way!

 

II. Buttons on bottom

The buttons on the bottom of the "Hands Filter" window are:

 

III. Usage-Game

These hands filter settings generally apply to all games, and let you choose the types of games you want to view:


Modern cards come with all sorts of images on them. This deck pictured above features different images from the Japanese animation Ah! My Goddess. Obviously, the images on the backs of the cards are all identical.

Game Type:
This lets you specify the type of games you want to look for. Either all games, or 1-on-1 tables, or 5 players max tables, or full tables only.

Bet Type:
This lets you specify the bet type of the game. The choices are all bet types, limit games only, no-limit games only, or pot-limit games only.

Big blinds from X to X, inclusive:
By setting the big blind size ranges, you can limit the query to only the hands of those limits. For example, if you chose "Big blinds from 3 to 10, inclusive", then only 3-6 to 10-20 games will be processed. To choose only one limit, enter the same big blind size for both the greater than and less than boxes. Note that for limit games, this setting will be equal to the small bet size. For no-limit and pot-limit games, this setting will just be the big blind size.

Number Of Players from X to X:
This lets you choose how many players to process. By default, hands with any number of players are processed (all hands). Click this checkbox to set a range on the number of players in a hand. Or you can use the buttons on the right to set to 5-8 players, or 8-10 players.

Date/Time filter:
This lets you choose only hands that fall on certain dates, times, or days of the week. This is useful to find out what hours of the day are the best times to play, for example. You can also find out things like if weekends are better than weekdays for you. You can limit the data to only hands played this month, or hands played last year, etc. To set the date/time filter, just press the "Set Date/Time Filter..." button.

 

IV. Usage-Position

This hands filter setting lets you choose hands where a certain player is in any position you choose (usually early, middle, or late):

For the purposes of this filter, position is defined with 1 being to the left of the button. So, in a 10-handed table, position 1 would be the small blind, 2 would be the big blind, and position 10 would be the button.

To use this filter, first you have to enter a player's name. This is the player who you want to be in a certain position. Then choose one of the buttons on the right, "Set to Early", "Set to Middle", "Set to Late", "Check All", "Clear All", or "Clear columns 1 and 2".

If you set, for example, "Player PokerPlayer is in Late position." in the filter, only hands where PokerPlayer is in the position specified by the "Late" column above will be used, all other hands will be filtered out.

To set a custom position, choose just click the boxes in the table. The table's rows specify the number of players, and the columns specifies positions. You can set the filter to exclude and include any combination of positions and number of players in hands. For example, if you choose everything in the last row, the filter will only allow hands with 10 players in them through where the player entered played in. If you click everything in column 1, then only hands where the player entered is to the left of the button will be filtered through.

The "Check All" and "Clear All" buttons check all positions, or clear all position in the checkboxes. "Clear columns 1 and 2" clears the first 2 columns, and is useful if you want to exclude hands where a player is in the blinds.

 

V. Usage-Situation

These hands filter settings generally are for choosing hands where a specific situation happens that involves a certain number of players, or how a player acts preflop. Pressing the "Clear" button that appears on this tab will clear this tab's filter settings only.

Hands with X to Y players in before Z preflop:
This lets you only view hands with X to Y number of players that are in preflop before the initial action of player Z. For example, if this is set to "Hands with 3 to 5 players in before PokerPlayer preflop", only hands that PokerPlayer plays with 3, 4, or 5 players in preflop before him on his initial action will be allowed. A player being in preflop, means that they did not fold. All hands where PokerPlayer did not play in will be skipped. This filter is useful to testing when it becomes profitable to call with certain hands, for example, to test if it's profitable for you to call with 97s after 4 limpers preflop.

Hands where player X is in Y blinds:
Set this to only allow hands where player X is in the small/big/both blinds. For example, to only allow hands where PokerPlayer is in either blind, set this to "Hands where PokerPlayer is in either blind". Note that all hands where PokerPlayer did not play in will be skipped.

Hands where player X is not in Y blinds:
Set this to only allow hands where player X is not in the small/big/both blinds. For example, to only allow hands where PokerPlayer is not in either blind, set this to "Hands where PokerPlayer is not in either blind". Note that all hands where PokerPlayer did not play in will be skipped.

Hands where player X voluntarily put money in preflop:
If this is set, only hands where the player voluntarily put money in preflop will be processed. Examples of hands like this include when the player called, bet, or raised preflop. Note that all hands where player did not play in will be skipped.

Hands where player X did not voluntarily put money in preflop:
If this is set, only hands where the player did not put money in voluntarily preflop will be processed. Examples of hands like this include when the player is in the big blind, when the player has just posted, or when the player has timed out preflop and got forced all-in. Note that all hands where player did not play in will be skipped.

Games with X to Y players in the hand not folding Z: Set this to only view hands with a certain number of players in at a certain street who did not fold. For example, to view hands where there are 4 to 5 players did not fold preflop, set this to "Games with 4 to 5 players in the hand not folding preflop". If you set the street to "river", only hands with players who showed down are counted, or players who won without a showdown. For example, if you set this setting to "Games with 1 to 2 players in the hand not folding river", only hands where 2 players showed down, or 1 player won because everyone else folded will be processed.

Games with X% to Y% of the players not folding Z: Set this to only view hands with a certain percentage of players in at a certain street who did not fold. For example, to view hands where there are 100% of the players did not fold preflop, set this to "Games with 100% to 100% of the players folding preflop". If you set the street to "river", only hands with players who showed down are counted, or players who won without a showdown. For example, if you set this setting to "Games with 50% to 100% players in the hand not folding river", only hands where 1/2 the players in at the river showed down, or 1 player won because everyone else folded will be processed on a previous street will be processed.

 

VI. Usage-Cards

These hands filter settings generally apply to a player's hole cards. Pressing the "Clear" button that appears on this tab will clear this tab's filter settings only.

Player X was dealt cards preflop (player's hole cards known preflop):
Setting this will allow only hands where player X was dealt cards preflop in the hand histories read in. This means that the player's hole cards are known preflop, irregardless of if the player showed down his cards or not. For example, if this is set to "Player PokerPlayer was dealt cards preflop (player's hole cards known preflop)", the only hands that are allowed will be hands where a hand history was read in that contains these lines:

AngieX  : Post Big Blind ($1.00)
Dealing...
Dealt to PokerPlayer [ 2s ]
Dealt to PokerPlayer [ As ]
sandman     : Fold 
WhenPigsFly : Fold 

Player X showed down at the river:
Only hands where player X showed down at the river are allowed to pass the filter. Set this to view hands where player X showed down his hand at the river in a showdown.

THIS PLAYER'S CARDS ARE ...:
These filter settings apply only if the hand is a hold'em hand. If the hand is an Omaha hand, this filter setting has no effect. This filter allows you to specify the starting cards of up to two players. Enter a player's name into the "THIS PLAYER'S CARDS ARE X" field. Then, you can specify if hands where player X's hole cards are of a certain type, if they are suited or not, what his/her highest and lowest card is, and if both cards are higher or lower than a certain card. Aces are counted as the highest card.
For example, to specify hands where PokerPlayer had a suited 1-gappers from 6-8 up to J-K, you could set the first column to
"THIS PLAYER'S CARD ARE [PokerPlayer]",
"hole cards type 1 gapper",
"suited-ness suited",
"highest card is a(n) K",
"lowest cards is a(n) any",
"both cards are this or lower: any",
"both cards are this or higher: 6".

 

VII. Usage-Board

These hands filter settings generally apply to a the board cards. Pressing the "Clear" button that appears on this tab will clear this tab's filter settings only.

Hands Player has-Player X's hand on the Y is Z:
Use this setting to view hands where a certain player's hand on a certain street is some hand. For example, if you want to view hands where player PokerPlayer turned a full house, you would set this setting to "Player PokerPlayer's hand on the turn is full house".

Draws flopped-Player X flopped a Y with the trip/set being Y:
This lets you view hands where a certain player flopped either a set, top set, or trips, and optionally lets you specify what the set/trip is. For example, to view only hands where PokerPlayer flopped a set of 7's, you would set this to "Player PokerPlayer flopped a set with the trip/set being 7". Note that a set is defined as the player having a pocket pair, and flopping one card on the flop matching his pocket pair, without flopping a full house. Trip is defined as when the player does not have a pocket pair, and flops two cards that match one of his hole cards, without flopping a full house.

Draws flopped-Player X flopped a Y:
This lets you view only hands where a certain player flopped a flush draw. You can set this to any 4-flush draw, or a nut 4-flush draw. A 4-flush draw is defined as when the player has two suited cards, and exactly two of that suit is on the flop, or when the player has two offsuit cards, but 3 cards matching one of his/her hole card suits flop.
For example, to view hands where player PokerPlayer flops a nut four flush, you would set this to "Player PokerPlayr flopped a nut 4 flush".

Board on the X is a Y:
This lets you specify only hands where the board on a certain street is either a 3 flush, 4 flush, potential straight (2 cards missing), potential straight (1 card missing), pair, or two pair.
With this filter, you can see how well you do when you have two pair and the board on the river is 4 flushed, for example. You can view this by setting, assuming you are ThisIsMe, "Player ThisIsMe's hand on the river is two pair", and then setting this setting to "Board on the river is a 4 flush".

On the showdown, winning hand is a X:
This lets you view only hands where there was a showdown, and let's you specify the winning hand at the showdown. For example, to only view hands where 2 pair won, set this to "On the showdown, winning hand is a two pair".

 

VIII. Usage-Action

These hands filter settings generally apply to a the actions taken (fold, bet, raise, check, etc). Pressing the "Clear" button that appears on this tab will clear this tab's filter settings only.

Specific player's actions-X, on the Y, Z W:
This filter lets you specify up to 3 player's actions on a certain street. For example, you can view hands where player PokerPlayer check-raises at any time on the turn, by setting this to "PokerPlayer, on the turn, did this at least once: check-raise". Or, if you wanted to see when PokerPlayer raises as his first action preflop, you would set this to "PokerPlayer, on the preflop, 1st action is raise".

Any player's actions-On the X, there was at least one Y action:
This setting let's you view only hands where there was a at least one of this action on a certain street. For example, to view hands where someone check-raised preflop, you would set this to "On the preflop, there was at least one check-raise action".

Player result-Player X, Y:
This setting lets you filter for hands where a certain player either showed down and took the whole pot, showed down and split the pot, showed down and won nothing, or took the pot without a showdown.

 

IX. Tips

Here's a tip to get a more accurate flop % for a player. In the [Player Statistics (single)] query, it is useful to set the hands filter to only hands player voluntarily put money in preflop before getting the flop percentage statistics. This will set the flop percentage statistic to the true rate at which the player called to see the flop, skipping blind hands where player got a free play. You can set this by opening the hands filter, and clicking on the "Situation" tab. Then enter that player's name in "Hands where player [     ] voluntarily put money in preflop." Then click "Ok". That's it, easy huh? Now that you've got a more accurate flop % for a player, and can determine if that player plays too many hands (loose) or plays only the really good hands (tight).

 

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