Save As Text Files help screen
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I. Overview

In order to read in a Paradise Poker hand history, or a Paradise Poker tournament result, you must save the email Paradise Poker sends you as a plain text file. Sounds easy, right? Nope, it can actually take some effort depending on what email program you use! This document will guide you through the process.

NOTE: I highly recommend using the POP3 client to read in hand histories. This is a LOT easier than saving hand histories and tournament results locally! Saving locally means saving on your computer, versus remotely, for example, on your ISP's mail server.

Saving it as a plain text file on your computer enables the PokerStat program to read in the data. This plain text file must be in the exact same format as received from Paradise Poker. For example, this means that the saved text file cannot contain double spaces where there was originally single spaces in the email, or wrapped lines. The text file must be stored locally on your computer. This document will explain several ways you can accomplish this.

It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you save ALL hand history and tournament results as text files on your computer, EVEN AFTER you have read them into PokerStat's database. The reason is safety. In case your database file becomes corrupt, or you accidentally delete your database file, you can rebuild your database from your hand history files. You should also backup your database file periodically (note that the POP3 client has an option to save downloaded hand history files).

 

II. Usage

The first thing to try if your email program supports it (example: Outlook Express) is to save the hand history email as a text file. This option is usually under the "File" menu of your email program. Look for a "save as" option, and choose "Text File (*.txt)", or something similar. The details may be different for whatever email program you are using.

You may not be able to save email as a text file, or saving email as a text file may not work (example: yahoo mail) with your mail reader. If this is the case, you must copy and paste the hand history into Notepad, and save the hand history on your computer using Notepad. The steps are:

Now you will be able to read this file into PokerStat. You have also saved your hand history on your computer, and are on your way to collecting a database of hand histories!

Here are some tips for specific email programs:

Outlook Express:
Save the hand history email as a text file.

Unix Shell:
If you're using a unix shell to read your emails, you probably are familiar with exporting the email into a text file on your unix shell directory. After exporting the email as a text file, use an FTP client to download the text file onto a local directory on your computer. Be sure to name the file something convenient (I recommend naming it based on the date and time of the hand history).

HotMail:
Save the email as a text file by doing the following:
- Select Options in Hotmail.
- In the Additional Options column, choose Mail Display Settings, set Line Width to 132 and click OK.
- Click on the File menu in your browser and select Save As... .  Give the file a name (we recommend you set up a separate directory for your histories) and click Save.

Yahoo Mail:
You have to copy and paste the hand history onto Notepad, and save the text file using Notepad. See above for instructions. Be sure to set your width to the maximum of 99 by doing the following:
-Log into your Yahoo mail account
-Go to options
-Choose from the Personalization column, "Mail Preferences"
-Change the screen width to 99.
-Press Save
Now you will be able to copy and paste the hand history onto Notepad.

AOL:
Using AOL to save your hand histories as text files may corrupt the text files in minor ways. These include changing bytes 0x20 to 0xA0, and removing spaces. These changes do not appear to be consistent across different versions of AOL either. Some AOL clients are able to save hand histories properly, while others seem to be unable to save hand histories correctly. If you find you are unable to save hand histories correctly with AOL, we recommend using HotMail. Just setup a free email account at http://www.hotmail.com, and use this email for your Paradise Poker hand histories.

If you are having any problems reading in hand histories properly, or have any suggestions or comments, we'd love to hear from you! Give us an email at support@thsoftware.com, or use the contact form on the web.

 

III. Tips

I recommend saving hand history files into folders separated by months and years. For example, have a folder for "2001-january", "2001-february", etc... If you play many games a month, you may need to separate hand history files into folders based on weeks instead of months.

The most common error that occurs when saving hand history emails from Paradise Poker onto your computer is double spaces being changed to single spaces. This can happen if you use WordPad instead of Notepad to paste your hand histories into. It is HIGHLY recommended to use NotePad if you go the "cut and paste" route.

For example, the following is correct: 

-----------------------------------------------------
Game #72972327 - $5/$10 Hold'em - 2001/02/02-06:30:39 (CST)
Table "Montserrat" (real money) -- Seat 5 is the button
Seat  2: Supchuck  ($380 in chips)
Seat  5: PokerPlayer ($200.75 in chips)
Seat 10: hewlitt  ($95 in chips)
hewlitt : Post Small Blind ($2)
Supchuck: Post Big Blind ($5)
Dealing...
Dealt to PokerPlayer [ 3s ]
Dealt to PokerPlayer [ 4d ]
PokerPlayer: Fold 
hewlitt : Raise ($8)
Supchuck: Call ($5)
...
while this is incorrect (notice that all double spaces are now single spaces, and the extra empty lines that were inserted): 
-----------------------------------------------------

Game #72972327 - $5/$10 Hold'em - 2001/02/02-06:30:39 (CST)

Table "Montserrat" (real money) -- Seat 5 is the button

Seat 2: Supchuck ($380 in chips)
Seat 5: PokerPlayer ($200.75 in chips)
Seat 10: hewlitt ($95 in chips)
hewlitt : Post Small Blind ($2)
Supchuck: Post Big Blind ($5)
Dealing...
Dealt to PokerPlayer [ 3s ]
Dealt to PokerPlayer [ 4d ]
PokerPlayer: Fold 
hewlitt : Raise ($8)
Supchuck: Call ($5)
...

Another common error is long lines being wrapped. For example, the following is correct: 

*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $125.00 | Rake: $3.00
Board: [ 7s  8h  9s  Qs  Jd ]
PokerPlayer lost $15.00 (folded) 
hewlitt bet $30.00, collected $125.00, net +$95.00 (showed hand) [ 6d  Td ]  (a straight, eight to queen)
Supchuk lost $15.00 (folded)
while this is incorrect (notice hewlitt's result now becomes two lines): 
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $125.00 | Rake: $3.00
Board: [ 7s  8h  9s  Qs  Jd ]
PokerPlayer lost $15.00 (folded) 
hewlitt bet $30.00, collected $125.00, net +$95.00 (showed hand) [ 6d  Td ]  (a 
straight, eight to queen)
Supchuk lost $15.00 (folded)
NOTE for Outlook users

If you use Outlook to check your email, be sure the option that deletes all 'unnecessary' CRs (carriage returns) is unchecked. You can find this option by going to the [Tools] menu, then going to [Options], [Preference pane], then finally to [Mail options].

 

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