Creator guide · Hand histories

How to get a poker hand history from a video.

A poker video has no hand history file inside it, so you read the history off the footage. Pause at each action and write down the blinds, seats, starting stacks, the hole cards the overlay shows, every bet street by street, the board, and who won what. Then check the arithmetic against the pot graphic. GeelAI does not write hand history files; it helps with finding the hand, by splitting indexed broadcasts into individual hands you can search by player, starting hand or pot size.

By Luke Geel · October 29, 2026

Writing the hand down

1. Find the hand and note its time. Write down the timestamp of the deal so you can come back to it.
2. Record the setup. Game, blinds and any straddle, then each seat: player name, position and starting stack, read from the overlay as the cards are dealt.
3. Note the hole cards. Hole-card cameras put them on the overlay, but not every player's cards are always shown. Write "unknown" rather than guessing.
4. Write the action street by street. Pre-flop, flop, turn and river: who checks, bets, calls, raises or folds, and the amount. Pause on each action; commentary helps when the graphics lag.
5. Add the board and the result. The flop, turn and river cards, who showed what, who won the pot, and any uncalled bet that went back.

For your own review, plain notes are enough. If other software has to read the file, use a documented format such as the open PHH (Poker Hand History) format, and check what your review tool imports before you type up many hands.

Checking it before you rely on it

• Stacks add up. Each player's starting stack minus what they put in should match the stack the overlay shows afterwards.
• The pot matches. Your bets for each street should add up to the pot graphic at the start of the next street.
• Uncalled chips go back. An overlay pot can include a bet nobody called; the pot that was won is smaller.
• Names and cards. Overlays can be late or briefly wrong, so read a frame or two after each change.

Where GeelAI helps

Typing up a hand takes a few minutes. Finding it in a four-hour recording is usually the slow part. GeelAI reads the broadcast's own graphics, such as the hand counter, pot, player names and cards, and splits an indexed recording into individual hands, each with its time in the original stream.

• By player: Dukey Bets biggest pots.
• By starting hand: Garage Game pocket aces.
• By pot size: Garage Game biggest pots.

Preview the real footage of each result, then write the history from that clip instead of the whole stream.

What it does not do

• No hand history files. It records each hand's time, the names, cards and pot read from the overlay, not a bet-by-bet action line.
• Garage Game Live only, for now. The public catalog covers indexed Garage Game Live recordings, not every stream or every past broadcast.
• Starting hands need both cards. A starting-hand search matches only when both hole cards were recorded for the same player; it does not search the board.
• Review the boundaries. Check that a clip starts before the action you need and ends before the next hand, and check names, cards and pots before you quote them.

Common questions

Can I get a poker hand history from a stream video?

Yes, but you write it yourself. A video has no hand history file inside it, so you pause at each action and note the blinds, seats, stacks, hole cards, every bet street by street, the board and who won. The broadcast overlay usually shows names, stacks, cards and the pot, which makes this possible.

Does GeelAI export hand histories?

No. GeelAI does not write hand history files. It splits indexed broadcasts into individual hands that you can search by player, starting hand or pot size, so you can find the hand and its time in the stream before you write the history down.

Which format should a hand history from video use?

For your own review, plain notes are enough. If other software has to read the file, use a documented format such as the open PHH (Poker Hand History) format, and check what your review tool imports before you type up many hands.