How to Datamine PokerStars

Some poker rooms consider datamining to be an unfair advantage.
I don't have the time to stay up to date with the changes the poker rooms make to their T&Cs, so be sure to check them yourself.

There are currently no working handgrabber for PokerStars, so your best bet is to buy the hand histories instead.

PokerStars is the only one of the large poker rooms where I have never been able to find a reliable way of datamining. Before writing this article I tried all the different handgrabbers and scripts out there, and despite of what they claim, I were not able to get anything to work.

The closest I got were a demo of StarSpy Plus, but it never got it to work despite trying to use it on several different computers. Their support never never replied when I wrote them asking for help, which is a pretty bad sign.

There are some old threads in the software forums on 2+2 discussing PokerStars datamining. One of the threads is from 2005 and implies that they were actively making changes to their software to make it harder for people to datamine. Considering that the thread were written more than 5 years ago, and show that PokerStars were very well aware of the kinds of tools people were using, I think it is safe to say that there probably aren't any working handgrabbers publicly available anymore.

Buy PokerStars hand histories from Hand HQ

Buy PokerStars Hand Histories

Since it isn't possible to datamine at PokerStars, the only way to get some extra hands is to go out and buy them.

Fortunately there are several different sites that sell PokerStars hand histories fx. Poker Table Ratings and Hand HQ, and since PokerStars is the worlds biggest poker room, you can be sure that they go to great lengths to always have fresh hands you can buy.

Read my recommendations on where to buy PokerStars hand histories.