After a short test on Titan Poker late last week, the iPoker Network has rolled out anonymous tables to the rest of the poker rooms on the network. The tables, which remove players’ identifying information from the tables, are currently available for No-Limit Hold’em games with $2 through $100 buy-ins with additional tables possible in the future.
The idea behind anonymous tables is to remove the advantage afforded to players who use hand analysis/player tracking software like PokerTracker or Hold’em Manager. These software products collect hand history data and, in turn, can display statistics on each player at a table via a Heads-Up Display (HUD) that is overlaid right on top of the table graphic. With this information, players can see the betting tendencies of their opponents (provided they have data on them) and can use that to guide their strategy. For example, if the information displayed on the HUD shows that a player is typically very tight, the software user can feel relatively confident that a raise from that player means he has a strong hand.
Many online poker players see the use of such software, even though it is available to everybody (for a price), as unfair, contrary to the spirit of the game, or even cheating. Further complicating matters are data mining websites that sell hand histories, allowing software users to have hundreds of thousands of data points on players even if they have never played against them before.
Anonymous tables take player tracking software out of play by making the players identifiable only by their seat number, rather than a screen name. With no screen name, players cannot be tracked and studied from session to session.
While many like the idea of anonymous tables, especially because they help protect fish from the more experienced players who might use player tracking software, there are some who see them as something that could have unintended negative consequences. Perhaps the biggest argument against anonymous tables is that they make it extremely difficult for players to detect cheaters. The super user scandals on UltimateBet and Absolute Poker a few years ago were discovered by players; when reviewing stats with analysis software, suspicious win rates were detected, leading to further investigation by the poker community and eventual confirmation of the cheating. Without the ability to see how specific players played, this never would have been possible.
The poker sites will still have all the information on the players; it simply will not be available to opponents.
Anonymous tables are not new to the industry. The most notable example is Bodog (Bovada), which implemented site-wide anonymous tables a little over a year ago in an effort to foil datamining websites and attract recreational players.
