PokerStars - is trying something new....again

Shells

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pokerstars is trailing yet another innovation with an in-house take on the growing trend of anonymous tables.

At this stage, PokerStars hasn’t released any official details about the anonymous tables but has stated there will be careful monitoring. It’s believed the new stealth mode will be a live feature but hand histories (available the following day) will show an anonymous player’s screen name.

Thoughts?

PokerStars to Trial Anonymous Tables but History Reveals they May Flop
 
Andrew Popov

Andrew Popov

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Poker is a game with unknown, closed cards. If you play with private faces and names - this ceases to be poker. Anonymity paves the way for various abuses, both on the part of players and poker rooms (especially!).
 
Shells

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Poker is a game with unknown, closed cards. If you play with private faces and names - this ceases to be poker. Anonymity paves the way for various abuses, both on the part of players and poker rooms (especially!).


Personally, I lean toward your comment, Andrew.

Anonymity just doesn't seem like poker to me .
 
Sintubai

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I didn't like this idea of ​​pokerstars. If you want to hide identity can be like unibet in creating other types of identity, that was a good idea! Now playing against a ghost doesn't look good to me! I think a good idea would be a regular tournament team cup by country!
 
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Sintubai

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Poker is a game with unknown, closed cards. If you play with private faces and names - this ceases to be poker. Anonymity paves the way for various abuses, both on the part of players and poker rooms (especially!).
Hi Andrew, what kind of abuses do you believe a room can do with your players?
 
pentazepam

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Is true that it opens up for some collusion and other cheating opportunities. But if you trust PokerStars they have a lot more insight who the players are than the other players do obviously.

Since I like to plat HUD-less I can pretty soon see tendencies of my opponents. At the lower stakes it is also more usual that people jump in and start to bluff with big bets to buy pots since you don't have any stats on them. On the other hand there are some serious super-nits that also can hide their tendencies to almost never bluff and go for value big.

I like the concept - IF the games are policed by the site well.

It is great training for picking up reads in real time without old notes or statistic if nothing else.

If you win at normal tables you should win at anonymous tables - and recreational players don't like to be hunted down by bum-hunters at regular tables.

The sites have to test almost anything before there is only live games left there you can have a long term edge without a lo0t of supporting programs.

I suggest rotating Mixed Games for one way to make it harder for program assisted regulars - but people seems to be content to just play NLH and a little PLO even if the AI, solvers and bots some can play these games better than humans.
 
antonis32123

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I look forward to seeing how this will actually be at the tables and if Pokerstars is going to maintain this feature .
 
BoyNamedSude

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This just makes room for more Company Bots, and fake players on the table...
Do we rely on POKERSTARS word that we are playing against real people? I think not...
Will they make millions taking our money from this? I think so...
 
KristaK

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hi hi
i not 100% sure what means anonymous tables
is so we not know the names/login names of the players, i suppose
i worry that makes it less transparent, helps cheating? helps bots hide?
i nervous now no sure in poker, who or what to trust
 
Shells

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hi hi
i not 100% sure what means anonymous tables
is so we not know the names/login names of the players, i suppose
i worry that makes it less transparent, helps cheating? helps bots hide?
i nervous now no sure in poker, who or what to trust

Anonymous is pretty much what it says - names will not appear at the table, as they do now. But, PokerStars plans on allowing hand histories to show names after the game has been completed. There are other sites that have Anonymous poker and some people seem to really like it.
 
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I think it's a good idea to protect players who just want to have fun, the tuburones.
 
JJP

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Seems interesting, I miss pokerstars. I wonder how long it will be before the force the anonymity if it extends the fish BR's. Anonymity has been pretty successful on Bovada/ignition
 
beldin2010

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I think that is great idea for experienced players to see how will they perform when other players are not respecting player behind the display name. This works as an opposite for less experienced players not to influence their play.
 
whiskers77

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If I remember right PKR also had similar tables several years ago, but they were not filling like other tables. If I would play cash games, I would prefer the normal tables. I would like to know, who is sitting around me either shark or fish.
In my opinion, anonymous tables take out pretty much the psychology of the game and therefore it increases the luck factor of the game.

In a casino, the players also would not wear any masks on their faces to be anonymous. You also would recognise them as a specific type of player, when you play several times against them.
 
theRaven68

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anonymous tables were introduced at betsafe three years ago, and 90% of tables were anonymous but they have decreased number of these tables...
 
diego farfan

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This modality sounds interesting but in my opinion it is a bit risky, especially for the people who live in this wonderful world that is poker because they cannot see the names of the opponents who may be newbies as well as one or professional and here it removes that ability to choose to play or not because when you know who you are facing you have the possibility to choose to play or not, instead this mode will rather bring more complaints complaints among other things and as collateral damage to pokerstar there will be people who stopped playing that modality
 
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I think the only way something like this is successful is if "anonymity" is applied to all games. This is why it is successful on Bovada/Ignition, because there is no choice. From what was posted in the article if the problem is predatory game selection then maybe another solution would be more appropriate. Pokerstars could remove the option to see who is at a table before joining or just remove the option to select games.
 
Pokersolomdp

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Hello, I think it's great. Always renewing Pokerstars.
 
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valeski 28

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I think there´s no problem with that innovation.On party poker,for example,when you want to play a cash game you have an option in which you can play with your real name And also its players had to chose a new nickname -I´ve read that bodog , Unibet and Run It Once also have anonymous tables. .But I also read that innovation will be optional,so the players that don´t like it they will play cash games as usual.
 
shane4050

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Hardly play cash games and couldnt see myself playing if they were only anonymous. i like to know who i am at the table with as it sits im about break even with the cash games and have days worth of notes so i dont see myself wanting to play anon
 
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fundiver199

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"Innovation" is a big word to use here, since other sites have been doing this for the better part of a decade. I have never tried anonymous poker tables, and right off the bat I am pretty sceptical. For me history and dynamics is part of poker, be it in the form of HUD-data, notes or just human memory.

But that being said, if the hand histories are still downloadable AND will show the names of the other players, that does take away a lot of worries about cheating. So I will probably give this a shot just to see, what its like, and if these tables are softer than normal tables.
 
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I play on regular sites as well as an anonymous site. I honestly do not give it much thought.

Others have noted this has been in play for years - I do not see any issue with attempting to level the playing field. The fault I find are with the nuts and bolts of one particular site which allows a long tank/fold period. A culture has developed where many use this to annoy other players (there is no dialogue box as well , so you have to suffer in silence)...and literally blinds can increase when you have barely played a few hands in turbos for example.

Obviously Phil Galfond has implemented a version of anonymity on Run It Once, with it seems (to me) a flawed twist. I believe depending on play your 'character' changes - so if you play aggro you morph into an aggro looking avatar. If you play tight you morph into a meek looking avatar. That kind of defeats the purpose as it is a massive tell for other players to exploit one way or another.

Just my view- I haven't played and as the site is low trafficked to date it is hard to get true feedback of what is or isn't working. I can imagine giving it a whirl on poker stars, however.
 
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I miss the days when I could play at poker stars
 
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