So bacically Poker as it was before all the tracking and screenscraping software excisted.

Tables opened today, screenshots below.





ToT

WOW, curious to see how this goes.

Cool hand poker is on what network? All I know of them is a loltastic commercial they made that I liked.

edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0P5J1w1fPw

yeah that might double coolhand's player base to 30 or 40 players.

I dont think anyone wants to play against anonymous players, I sure dont want to play against "player 1" "player 2" they just dont want everyone to be tracked.

Also, seems like a pretty massive breeding ground for cheating the way youve got it set up

Cool Hand Poker is on the Microgaming Network, but have ring fenced cash games meaning that only their STT and MTT's are shared with the main network.

ToT

Hi Alobar,

There is no reason whatsoever to think that there will be more cheating on these tables, as a matter of fact they will get special attention from the Fraud and Collusion security team.

The Security team got full access to Hand Histories with both the players alias, and 'Player 2' table name.


You as a player will still have the advantage of knowing the player in your session, but you nor they can not track past hand histories, nor buy stats from data miners.

ToT

Im confused....the picture is the hand replay viewer then, and not a live table?

This is pretty much what WSEX did, and there were massive problems with collusion and botting there simply because of that. Im sure your fraud and collusion team can handle it now given the small player base....but what if you guys grow to be very big?

Personally im not a fan of not being able to track my past play vs other players. But I suppose for lots of people thats a minor inconvenience and they would rather not be tracked than be able to review prior hands.

Props for at least trying it and seeing how it goes.

Oh... well that killed my mood pretty quick
Agreed and hopefully it will have an affect on other sites. I'd also think we'd agree that people shouldn't be forced into this, meaning all games become anonymous but I do like it as an option. Seems fair that people who want to play like this way should have the option to do so.

Again, too bad it's on microgaming though.

That is from a real table.
However I am not seated at the table, if I was my alias would show as my own alias for me only and as 'Player <number> for everyone else.

You do still have access to your hand histories, however only your own alias will be correct, all other players will show the alias of the seat that they are sitting in, making collecting HH's useless.

When your security has all the data including cards, money movements, I am not going to elaborate in detail, then if the tables are anonymous or not does not matter. Security got access to everything as before.

Thanks for the good wishes, I am hoping many players that went from winning to breakeven or losing, and marginally losing players who lost to fast will find this as an improvement and come back to poker.

ToT

good idea hope it works for you!

What about player notes? Do those "stick" to the player even though we don't have a name, or is there no method to even make notes? or are the notes wiped after the table is closed?

Ok, so it is what I thought then. No way would I ever play on a table where I know nothing about the other players except that they are named "player1" "player2", etc. I mean I guess it could be more profitable for me, since I think I can come up with more ways to exploit that than other people so id have an advantage, but meh, id rather just focus on playing poker.

Also no offense to your security department, but Im not gunna put my faith in them to monitor effectively something that is basically a cheaters dream.

Anon+Rush=no collusion? At least with a big player pool it would be pretty unrewarding.

um Microgaming network, they still operate after players lost millions and the network did nothing about it. Eurolinx and all those skins from 2-3 yrs ago battlefield poker and something like 30 total..um no ty

They stick to the player as long as you are seated on his table, after that they are gone. (And would have no use for you in any case.)

ToT

While I would not mind a site with lack of a HUD, I do not think losing all the player notes between sessions is adventagous. That just penalizes the observant player who can notice weaknesses in players games and adjust to exploit that edge. To limit notes to the table just encourages less observation and prevents the player base from doing anything to help stopping potential cheating and collusion.

Good idea, but IMO notes need to be permenant.

How about private tables, where you can still have and can see others screen name, but the tables can't be opened by non players. Bye bye tracking sites, doesn't really address hh sales, but atleast you have to be at the table.

interesting. the first thing that comes to mind is that some people might decide to constantly get up and sit back down in order to become anonymous again.

You can only do that if you bring equal to or more than you left with, the anti rat-holing rules are still in place.

ToT

Interesting. I don't get why ppl hate on new ideas instead of trying to help each other out. Obv it will have some holes that need plugged, but it's ideas like these that will help improve the status quo of online poker.

just look at ipoker
even with player alias show, the amount of colluding and bot.
what does ipoker do?
nothing

MG has a history of accusing players of cheating and stealing their money while allowing site operators to steal millions and do nothing. There is no way in hell I would trust MG with these type of tables. They are going to accuse players of cheating and the players won't even know who "player 3" is that they allegedly colluded with. This is a terrible idea, maybe on a credible network it could work out but not MG.

this obviously won't catch on people like knowing whos at the table with them and what country they are from. but i guess sites will do anything now days to get new players.

sure, but provided youre willing to do that, its still an option. also, if youre down over a session you can leave and come back and no one at the table would know. i think you should disable note taking alltogether if youre going this route. its an interest idea, but i think it just goes too far. sites can disallow HUDs if they really want to, cake has.

QFT

I would try this on any reputable site, but with microgamings history of skins shutting down and disappearing with funds I'll never touch any MG skin.

GOOD DAY SIR.