Screen name changes unfair?!

[House-Lion]

I think it's unfair that the online casinos allow screen name changes. When I go to a live casino I expect to recognize players whom I have played with before even after one or two years.

Online, the only way to quickly recognize a player is by the screen name. Allowing the name-change is cheating the other players and at the same time giving an unfair advantage to the player with the new name.

It's allready bad as it is when same player could be playing the various skins at different names at Party-Empire-whatever & c:o.

I do not think the pros of allowing name-changes is remotely close to the disadvantage and close to CHEATING disadvantage other players then are stuck with when suddenly facing an unfamiliar oponent whom you meticiously have studdied at earlier games, an oponent that will have a great advantage over you!

Honest question, do you cheat by changing your name?


-If you think you do not cheat by changing the name, tell me why and also tell me how I am supposed to overcome the disadvantage of never being able to finger you when you have me pinned?

I would really like to see as many as possible e-mailing the internet casinos urging them to prohibit name-change.


flame away /images/graemlins/spade.gif

[Rasputin]

I can't even begin to express how ridiculous a notion this is.

[Tosh]

Just play at Stars then.

[Evan]

I changed my screen name on Empire a couple weeks ago.

Back when the $500 match bonus that got all screwy was going I made a second account to do the bonus twice. When I was setting it up I was talking to sthief09, so being the creative guy that I am I made the account name sthiefO9. Well when Empire found out I had 2 accounts they were none too happy. They said I had to close one. I had made my sthief account with an affiliate and gotten a good rakeback and I also had the $100 signup bonus remaining so I decided to keep that one.

That's when I found out just how popular our dearest sthief is. Just about everytime I sat down at a table I'd get a birage of brown trout lines. The only thing that almost made this worthwhile is that everytime I explained to someone that I was Evan they'd PM sthief09 and ask why he was lying to them. Anyway, I decided to change my name to something pretty random that no one would recognize.

In a sense I was doing what you say, esacping the reads people had on me. But I was also subject to an unfair bias because a lot of people "recognized" me immediately as a good player w/o playing with me at all. I think this definitely hurt me a little. I was talking to scrub about this a couple weeks ago and he said that I didn't get the traditional calldowns just to see how I played. Since a lot of people were recognizing me I would have to think this happened more than once.

So if you want to call that cheating than i cheated. Personally i don't care. I just thought I'd share a story about it with reasons that were different than you might expect.

[easypete]

I play mostly on Empire. I used to play on Party. When I switched over to Empire, I had to switch names.

At 2/4 and 3/6, I'm playing against the same opponents just about everyday. I see the same 4 or 5 names trying to elbow their way on my table. The name change thing was an advantage (I have to admit) for about 10 hands. After that, they already profiled me, and they played me as a type of player, not as an individual.

I have notes on over 70k players at Empire/Party. I can't remember more than about 20 (happens when you get old). I don't play specific players as much as I play the types of players. I can get on a table of all new players (very rare) and within 2-3 orbits, I can identify the types of players with some point of accuracy.

Name changes don't bother me. And they shouldn't bother you.

Yes, live you have the advantage of facial recognition. Over the internet, I have the advantage of pokertracker recognition (if not the specific player, the specific type).

[J.R.]

I dont cheat but I change my name. Its their policy, I just follow it.

CHEATING disadvantage other players then are stuck with when suddenly facing an unfamiliar oponent whom you meticiously have studdied at earlier games

While it may not be of great consolation (or effect as good players shouldn't be on your buddylist, and they are the ones more likely to change screenmanes), if you have a player in your buddylist the list automatically updates to their new screename.

But, the effect of a screenname change is also muted by dataming, as if they were playing enough that you could take meticulous notes on them, than you should get new stats on them soon enough. And why are you meticulously studying good oppoents when playing low limits (other than to emulate there play?). All you need to know is they are TAG and its not worth mixing it up with them without a hand, you make you money form the goons, not the allstars.

[easypete]

As a postscript to this...

I sat down last night and across a PP 3/6 table... I saw Entity (or what I thought was Entity). The name was close to it... but the stats reflected a LA-A (42/16 after 550 hands). Now, this very well could have been a coincidence, but when he raised... I would fold hands like AQo, then realize... THIS WASN'T ENTITY!!! I lost a few good pots because of this.

I think this is much more irritating. Is it possible that some people are lurking on 2+2... using variations of names here and making us fold from name recognition???

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

So, I changed my screen name recently at a few sites, but frankly I'm not sure why. Once or twice I found myself with known 2+2ers and felt a bit naughty. So after an orbit or two, I outed myself. Not sure why I did that either.

[House-Lion]

[ QUOTE ]
Poster: Rasputin
Subject: Re: Screen name changes unfair?!

I can't even begin to express how ridiculous a notion this is.


[/ QUOTE ]
Please make a small try stating your case instead of a pointless disaproving remark.


[ QUOTE ]
I sat down last night and across a PP 3/6 table... I saw Entity (or what I thought was Entity). The name was close to it... but the stats reflected a LA-A (42/16 after 550 hands). Now, this very well could have been a coincidence, but when he raised... I would fold hands like AQo, then realize... THIS WASN'T ENTITY!!! I lost a few good pots because of this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Seems to me you didnt use your actual notes (from poker tracker) on that player and that you maybe had not been playing and taking some "personal" notes on that player. Example: "Will bet any busted river draw" or "re-raises with bottom pair" or "maniac" or something else.

[Rasputin]

[ QUOTE ]
Please make a small try stating your case instead of a pointless disaproving remark.

[/ QUOTE ]

Overall, I would concur that making pointless disapproving remarks is well, pointless, but in this situation the contention was so absurd that making a pointful comment is even more pointless than making a pointless comment.

Lets say you played with someone every day for five years...in a brick and mortar cardroom. You'd know them pretty well.

Then they go out and get some radical plastic surgery to change their appearance and they do it just so you won't recognize them anymore. And they get something to disguise their voice as well.

That, to you, is cheating?

Collusion is cheating. Marking cards is cheating. Disguising your identity isn't.

[spamuell]

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Hahaha, I love doing that. This is the wrong forum for your ramblings though, and you will probably get better responses if you post it in the appropriate one as well as not clogging up this board, although the responses have been pretty good here.

[J.R.]

Why do you repeatedly use the word cheating? What is an "unfair advantage"?

Is it cheating to use PT? To have a chart next to your computer with odds? To look up unshown hands that made it to showdown in the HHs? To datamine? To use simulations? To discuss hands after the fact with better players?

Should you tell everyone at your table about 2+2, as its unfair that you know of this resource and your opponent's don't? Am I cheating by not playing under "J.R." when I play online, so people can't identify me? Is it fair I read 2+2 books, and others haven't? Is it fair that many, many people have higher IQs than me, and will own me at the poker tables regardless fo what I do, even though I want to win just as badly, if not more, than they do? Is it fair my mommie and daddy weren't rich?

-If you think you do not cheat by changing the name, tell me why and also tell me how I am supposed to overcome the disadvantage of never being able to finger you when you have me pinned?

Uh, change your screen name, and get a clue with respect to how often IGM sites (which is what I presume you are talking about) let you change your screen name.


Instead of blaming others, perhaps you should go look up the word caveat empotor and get down to the real issue, which is your apparent unwillingness to change your screenname, which thereby screws you. Don't blame other for your laziness. And don't draw baseless conclusions that aren't predicated on the actual facts. People don't change their screennames daily, or even weekly, or even monthly.

I expect. ..

I'm so sorry the world doesn't operate as you expect. But it is what it is, don't play or deal with it.

Its fair in that everyone can do it, and it doesn't change the essential nature of the game, i.e. one person to a hand and the unkown being your oppoents down cards. This is such a waste of my time.

[kevyk]

As long as datamining for PT stats is legal, then name changes should be too.

If someone is covertly monitoring your play to pick up reads on you, how do you derive an "unfair advantage" by changing your name once in a while?

Sorry, but the notion is ridiculous.

[ElSapo]

I'm not going to echo other posters' comments word for word -- there are many good thoughts out there, and I agree that changing your name is certainly not "cheating."

I changed my playing name from ElSapo a while back when I started getting comments online, asking if I was from 2+2. I prefer anonymity.

However, I will say this -- while the rules for Texas Hold'em, 7-stud, Omaha, et al, are the same online and in B&M, I think they two arenas are quickly becoming different games where possessing data and information about an opponent - and ducking the same from your opponents - are really the "game" being played.

This may begin to be even more key if, god forbid, online poker becomes less popular, less densly-populated by fish, and so on.

I accepted a while back that I make my money from fish, and am probably at best a break-even player against better players utilizing PokerTracker or other tools. As I either choose to move up in limits, or the fish become less fishy, the data acquisition portion of this game will become more important.

Yes, all these same concepts apply in the real world and online -- note taking and labeling your opponents are the same idea with different execution online and in B&M. However the new tools becoming available to do it -- as well as the possibility of bots and team play sadly becoming more common fears -- the two are also significantly different.

No one is cheating you by changing their name; in a sense, however, they are not playing the same game as you.

ElSapo

[Festus22]

I have accounts at 6 Party skins: Party, Empire, Intertops, PokerNow, EuroBet and Multipoker. I generally rotate my play among all 6 and change my screen name on each every 6 months. I do this in a probably futile attempt to defeat data mining and to make my opponents work a little harder when they play against me.

Sorry my friend. My goal is to make things as difficult as possible for my opponents, period. I play to make money and anything I can do to improve my EV within the rules is fair game.

So all that data on Festus44 (my old Empire screen name) is toast as is a few other ID's I won't mention. Who am I now?

Nothing personal but wake up and smell the coffee. Poker is about exploiting the weak and using every tactic available to gain an edge.

[easypete]

[ QUOTE ]
Who am I now?

[/ QUOTE ]

bakku?

[tech]

Do you bet/raise when you have an edge in a hand? Why? Isn't that unfair? Aren't you taking advantage of your opponent by using information he doesn't have?

I think Pete said it best -- the screen name change advantage lasts for no more than a few orbits against good players. It doesn't take very long to peg everyone at a table regardless of whether you have played with them before.

[Festus22]

Trust me, I NEVER would use a 2+2er handle again. I did that one time and the constant flood of brown trout greetings was out of hand. Although using Clarkmeister or EdMiller might be interesting...

[SomethingClever]

Hey, how do you change your name on Empire, anyway? I've been trying to do it for a while but I can't figure out how.

[easypete]

I tried <*(((><

They didn't accept it... said it needed to start w/ a letter.

so BIG_<*(((>< didn't work either... said something about an illegal character.

[Festus22]

Email them a few choices in order of preference. Got a screen name change confirmation within an hour.

[Malcom Reynolds]

I think using PT to collect stats on people, or even hand history farming, is more cheating than changing your name. You are using a computer to do this analysis on every player and it is giving you an advantage most others don't have. When you sit down at a table, a computer is giving you advice on how people play instead of you paying attention and taking notes manually.

That all said, I use PT and have no problem doing the above, but I just wanted to point out that it seems that between the two, name changing seems to be easily the lesser evil.

[StellarWind]

[ QUOTE ]
Honest question, do you cheat by changing your name?

[/ QUOTE ]
No. Cheating is gaining an unfair advantage by breaking the rules. Well-known Party rules allow for occasional name changes. There are no restrictions on the purpose of such a change.

Therefore it is not cheating. Period.

Name changes benefit Party by promoting the happiness of customers who want to change their name, often for personal reasons as opposed to gaining an advantage. Why should someone be stuck with a sophomoric name for years after they grow up? You should want the fish to enjoy playing.

Name changes also prevent people from establishing new accounts just to change their name. These extra accounts generate extra administrative costs and cause no end of problems for both Party and the players.

So I think Party has reasonable reasons for their policy. I'm certainly not going to waste my time campaigning to have them "fix" this policy. Surely you can think of some real problems you would like Party to fix?

Now some advice. Do you want to be a successful online poker player? Then you can't be like this. Technology, business, regulation, rules, everything about online poker is evolving at an amazing rate. Whether you like it or not. You cannot spend your time wringing your hands. Successful poker players adapt to the changing environment. They do not try to make the environment adapt to them.

Stop getting upset about the rules and figure out how to use them to best advantage.

Or perish. A poker player who does not understand that it is never about what should be or what you want is a loser. Poker is about what actually is. Always.

[SomethingClever]

[ QUOTE ]
Email them a few choices in order of preference. Got a screen name change confirmation within an hour.

[/ QUOTE ]

You actually have to email them to get it changed??? That seems like a lot of work /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[Festus22]

At Party you don't. The option is buried somewhere in the My Account screen. The other skins require an email. Believe it or not, it seems like something thay can actually handle in that I've done it many times and never had a problem.

[Evan]

They actually responded and changed it really quickly. I was shocked. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif