The real Poker Edge solution - anonymous user names

[memphis57]

I don't mean to restart the PE arguments and I ask posters not to go down that road on this thread - we've discussed that enough. You've got a right to know where I stand since I'm making this proposal, in case you didn't notice my couple of posts. I was against the banning, on the grounds that it was really unenforceable and we all just have to learn to play the game f spy-counter-spy.

And that's really the reason for this suggestion. As things stand, you can't enforce this ban. Like with guns, make em illegal and only crimnals will have guns. What's to stop the dedicated online pro from getting a second internet connection and running PE on a separate system? A few simple, non-objectionable scripts on his Party Poker machine can write players names and recent hand histories to a floppy,and he can plug that floppy into the PE system computer in about 2 seconds.

Now, you could ban hand histories but I think most want to keep that to track their own play.

So how about the simple expedient of letting users make up a new name everytime they sign on, on even everytime they sit at a new table? Still keep the username so the site can track collusion, etc., but don't show it to other players. Seems easy enough to me.

[jman220]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't mean to restart the PE arguments and I ask posters not to go down that road on this thread - we've discussed that enough. You've got a right to know where I stand since I'm making this proposal, in case you didn't notice my couple of posts. I was against the banning, on the grounds that it was really unenforceable and we all just have to learn to play the game f spy-counter-spy.

And that's really the reason for this suggestion. As things stand, you can't enforce this ban. Like with guns, make em illegal and only crimnals will have guns. What's to stop the dedicated online pro from getting a second internet connection and running PE on a separate system? A few simple, non-objectionable scripts on his Party Poker machine can write players names and recent hand histories to a floppy,and he can plug that floppy into the PE system computer in about 2 seconds.

Now, you could ban hand histories but I think most want to keep that to track their own play.

So how about the simple expedient of letting users make up a new name everytime they sign on, on even everytime they sit at a new table? Still keep the username so the site can track collusion, etc., but don't show it to other players. Seems easy enough to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Greed. Its to their benefit to have your money sitting in their accounts, they make money on the float. There is no reason for a policy like this except to increase the bottom line. And its a dumb policy because it will cause players to be less likely to leave large sums of money sitting on gambling sites which, if left, would earn interest for the gambling sites.

[crunchy1]

Poker shouldn't be forced to be randomized in this manner. If I walk into my local B&M I don't have to remember everyone's name - I can associate faces with player-types/styles. In the online environment - as user name is the only means available to recognize a player. Your method would essentially mean that every time you sit at a table you're sitting with 9 unknown players. It seems that most who argue against the concept of player profiling does so with the intent to get the environment of online poker closer to that of play in a B&M casino. The concept of always sitting with unkown opponents certainly does not achive this objective.

People may argue that profiling players and the software that automates this process make the game of poker not what it was intended to be. I think that your solution of constantly changing usernames goes far beyond player profiling in terms of stretching the conceptual ideas of what the game of poker is supposed to be about.

[PuertoKid]

I think it is a good solution. I should be able to choose to play with my account name or a auto-generated anonymous name. Anonymous names should have a special convention such that everybody knows that person is choosing to play anonymously (e.g., not using there real account name).

At the minimum, you should be able to change your account name every 3-6 months.

[PLOlover]

Yeah at party you can change every 6 months it says but I don't know why you can't change your username more often.

Problem easily solved for individuals, but maybe not for the group of clueless players.

[memphis57]

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...it will cause players to be less likely to leave large sums of money sitting on gambling sites which, if left, would earn interest for the gambling sites.

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Sorry, I don't quite follow you on this - how would being able to enter a different username affect how much money youkeep in your account? Everything about your realitonship to the site would remain the same as now. The only difference is when you go to a table, you have options for how you are to be identified.

[memphis57]

[ QUOTE ]
Poker shouldn't be forced to be randomized in this manner. If I walk into my local B&M I don't have to remember everyone's name - I can associate faces with player-types/styles. In the online environment - as user name is the only means available to recognize a player

[/ QUOTE ]

But how often do you play the same player online (or in the bigger B&M casinos, for that matter - in Tunica I don't think I've run into the same player twice more than once or twice, although I'm not a very heavy player there, I'll admit). Maybe if you play the higher limits its the same crowd all the time, but at lower limts 80% of the names are new to me anyway. In fact, that's the whole driving force behind datamining is that you *don't* play the same people enough to get familiar with them.

And actually, I think it is the very essence of the game to sit down at a table with 9 unknowns, playing cautious early and gradually learning their styles and then making moves later on to take advantage of what you have learned. I mean, let's get in character, you've been on a cattle drive for 6 months, you just got paid off and rode into Abilene, 95% of the guys who were here last year are either dead or somewhere else now - how can you expect to recognize any of the other players at first?

But then, of course, if you don't like playing anonymously, nobody forces you to use an alias - you're welcome to use one username and stick to it.

The way I envision it, is you have a user preference page where you pick your default for what you usually want to be called. When you go a table, after you've sat down and bought chips, a box pops up with your default choice, either your real name or the alias you used last or even a randomly generated funky username (to make things fun for the fishes) from one of several groups that you select beforehand (moviestars, space aliens, famous cowboys, animal types, whatever - maybe even with avatars to match). If you're willing to go with a preset choice or your real name or a random choice, it's one single click longer than what you do now. Otherwise you have to type in what you want to be called.

[memphis57]

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Yeah at party you can change every 6 months it says but I don't know why you can't change your username more often.


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I don't know this for a fact, but someone on the forum here said that even if you change your username, anybody who has you on their buddy list is informed of the change. I don't know about Poker Tracker - does anybody know if it is able to associate a new name to an old name somehow?