The Microgaming network has conducted a research based on 175 million hands and concluded that winners win more while losing players lose their money much quicker at anonymous tables compared to regular tables.
The Head of Poker at Microgaming, Alex Scott has recently revealed plenty of surprising information regarding the anonymous tables that are popular in the Microgaming network.
The network examined 175 million hands (excluding ”Blaze” fast-fold poker tables and hands played at Heads-up tables and any games that don’t have anonymous tables to go along with regular ones.
They concluded that 40% of players play at the anonymous tables and the majority of them are recreational players, since regulars usually play on the tables where HUD softwares are allowed which makes multi-tabling easier.
The results showed that play at at the anonymous tables is looser and bigger than the regular tables, with more and bigger bets getting called and the average pot size is also significantly bigger.
This can be best observed at the micro stakes tables, where 20% more hands are bet and called and the bet sizing is 19% larger then on the regular tables.
As a result of this winning players win more and losing players go broke faster at the anonymous tables.
In the past few years many sites have used the argument that anonymous tables defend the recreational players but the results of the research show exactly the opposite.
The results have also shown another interesting detail however. They concluded that since the variance is higher at anonymous tables which is attractive to recreational players. As Scott put it ”long term losers have a better chance to have a good experience in the short term, because variance is higher. They still lose, but at least there’s a better chance of them coming back.”
They have also brought up an interesting point regarding game security where the anonymous tables show a positive effect. At Microgaming, 97% of the ”Game Integrity” cases are reported by the network’s security system, and only the remaining 3% are reported by players. Since the tables are not anonymous to Microgaming itself, they can catch players who try to collude or otherwise cheat much easier.
