Anonymous poker tables: what they cost you and who they suit
Anonymous tables replace screen names with seat labels so nobody can be tracked across sessions. Recreational players cannot be found or hunted, so they lose more slowly, stay in the pool, and the games are softer. The price is paid by regulars too: no database, no long-term reads and no table selection. Bovada makes every table anonymous, NordicBet does it on cash games only, and Unibet gets to the same place by letting players change names three times a day.
How it works
At a normal table your screen name follows you. Anyone who has played you before can look you up, and anyone running a tracker has your statistics from every hand you have shared.
At an anonymous table the name is replaced with a seat label. Player1, player2, and so on. When the table closes the label is gone, and next time you sit you are somebody else's player3. Nothing connects one session to the next.
Why rooms do it
To keep recreational players in the pool.
A regular with a database can find the weak players, sit with them and follow them between tables. The weak player loses fast, feels hunted and leaves. Take away the names and none of that is possible. The weak player loses more slowly, comes back, and the pool stays soft.
That is the whole argument for anonymous tables and it is a good one. Bovada's pool is the largest US-facing cash pool in online poker and the games are genuinely soft, and the anonymity is a large part of why.
What it costs a regular
Three things you may be relying on stop working.
Your database does not build. A HUD shows you the current table and nothing else, so months of hands produce no long-term reads on anyone.
Table selection is gone. You cannot see who is sitting before you join, and even when you can see the table you cannot tell who anyone is.
Long-term reads are gone. The player who always overbets the river is just a seat number next week.
If your edge is built on information and selection, anonymous tables remove most of it. If your edge is in how you play the hand in front of you, they remove none of it and hand you softer opponents.
Three versions
Bovada makes every table anonymous, cash and tournament alike. It is the most complete version on this site. It sits on the PaiWangLuo network under a Curacao licence with an American-evening peak, and it runs a points scheme rather than ongoing rakeback, so it is a game-quality pick rather than a rewards pick. Bovada page.
NordicBet makes cash tables anonymous and leaves tournaments normal. A HUD works within a cash session and collects nothing that lasts; tournament data is retained. It sits on the iPoker network with a European-evening peak and Nordic banking through Trustly. NordicBet page.
Unibet Poker is not anonymous in the strict sense, but it arrives at the same place by a different route. Players can change their screen name up to three times a day, you cannot observe a table before you join, auto-rebuy is off, and every kind of tracking software is banned outright. Nobody can be followed. Why Unibet Poker's games are so soft goes through it. Unibet Poker page.
Who it suits
A recreational or improving player who would rather not be a target. A regular whose edge is in the hands rather than in the software. Anyone who has found the games at a name-based room getting harder and wants softer ones without moving down in stakes.
It does not suit a database-driven regular. For that player, the rooms that still allow a HUD on named tables are the right list, and Which poker rooms allow a HUD? has it.
Picking between the three
If you are in the United States, Bovada is the one that serves you, and six states are excluded. If you are in Europe and want Nordic banking or tournament data that persists, NordicBet. If you want the softest version of the idea and can live without any software at all, Unibet.
Common questions
- Are anonymous poker tables safer from bots and collusion?
- Not in themselves. Anonymity stops other players tracking you; it does nothing about the room's own security, which is a separate question. What it does reliably is stop recreational players being targeted, which is why rooms use it.
- Does a HUD work on anonymous tables?
- Within the session only. Your software can show stats on the players at the table right now, but there is no name to attach them to afterwards, so nothing persists and no database builds.
- Which rooms have anonymous tables?
- On this site, Bovada makes every table anonymous, replacing names with player1, player2 and so on. NordicBet makes cash tables anonymous and leaves tournaments normal. Unibet is not anonymous as such but lets players change their screen name up to three times a day, bans all tracking software and stops you observing a table before you sit, which has the same effect.
Rooms this applies to
NordicBetCash tables are anonymous, which keeps the games soft and means a HUD collects nothing that lasts past the session. There is no database to build here and no dedicated mobile app.
Unibet PokerThe games are soft because the room limits the tools: no HUD of any kind, no watching a table before you sit, no auto-rebuy, and a cap on how many tables you can play.
BovadaBovada runs a points scheme rather than ongoing rakeback, which it moved to in 2019. Most of the value sits in the welcome bonus, so it suits a shorter run better than a long grind.