Now I know this may sound like a waste of time, however I have found it to be beneficial. The Simple act of changing your screen name on sites such as Party Poker can really do some tricky things to your opponents. Keep in mind that Party Poker now limits the number of screenname changes to once every 6 monnths. I have only changed my name twice and have dramatic results both times.
I feel the reason for this is two fold:
1. People believe it not are doing the exact same thing you are doing ...or at least you should bedoing ... they take notes, keep stats, subscribe to online databases, have their own database or do all of the above. they are targetting you just like you are targetting them. You take this information away every time you change your ScreenName.
2. You know who you are but they dont ... and you still know who they are. Thus the same people you have played against and that you know how they play are oblivious to the fact that you know them(or their type of play).
You can still target them but they cant target you.
The results I have seen both times I have done this have been nothing short of extraordinary. Maybe its luck or all in my mind but it is hard to argue when my winning percentage does a dramatic upswing after I change my ScreenName.
The reason I changed my name this last time was that I was playing the same old people, and many of them would chat with me etc .. or would for some reason hate me and be gunning for me. Case and point .. a fellow yesterday joined my table, a single table $200+15 at party poker. A few hands into it I get dealt JJ , not my favorite hand. I was on the button, and someone in mid position raised preflop to 60... so I reraise to 150. everyone folds and he calls. the flop comes out all rags. this guy bets $200, and risky as it is I go all in, he sits there thinking about it. While he is thinking another person at the table says " he is a bluffer".... now this is wrong in more than 1 way .. first you should never table talk and give advice mid hand... second I bluff but not hardly enough to be labeled a bluffer, and I at least have decent draws or cards. so the guy ends up folding anyway and I show the pocket J's... the other guy had pocket 9's so he says. This third person attacking my play in the middle of a hand intrigued me cause he did it with anger. So I looked him up... he had decent stats and his name looked familiar and it was I had played him 6 times before. I quickly scanned through the hand histories on my database and found where about a week ago I knocked him out of a tounament, I had pocket 10's and hit a set on the flop, he had pocket kings and also hit a set on the flop. He did not raise preflop but I did and he called. I checked the flop and he bet the minimum, I check rasied him and he raised back and then I went all in. Now granted I was behind at this point but I thought I was strong and ended up catching runner runner to hit my flush... in the hand histories it shows where he goes nuts cursing and screaming... pretty funny. So this guy remembered me or put in his notes that I was a bluffer(ya bluffing with a set that is an interesting take on things).
At any rate this along with other things that have happened over the last month or two made it apparent that to many people knew me. And that is dangerous. Dangerous cause information is power in poker. So I took their power away, yet retained mine.
To change your screen name on party poker login to the My Account section on the website and in the far right cloumn you will see a link that says "Change the way your ScreenName appears to other players". Click that link and follow their instructions.
Best of Luck.
