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With the news earlier this week that Bodog had switched their entire poker client to Anonymous Tables (basically making the site go dark to all data-mining sites and data-mining software) the first poker network to introduce Anonymous Tables in October of 2010, Microgaming, announced they would be expanding the number of Anonymous Tables offered just a few days later, according to PokerStrategy.com.

Microgaming’s Anonymous Tables can now be found in just about every Holdem game and at every stakes the site offers, and ALL of the network’s Heads-Up No Limit Holdem Tables will now be Anonymous. Along with Bodog (Party Poker has also offered a small number of Anonymous tables since November of 2010) Microgaming is leading the charge to eliminate data-mining from the game, giving recreational players a chance to play on equal footing from an information standpoint.

The questions revolving around Anonymous Tables has always been that they create a friendly environment for colluders and poker bot users (since players cannot discover suspicious play by poring over databases and comparing the play between certain individuals). While most of the poker world would gladly make the trade-off of fairness for the addition of a few more cheaters in our midst, this is something we will have to keep a close eye on, and we will have to wait and see if Microgaming (as well as Bodog) has devised any safeguards that will help them identify these nefarious activities.