With the -w switch, mIRC will delete any items that match the non-wilcarded part of the supplied informationi
If $address($nick,2) returned *!*@ServerAdmin.Maximum-IRC.com
using /hdel -w $address($nick,2) will search for a wildcard match on *!*@ServerAdmin.Maximum-IRC.com
The fact that the two happen to match exactly is irrelevant.
If you wanted, you could add to the hash table using $address($nick,5) and the same /hdel command would still work.
Regarding changing ident, yes, that definetely can be done, almost as easily as changing a person's nick. So using that format is a good idea, especially since the /ban command will work with a specified address (even one containing wildcards)
