What to do if I think players are cheating?

[mrpaxman]

Hi! I played two players who were both from Greece in Tichu. They didn't seem to fully understand the rules as they both called Tichu in same hand and one went put 1st when partner had called Tichu. They managed to win however because they had at least 12 "Bombs" which is way outside probability. It seems they must have been communicating their needs before passing. Is this something I should report or just make it so I do not play them any more?

[Gulchen]

My understanding is that, for reasons similar to
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... =16#p95250
, ​ BGA won't try to do anything about that.

However, you can give red thumbs,
https://boardgamearena.com/faq?anchor=f ... thingwrong
and might report the game at the user-maintained thread for that issue:
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... 9&start=80

(There haven't been any posts in that thread for close to 6 months, but
the most recent post in it was [the person running that thread] addressing
the most recent report, and that person was online 2 days ago.)

[Kayvon]

Have you looked through the game's replay for anything suspicious? Games are supposed to be coded such that the randomization is all done server-side. It would be difficult/impossible to change those cards around as a player.

If you replay the game from their point of view, you'll be able to see if anything odd happens like the hand suddenly changing. It's extremely unlikely to get several bombs in the same hand, but it's not impossible. The fact that they both called tichus doesn't speak to cheating, either. It's what I would call if I had a half dozen bombs in my hand, too.

[Sheba-leila]

Ich war auch lange auf einer anderen Seite der Meinung Griechen betrügen bei tichu. Bis mir ein Grieche erklärte wie sie schupfen warum und wieso. Da verstand ich das sich das ganz anders spielen als z.b. Die deutschen spielen. Der spielablauf ist auch ganz anders. Ich spielte dann mit ihm seine Version und wir gewannen fast immer. Was nicht heißt das es keine Betrüger gibt. Ich bin dem Spieler noch immer dankbar das er mir zeigte die Spielweise von seinem Land. Das selbe erlebte ich in einem anderen Spiel. Es war imperial. Nahm seinen Rat an und die Erklärung war auch nachvollziehbar und ich gewann öfters. Auch an ihn danke es war ein japanischer Spieler. Die Denkweise war ganz anders.

[Jest Phulin]

The reasons listed, while suspicious, do not guarantee cheating. More on that later. The best action to take is to give them a private red thumb so that you do not play with them again. As the other threads show, it is unlikely that BGA will, or even can, address this issue with this game.

OK, later.
Multiple bombs outside of probability: Check any of the luck-based subforums for anecdotal references to how the game is rigged, as something happened outside of probability. Say something has a 0.1% chance of happening. If a thousand games are being played per day, this event should be a daily occurrence. And of course it is the people who are hindered that come to the forums, not the people who benefited. I also remember a physical game I played where I was teaching a new player. I said not to worry about bombs too much as they are rare. The next 2 hands had 3 bombs in them.
I'm not saying it isn't cheating, especially if player A has 7-8-10-J of green, and player B breaks up their triple 9s to pass the green one to their partner. Or if player A has a 6-card run that they take a middle card out of to make player B's 4 of a kind bomb. But tracking down this kind of cheating is difficult, even on websites dedicated to Tichu.

As to the issue of both partners calling tichu: This is perfectly valid play. If I have a strong tichu hand, my partner calls, and I have no way of giving them the lead, it makes much more sense to go [(+100) and (-100)] than to just go (-100).

Also, in my local Tichu group a couple of players tried a strategy that, incidentally, they said they picked up from the Greeks. One partner *must* call tichu. Even if it fails 45% of the time, in the long run they still came out ahead.

[Kayvon]

I actually looked over the code for Tichu. It does a standard BGA shuffle and deals out cards randomly. There's not much you could do on the client side to change what you're going to be dealt, though that doesn't preclude cheats when passing cards as already mentioned.

[Shobu]

Ich war auch lange auf einer anderen Seite der Meinung Griechen betrügen bei tichu. Bis mir ein Grieche erklärte wie sie schupfen warum und wieso. Da verstand ich das sich das ganz anders spielen als z.b. Die deutschen spielen. Der spielablauf ist auch ganz anders. Ich spielte dann mit ihm seine Version und wir gewannen fast immer. Was nicht heißt das es keine Betrüger gibt. Ich bin dem Spieler noch immer dankbar das er mir zeigte die Spielweise von seinem Land. Das selbe erlebte ich in einem anderen Spiel. Es war imperial. Nahm seinen Rat an und die Erklärung war auch nachvollziehbar und ich gewann öfters. Auch an ihn danke es war ein japanischer Spieler. Die Denkweise war ganz anders.

do you have more insights about that Greek way of playing? is it about the passing convention? the "automatic" bidding? or more?