Tichu players who cheat by privately communicating during play

[Z0rtea]

of course. The objective is only to ensure we flag these users so that the rest of us can have a fair game and do not waste our time. Cheating is going to be inevitable and unstoppable. But As long as we keep this list, it helps in minimizing time wasted of genuine users.

The goody-goody - RoberBr - calling those that are trying to reduce cheating as the unhelpful ones that create distrust has the horse before cart, because it is those that cheat that begin the distrust. Sadly some people will cheat, and yes we probably can't stop all cheating. However, that has never been a good reason not to try to reduce cheating as much as possible and warn others of who the cheaters are so they can have advance notice and thus avoid them. Neanderthalman spends a lot of his time doing this for the benefit of others and should be commended for his efforts.

[NartsisP]

CHeck out this game against Adrayano and Banchee. https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=356348424
They definitely cheated.
BGA should deduct their winning elo points, return our lost elo points, take the lost game of our records, and ban them from playing tichu for a period of time.
The evidence is clear, there should be no room for cheating where it is possible see it and to punish it.

[NeanderthalMan]

Adrayano & Banchee22

2023/03/13 #356348424 vs lillyCinnamon & NartsisP

13 of 13 opportunities for 100% passing success whereas the average is 49-50%. In all opportunities, the best possible combo was made by the pass for 100%, compared with the average of 17%. 2 of 2 possible bombs made for 100%; the average is 11%.

• #009 Adrayano passes J for gap in 9T-QK straight; Banche22 passes 8 for end of -9TJQK straight.
• #072 Adrayano passes 6 3 to opponents and 5 to partner for gap in 34-6789TJ straight; Banchee22 passes 7 for gap in -89TJ straight.
• #135 Against an opponent’s Grand Tichu call, Bachee22 has 34457889TQKK and passes 7 to Adrayano for QUAD BOMB; Adrayano can’t help and passes Dragon.
• #225 Banchee22 passes red 7 for gap in 56-89T FLUSH BOMB; Adrayano passes 9 for 8-TJQK straight.
• #293 Adrayano breaks pair despite having spare 8 and K to pass J for trips; Banchee22 passes K for pair
• #381 Banchee22 passes 3 for gap in M2-456789T straight; Adrayano passes 10 for gap in 6789-JQ straight.
• #435 Adrayano breaks trip Qs to pass Q for gap in 89TJ-K straight; likewise, Banchee22 breaks pair to pass J for gap in 3456789T-QK straight.

2023/03/13 #356313197 vs joshonthrone & Karen33

6 of 6 opportunities for 100% passing success, average is 49-50%. In all opportunities, the best possible combo was made by the pass for 100%, compared with the average of 17%.

• #009 Banchee22 takes J from end of long straight and passes to Adrayano for gap in 6789T-QK straight; Adrayano keeps spare 8 and passes 3 to Banchee33 for gap in 2-456789T straight
• #083 Banchee22 breaks pair and passes Q for gap in 9TJ-K straight; Adrayano passes 5 for end of -6789TJQ straight.
• #155 Adrayano passes 5 for gap in 234-6789T straight; Banchee22 breaks long straight 23456789TJQ to passes J to Adrayano for gap in 567879T-QKA straight. Notably, Adrayano could have passes red 10, breaking hand, to give Banchee22 a flush bomb. Playing the bomb instead of the long straight would have broken Banchee22’s hand, resulting in known singles of 2349T. Up 370 to -70 with Dragon, Phoenix, and two Aces on their side, both with long straights, no reason to make the bomb.

2023/03/13 #355960214 vs Kesselsknall & nannnaaa

6 of 6 opportunities for 100% passing success. No opportunities to make bombs. However, notice how frequently this duo is willing to worsen their own hand by breaking combos to pass low and mid cards to their partner when they should have no reason to suspect that doing so would fill a gap in a long straight.

• #009 Adrayano passes spare 10 9 to opponents and breaks pair to pass 4 to Banchee22 for gap in M23-5678 straight; certainly knowing what to expect, Banchee22 breaks trip 6s, passes 6 2 to opponents and 6 to Adrayano for gap in 345-7 straight
• #072 Banchee22 passes 10 for consecutive pairs; Adrayano has no options other than to passes 4 for pair, surprisingly the best possible pass given the situation.
• #160 Banchee22 breaks pair of 8s, despite having single 10 and K to pass 8 for end of -9TJQK straight; Adrayano has no options and passes spare Q.

2023/03/09 #354943227 vs Horroring & Mrvndmp

16 of 16 combo opportunities for 100%; 3 of 3 bomb opportunities for 100%. When non-cheating partners pass, more than 50% of their passes that result in a combo are incidental pairs and trips. Notice how most this duo’s passes magically target holes in straights or create bombs. Pairs are made only when there are no better combo possibilities.

• #009 Adrayano passes K for QUAD BOMB; Banchee22 has no options but passes blue 9 that sets up an open ended flush bomb 6789.
• #104 Banchee22 passes 5 4 to opponents and 3 to Adrayano for gap in M2-456 straight, who, in turn passes 9 for gap in 678-TJQ straight.
• #174 Adrayano passes 4 3 to opponents and 4 to partner for gap in M23-5 straight; Banchee22 has no options and passes A.
• #264 Adrayano passes 4 4 to opponents, has spare 56JK yet passes 2 to Banchee22 for QUAD BOMB; Banchee22 passes 5 for pair
• #334 Banchee22 passes 9 for gap in 78-TJQK straight; Adrayano has no options and passes A.
• #398 Adrayano passes 7 for gap in five consecutive pairs 667-8899TT; Banchee22 has no better options and passes J for pair.
• #479 Banchee22 passes 8 4 to opponents but 5 to Adrayano for gap in four consecutive pairs; Adrayano passes 8 8 to opponents but 3 to Banchee22 for gap in M2-4567 straight.
• #543 Adrayano passes 4 3 to opponents but 2 to partner for QUAD BOMB; Banchee 22 passes J for gap in 9T-QKA straight.
• #621 Banchee22 has spare 3478Q but passes 3 2 to opponents, breaking 2 pair, and passing the other 2 to Adrayano for gap in M-3456 straight. Adrayano has spare 58QKA but breaks 10 pair to pass 10 to Banchee22 for gap in 789-JQK straight.
• #715 Banchee22 passes 9 for gap in 5678- straight; Adrayano has no options and passes A.

[Ranier]

Another example of cheating. https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=357637416 - round 4.

Although for most of the game there are no signs of obvious cheating in the opponents passing. On round 4 one bomb was made by a suspicious pass of a 6 from Spicy Holic when he/she could have passed a 7,8,9. They had very little else that round as my partner and I had all four aces, phoenix and dragon which could have got us the 400 points. A significant change in the game situationas we were then losing by 120 points in a 500 point game.

[NeanderthalMan]

Another example of cheating. https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=357637416 - round 4.

Although for most of the game there are no signs of obvious cheating in the opponents passing. On round 4 one bomb was made by a suspicious pass of a 6 from Spicy Holic when he/she could have passed a 7,8,9. They had very little else that round as my partner and I had all four aces, phoenix and dragon which could have got us the 400 points. A significant change in the game situationas we were then losing by 120 points in a 500 point game.

No reason to suspect cheating. The partners have never played together before in a combined 223 games. Their passing success by the any combo made and best combo/pass made metrics is well below average.

Combos including bombs happen by chance. In this game, they made 1 of 3 possible bombs for a 33% success rate compared with the average of 11%. The probability of this happening is 29.5%. Given the extremely small sample of only 3 bomb opportunities, you’d expect the success rate to fall in line with the average if more rounds/games were played (regress to the mean). The passed bomb resulted from being given the lowest single remaining after pair split between opponents. The passer follows the same pattern on other rounds that doesn’t result in anything. No reason to see this as anything other than chance.

In 7 rounds, 14 opportunities for optimal passing but by my count they only hit 4 in total which is a success rate of 29% compared with the average of 50%. The probability of this occurring is 97%. Of those 4 successes, only 2 were the most optimal passes for a success rate of 14.3% compared with the average of 17%

You loss here appears to be a case of bad luck.

• #009 CheTTTmanhuge and SpicyHolic pass each other an A for no benefit. CheTTT’s hand was P2223TTJJJQQQA before the pass. They elected to pass J 3 to opponents, likely hoping to get fourth 2 in pass. If they had kept the 3 jacks and passed phoenix to SpicyHolic, Spicy could have passed J for QUAD BOMB and use the P to replace the missing J. This is the type of thing cheaters do regularly. As is, neither pass improved the other’s hand or created a combo: 0 for 2 opportunities.

• #086 CheTTT passes highest card K to partner, resulting in trips. However, it would have been better to pass unneeded 5 to Spicy for gap in M234-67 straight. Instead, Spicy opted to keep 33466 and pass away 7 2, possibly thinking it better to keep pairs than risk not getting passed a 5. Spicy’s passed 7 went to CheTTT for no gain. Alternatively, Spicy could have passed the spare 4 which would have given CheTTT a QUAD BOMB. 1 for 4 opportunities; 0 for 4 most optimal pass; 0 for 2 bombs.

• #161 Spicy passes 2 3 to opponents and Dragon to CheTTT. Given that their hand was mostly garbage, I’d say this was the best option. However, since CheTTT ended up passing Spicy Mahjong, it would have been better for Spicy to keep 2345 and play as straight. Another, perhaps better option would have been for CheTTT to keep M, Spicy keep Dragon and pass 2 to CheTTT for gap in M-3456 straight. CheTTT already had PTQQAAA so Double Victory could have been the result if Spicy’s hand was weakened by the pass. 1 for 6 opportunities; 0 for 6 most optimal pass; 0 for 2 bombs.

• #244 SpicyHolic is dealt 89TJQK flush bomb and has Dog 2236789 left; they keep the 2s, passed Dog 3 to opponents and lowest remaining single to partner. CheTT passes J for no benefit. It would have been better for CheTTT to pass a card that’d pair with one of Spicy’s singles and increase chances of early exit, maybe the 7 or 2 given to opponents. The last thing Spicy needed was another low/mid single. 2 for 8 opportunities; 1 for 8 most optimal pass; 1 for 3 bombs.

• #319 The two swap A and Dragon for no real benefit, though it gives Spicy a pair of Aces. If CheTTT had kept A and passed the 2 given to opp instead, it would have given Spicy trips then quads with opp’s pass of other 2. Alternatively, CheTTT passed their 2, breaking a 23456 straight so as to not pass high to opponents and probably planning to use phx and extend through 8. It would have been better to pass the 8 or instead or Spicy pass replacement. 3 for 10 opportunities; 1 for 10 most optimal pass; 1 for 3 bombs.

• #403 CheTTT passes K and Spicy passes 9, both for no benefit. Spicy could have passed single Q or A for trips, CheTT could have passes 2 or J for trips. 3 for 12 opportunities; 1 for 12 most optimal pass; 1 for 3 bombs.

• #463 CheTTT passes A for trips though arguably K would have been better to fill gap in TJQ-A straight, freeing up Spicy’s Phoenix for other uses. Spicy passes 2s to opponent and lowest remaining single 7 (same pattern as when the bomb was made) for no benefit. Spicy passes 7 for no benefit. 4 for 14 opportunities; 2 for 14 most optimal pass; 1 for 3 bombs.