Tichu players who cheat by privately communicating during play

[dmorgantini]

Cheating can definitely be policed by admins. Unfortunately these kinds of accusations often fall into the same category as claims that the random number generation is rigged, most sensible people do not believe the claims.

Take the first example you link to, HotlyHotly and People66. There are only four passes (out of how many?) shown. Most of them are 2 or A passes - those are entirely normal. The oddities are the 7 and 9 passes but when you look at the passing hand they are moving either a loose singleton or one end of a run, so they are logical choices.

A basic reminder of statistics (you've made a post that implies that you do not understand so you've no cause for offence), if there is a 1 in 20 chance of passing a card which completes a run or bomb (its probably actually higher), then there is a 1 in 400 chance of doing it twice in a row, a 1 in 8000 of doing it three times, 1 in 160000 of doing it four times (and much, much higher chance of it happening say 4 times out of 10). As I type there are 469 games in progress, which means right now there is a game where someone has just done this twice in a row, completely honestly, at this rate in a few days there will be a game where it has happened three times and so on... the moment you get large numbers of games wildly improbable things happen to somebody.

These kinds of posts are unhelpful, they just encourage distrust amongst players without good cause.

I fundamentally disagree with your thesis here. In Tichu, one of the fundamental aspects of the game is hidden information between partners. If that information is not hidden then the game becomes radically different and passes which don't make sense in the context of hidden information make sense. This is how you can prove without reasonable doubt that partners are communicating. If the passes were random, I'd agree with you completely.

[hmussoi]

Another very likely pair of cheaters at this table:
*
Players * 16 and * - 1 of them created the table and set it so they would play together


*Moderation Edit: please do not use the Forums to call players out by name, this is what the Moderation Reports are for. The Forums should remain a general discussion.

[NeanderthalMan]

Another very likely pair of cheaters at this table:
*[/b]

You're right. I played against them with your partner earlier today, the game after you. We were reviewing your game and challenged them in game and tried to abandon but they would not.

Here's * of your game against them.

*Moderation Edit: please do not use the Forums to call players out by name, this is what the Moderation Reports are for. The Forums should remain a general discussion.

[deejinlondon]

My post is to RobertBr

You say - These kinds of posts are unhelpful, they just encourage distrust amongst players without good cause.

Do you believe absolutely no cheating takes place on BGA?

I believe there are some that cheat whilst playing tichu. These players who cheat are unhelpful in the building of a community on bga, and are the ones that create the distrust, therefore, don't blame people who make an effort to keep the gaming community fair when it is not where the problem originates.

[Shazzypaz]

Thanks for the analysis. Red-thumbed them all.

[el cosimo]

Cheating on online games is difficult to manage. You just need to friends and every turn based game (even real time but there can time block it more) will be possible to cheat.

That is one of the disadvantages of playing online. Is it fair? No but you can’t prevent it because you sit in different environments without checks. The fact outside ELO they gain nothing with it.. so it is very weak and kill the fun…. If they getting first by cheating, they will be discovered fast

[santhosh163]

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.

[ExpendableEnsign]

This is one of the worst aspects of BGA. So-called moderators sometimes issue sanctions and warnings against players for comments made in game that are not against any rule, yet they refuse to do anything about cheats or other really anti-social behaviour.

As for individuals listed here, I am unsurprised by *. He will certainly do anything to win. In a tournament, he and his partner were losing 660:140 and about to lose another hand, so he skipped his own partner in order to "win", thus elevating himself to 2nd in the tournament.

*

[NeanderthalMan]

UPDATE 2: * & *

Going forward, I'll post a reply with commentary for each new update while still adding the details/links to the first post. That way, if you subscribe to the post you'll get a notification each time there's a new reply.

This one is disappointing since I've partnered several times with one of the cheaters, *. It's always a nice find to stumble upon a competent partner when taking a chance with a rando. I've discovered that * has recently started cheating quite brazenly with account *. While other known cheaters collude by talking secretly with a partner evidently known in real life, it’s most likely that * is a sock puppet created by * to cheat at Tichu, i.e., both accounts are controlled by the same person. Even if it’s two individuals colluding, both are working to ensure * wins even if * loses.

* was created on 27 Jul 2021. The two accounts immediately friended each other and played a lot of Connect Four—probably to get through the 20 game new account threshold—and quickly turned to Tichu. Both accounts have since removed the other from their friends but the friendship still appears in their activity logs and, then, there's the fact that they’ve played together daily.

*

When * and * are on the same team, there are all the unequivocal and standard markers of collusion: rarely a missed opportunity, passing consistently beats the odds and gives a meaningful card that either makes a bomb or completes a combo. Yet, when playing in Arena with random teams, * and * have ended up on opposite teams. In these cases, * actively sabotages his in-game partner by passing dragon, phoenix, ace, and other important cards to his “opponent” *.

There is no denying that cheating is happening between these two accounts, to the sole benefit of * and at the expense of everyone they play against.

UPDATE 7/31/21: both accounts were deleted within minutes of this post. Main profile page no longer available but game history can still be viewed: * and *

*

*Moderation Edit: please do not use the Forums to call players out by name, this is what the Moderation Reports are for. The Forums should remain a general discussion.

[NeanderthalMan]

UPDATE 3: * & *

* and * are still cheating in Tichu but have recently started playing in Arena mode and were randomly paired twice. In these games, they pass the specific ranked card to give the other bombs and fill gaps in other combos at a disproportionate rate typical of collusion.

It is imperative that you give them and other players who cheat red thumbs so you and others are not unwittingly victimized.

*

*Moderation Edit: please do not use the Forums to call players out by name, this is what the Moderation Reports are for. The Forums should remain a general discussion.