Tichu players who cheat by privately communicating during play

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NeanderthalMan
Posts: 76
Joined: 02 November 2020, 05:09

Tichu players who cheat by privately communicating during play

Post by NeanderthalMan »

Play enough Tichu on BGA, you’ll eventually run into a partnership talking privately to cheat. Passing is blind and communication about what’s in your hand to your partner is against the rules of the game and therefore against BGA’s Terms of Service:
VIII. Fair Play
BGA will not tolerate any cheating and/or lack of fair play, whether through the use of cheating software, analysis of communication protocols or code, use of multiple Accounts, collusion with other Users, leaving the game before its normal end, use of game blocking tactics in order to force other Users to quit, or the use of obscene or foul language, etc.
The most obvious indicator is what cards partners pass to each other. Talking secretly allows players to pass what they know will improve their partner’s hand the most and make optimal game play decisions. The passes—often low and even breaking their own combos—wouldn't make sense if their partner's hand was unknown.


PASSING SUCCESS

Randomness or coincidence is not a plausible explanation for passing that consistently defies convention and probability to substantially improve the partner’s hand. Non-cheaters never break combos such as trips and straights—worsening their own hand—to pass a low or mid to their partner. Yet, this is a move cheaters do consistently when they can complete a long straight or bomb for their partner.

Of course, combos also result from chance. In fact, 50% of all passes between non-cheating partners will result in some combo, at minimum a pair. Same odds as a coin flip. Tossing 10 times and getting 10 heads has a probability of 0.1% (or 1 in 999) the same as passing a card that gives your partner a combo 10 of 10 times. Understanding this, when you see partners having extraordinary passing success like 41 of 41 over a series of games, you know the probability of it occurring by chance is 0.00000000005% or 1 in 2.2 trillion.

Taking it a step further, while 50% of all passes between partners results in a combo, there are usually several different potential combos that could be made. Among non-cheaters, the best possible combo is made only 17% of the time. For cheaters, that number is usually 100%. The probability of 41 of 41 is 0.0%, with at least 126 extra zeros to the right of the decimal.

The conclusion in such situations is unequivocal: the players are cheating. The most common denominator among those who do this is that the players are friends in real life. They have incentive (ELO, winning), opportunity (they know each other), and little to no risk of consequences.

Baseline probabilities are from millions of hands publicly available in BSW gamelogs (http://tichulog.brettspielwelt.de/).


DISCLAIMER

Cheaters in free online card games is the least of worries for most us. People are victimized by many things from the most banal and corporate to the horrific. In the grand scheme, what happens on BGA isn't all that important. However, people play games to relax, release stress, satisfy competitive urges, make friends, etc. It may seem harmless to cheat against anonymous strangers online for ELO or whatever, yet, what cheaters do is fundamental selfish, exploiting non-consenting others and depriving them of fair play. Don't be a cheater.


WHAT TO DO IF YOU SUSPECT CHEATING

1. Review the cards passed to opponents and each other

Cheaters rarely miss an opportunity, their passing beats the odds and provides the exact card needed whenever the other has it. Keep in mind, some bombs/combos will occur by luck, especially when high cards are passed. Instructions on how to quick navigate game replays for review can be found on this page.

2. Give each player a public red thumb

Go to each profile and click Image > I want to avoid this player > Yes, everybody should avoid this person > This player is Kingmaking / engaging in team play).

If your play was not recent, or you want to block someone preemptively, you won't be able to select this option. Instead, give a private red thumb (I want to avoid this player > No, this is just my opinion). Both ensure you can’t end up at a Tichu table with the blocked users.

3. Report both players to the moderators

Go to each profile and click Report this Player at top right. Click Start. Click X is using multiple accounts to boost ELO. Click: The accounts play against each other to cheat the ranking systems. From there, answer four questions. It’s best to prepare answers in a document and then copy and paste into reports fields.
  • Please list here the BGA accounts owned by the same person: Provide the user names and profile links.
  • Which games involve cheating?: Include a link to your game table and any others played that support your accusation. More evidence is useful.
  • Please explain what makes you think the same person owns all these accounts?: You don’t know if it’s two people or one person with two accounts, so note that. Then explain your reasoning behind the report.
  • If you would like to include additional information to your report, please type it below.
Do this for both players.


REVIEWED PARTNERSHIPS & TABLES

Click ANALYSIS for more info. Follow step 2 above to preemptively block each so you won't unwittingly play against them.


[/list] *

*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.
Last edited by NeanderthalMan on 14 April 2023, 14:53, edited 256 times in total.
RobertBr
Posts: 492
Joined: 08 July 2016, 15:57

Re: Tichu partners who cheat by privately communicating during play

Post by RobertBr »

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, * and *. 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.

*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.
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ufm
Posts: 1328
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Re: Tichu partners who cheat by privately communicating during play

Post by ufm »

'The dice/cards/tiles/(insert any other probability components here) are rigged' comes from misconception as you said.
In BGA even the source code is open!
However, this is not the case. Indeed there are players sharing information privately, and that inflates suspicion.

I think the poster's claim against * & * is plausible... because they played as a team in the last season of Love Letter Arena.
They simply didn't eliminate each other (unless forced) even if the move resulted in own defeat, and pushed * to the runner-up spot.
But frankly it's tedious to 'prove' someone secretly communicating, so whatever.

*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.
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NeanderthalMan
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Re: Tichu partners who cheat by privately communicating during play

Post by NeanderthalMan »

RobertBr wrote: 17 June 2021, 06:16Unfortunately 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. ...

A basic reminder of statistics (you've made a post that implies that you do not understand so you've no cause for offence) ...
Cards aren't passed at random, there's intentionality and conventional/optimal approaches to passing when playing within the normal unknowns. A partnership ignoring such approaches and always successfully giving cards (regardless of rank) to their partner that make bombs and complete combos—breaking their own straights and trips to do so—is extremely unlikely over the course of a game and multiple plays.

Either some people privately communicate (cheat) with their partners or none do. If the former is true, you'd expect to see exactly these patterns in game and over time between colluding partners. In contrast, among the top ranked partnerships in BGA Tichu, missed opportunities in passing are prevalent, as you'd expect from two players in a team who aren't certain what the other holds. With the colluding partnerships, there are no misses. The circumstantial evidence of collusion in these cases is such that it can't be handwaved by general probabilities and condescension.
Last edited by NeanderthalMan on 22 June 2021, 04:17, edited 3 times in total.
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gwakyu
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Re: Tichu partners who cheat by privately communicating during play

Post by gwakyu »

RobertBr wrote: 17 June 2021, 06:16 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.
For the 1st example, there were only 7 rounds in the game and 4 out of 7 passes showed that they were potentially cheating.
You can watch the replay from the opponents' point of view to get a full picture. If you have a few singletons in your hand, you won't pass the lowest card to your partner while passing some larger cards to your opponents. :?
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tchobello
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Joined: 18 March 2012, 13:19

Re: Tichu partners who cheat by privately communicating during play

Post by tchobello »

There should be a recall of cards drawn and given at the end of each round.

It should make cheating easier to detect and prevent.
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gwakyu
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Re: Tichu partners who cheat by privately communicating during play

Post by gwakyu »

We've identified another potential pair of cheaters (@* & @*). It is not usual for a team to have 10 bombs in a game.

Check out the replay, especially Move #415, @* passed 2 to @* to complete a quad bomb.
*

*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.
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NeanderthalMan
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Re: Tichu partners who cheat by privately communicating during play

Post by NeanderthalMan »

kayucheng wrote: 21 June 2021, 04:43 We've identified another potential pair of cheaters *
You're right. Full analysis *. They've been added to the OP.

Most flagrant example I've seen, undeniable because the game was long and had many hands, all featuring the same passing trends. The only plausible explanation for passing that consistently defies both convention and probability is that they knew what the other held and would be passing to them.

An unequivocal indicator of collusion between partners is that there is never a missed opportunity, passing consistently beats the odds and provides the exact card needed whenever the other has it—manufacturing bombs and other combos.

9 out of 10 (!) bombs held by * and * were created by passes between themselves (the other was dealt). You and your partner had 4, 3 of which were from low cards passed by opponents and 1 from the deal.

Glad you were still able to pull out the win.
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KenH
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Re: Tichu partners who cheat by privately communicating during play

Post by KenH »

Unfortunately, where there is online Tichu, there is cheating. Best way to avoid this is to always play with people you know or insist on random partners instead of allowing cheaters to play together.

This has been a problem on BSW for years and many people know who to avoid.

Other online Tichu sites have a way to report potential cheating and then those passes are voted on by the community. If those players are considered cheaters, they are banned.
santhosh163
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Joined: 03 July 2021, 18:26

Re: Tichu partners who cheat by privately communicating during play

Post by santhosh163 »

Its good to see a compiled list. I think its upto each individual person to see for him/herself the proof and decide whether they want to play with the specific opponent or not. I have redflagged all the people where I think proof is sufficient.
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