[chcaviar]

All too often I notice there is one player lingering in a game. Somehow they manage to get into the best contract and play the hand perfectly according to the distribution. I suspect these players have two sign ins and are cheating. Am I being paranoid?

[a_user]

Could work if kibbitzing is allowed and they used a second computer with a different IP address.
Rule number 1. Don't play bridge for money.

[johnu]

chcaviar, on 2025-June-07, 16:29, said:

All too often I notice there is one player lingering in a game. Somehow they manage to get into the best contract and play the hand perfectly according to the distribution. I suspect these players have two sign ins and are cheating. Am I being paranoid?

What game are you talking about? Robot game? Paid game? ACBL/National Org game?

[mikeh]

You are describing a pattern that was prominent during Covid lockdown games online. Several top name professional players, including players with world championships to their names, were convicted of cheating…indeed several confessed, although iirc only when told they were about to be charged….they got lighter penalties for these (imo) convenient confessions.

I helped the ACBL deal with lesser lights….usually husband and wife pairs playing in online club games.

What you do about it depends on where this happens. You can and imo should report this to BBO if it’s happening there. If it’s on another platform, check to see if they are set up to allow reports of abuse.

Better yet, avoid tables that permit kibitzing. It’s just about impossible for a single player to cheat without self-kibitzing. But understand that a pair can cheat no matter what you do….theres all kinds of ways, from being in the same physical location and talking to each other, or using a phone or instant messenger or screen sharing, etc.

Short of reporting them if you suspect it, there’s nothing you can do other than note who they are and refuse to play against them.

Btw, most self kibitzers end up cheating in such flagrant ways that it becomes easy to prove cheating.

Further btw, don’t read into this any need to be paranoid about tables that allow kibitzing. The great majority of players are honest. It’s just that self kibitzing affords the ethically challenged an opportunity they seem unable to resist.

[AL78]

In one sense no, it does happen and at my former club there was at least one pair (a married couple) that were found guilty of cheating in BBO club games. On the other hand, despite what some at that former club believe*, I would like to think that the number of people who cheat at online bridge is in the minority and that the vast majority of the time, you will be playing in a fair game. It is much easier to cheat paying online compared to F2F but that doesn't mean almost everyone is doing it.

*I recall some people disliking online bridge because they believed cheating was rife.