26
I know you don't want answers that say, "Talk to them, and tell them that you think cheating is wrong", but, honestly, it's players distaste for direct confrontation that allows cheating to happen. Cheaters prosper only because we let them get away with it. If you see it happening and you can prove it, don't tolerate it. No one wants a cheater in their ...
21
As I see it, you have three options that aren't "stop playing with them". In all situations, you're going to have to accept that cheating might happen in the game.
Add incentives not to cheat (such as the answer from Kevin about automatically losing the game, or a game appropriate penalty, such as stealing a card from the offending player)
Change the rules ...
19
Make sure you know the policy on rares - will rares be re-drafted at the end? Do you keep all rares you draft? Is it a 'winner-chooses' system? Most of the time you'll keep what you draft, but not always.
Talking about the cards you're drafting is generally frowned upon - reading signals and predicting what your opponents are drafting is a big part of the ...
14
When playing games that are supposed to eliminate some of the players and then speed up, you can always play as teams.
In my group games with that kind of mechanic do not work, we are simply either too competitive or too strategic to come to an entertaining experience for everyone.
This lead us to play in teams so that if one 'player' loses there are ...
13
There's two schools of thought on this subject - one is that you can do anything unless the rules say you can't, the other is that you can only do what the rules say you can. I believe there's a better argument for the second case, because the rules are generally written to define the game, and can't expressly prohibit everything you might try to do. The ...
13
What is legal?
Cards go on the stack when you cast them. They remain there until they resolve or are otherwise removed from the stack.
According the the Tournament Rules, the current zone of any object is free information. The stack is a zone. Therefore, the presence of an object on the stack is free information.
It does not matter where the card ...
11
3:1 trades are not unfair; they're bank rate. At which point the trading partner should simply trade with the bank, as that is a winning strategy. Anything better than 2:1 is better than dedicated port trades, and is only useful when you will gain more than your trade partner.
My recommendations for curing both at once are straightforward, but brutal. And ...
11
Law 20 of The Laws of Duplicate Bridge deals with review and explanation of calls. Quoting partially:
F. Explanation of Calls
During the auction and before the final pass, any
player may request, but only at his own turn to
call, an explanation of the opponents’ prior auction.
He is entitled to know about calls actually
made, about ...
9
The games you are talking about are ones that possess a positive feedback loop for players who are in the lead, causing them to continue to be in the lead in an exponential way. This is generally considered bad game design for the exact reason you are implying. As such, you have two simple options:
Stop playing these games, due to their flaw.
Create house ...
9
Victor Mollo addressed this problem in one of his books (I forget which). His suggestion, if you wished to stop and think at your turn of play, was to place the card you plan to play face down on the table, announcing that you were playing that card, and then do your thinking. Provided your thinks don't take inordinately long, no-one will complain.
9
Incorporate the cheating into the game. I don't know how well this ports to all games, but when I was in the Army, we use to play with a house rule in Spades that if you got caught reneging, the hand was immediately over, the reneging team lost their bid and the other team automatically made theirs. Before that, there was constant fighting between the two ...
9
It's usually easier to prevent these things than it is to fix them.
Set the mood
Make sure everyone's doing alright. Put on some music, get some food and drinks on the table (or a lot of drinks, if you really want to be sure).
Pick the right game
The type of games can also make a big difference. Some games are really harsh on those who fall behind. There's ...
8
The idea behind playing in the upper right first is so that White doesn't have to reach far to play his first move. The corner immediately in front of him on his right is left open.
So the third stone goes in the lower right corner, from Black's viewpoint.
[Edit as per the comments: Move order for 9 stones]
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$| ....
8
How about adding a new rule to the game you're playing. Let the cheater play a cheating position, either openly or hidden, with the agreed limitation that he or she can't possibly win; or else they must keep track of every cheat they do and get scored on how well they cheated with the possibility of wining that way. Most times it's not about defeating your ...
8
I believe that cases 1-3 are all ethical, but these are simple problems that should have been solved at the end of some earlier trick (In duplicate bridge, after all the cards to a trick have been faced, players should indicate that they are thinking about the hand by keeping their card face up. Play does not proceed until all players have turned their cards ...
7
I think you have to understand the game sufficiently to gauge whether the information really is secret or not. For games where information isn't secret due to being calculatable, it sounds like a good, sporting house rule to instead play openly rather than punishing less acute players.
Good etiquette would mean communicating why you wish to invoke this ...
6
In general, king making is contentious.
In my mind, it's best reserved for when it will allow ending a game "Now-ish" in order to either facilitate a different, more generally enjoyable game, or to allow players to leave.
There are a few other conditions where I find it less than unacceptable. These basically boil down to "not letting A have a runaway ...
6
I'll take the other side here.
Keeping private notes is always ok (unless the rules specifically forbid it.)
When I'm playing a game like Settlers of Catan, I can keep track of what other players have in their hands without too much difficulty. Am I acting against the rules by simply remembering what's happened so far?
Using a piece of scrap paper to ...
6
It is perfectly acceptable to observe other matches.
If you are not currently playing, and you are not a judge, then you are a spectator by definition. There are a few rules governing spectators mentioned in the Tournament Rules.
Players may request (via a judge) that you not observe their matches. You may not make notes while drafting. You may not place ...
6
There is no rule that specifically governs the physical location of cards on the stack, so you should put them wherever makes the game state clearest. That usually means that you should put them in an actual stack in the play area.
Since Instants and Sorceries go to the graveyard when they resolve, if you put them in the graveyard immediately, you are ...
6
If your goal is to keep that same game fun even though you're certain to lose, then perhaps you could rebalance on the fly by choosing a more attainable goal, e.g. "We can't deal 15 damage and win, but how about we try to reach 12."
However, if your goal is to have fun playing games, you could also just concede and use the time you save to play again (or ...
6
This is a common problem in come strategy games where a "tipping point" is reached, after which victory is assured for one player or faction, but the end game conditions are such that play must nevertheless continue.
Sid Meier's Civilization tends to have this problem, but it also occurs not infrequently in Go. In the latter case, the losing player will ...
5
Do you value strategic decision-making and technically-precise play? If so, my advice is that it's not worth it to play with cheaters, because their "game within the game" gets in the way of actually experiencing the game. It's possible to play serious and deep games against cheaters within a tournament structure, but that involves tights rules for managing ...
5
Every tournament has its own specific rules, but I've never seen one that hasn't required the use of the latest/greatest rules sets available, both for the game itself and the army. There are often additional restrictions, e.g. banned items or characters, troop limits etc, as well as model requirements (minimal painting requirements, no use of non-GW models, ...
5
Make the first eliminated player be "the banker." When more than one player is eliminated, they should start another game.
Like the banker in Monopoly, they'll hand out all cards/tokens, make change, and manipulate pieces that aren't controlled by a player directly. It's not that fun, but it keeps them participating, and they can heckle all-the-while.
...
5
Always - it is a recommended action.
As Declarer I always pause for the 5 or so seconds you recommend when Dummy comes down; as East I will do so (by initially playing my card to the first trick face down) whenever Declarer has been so discourteous and undiscerning as to not do so. Occasionally I have to pause longer, for particularly complex hands, but I ...
4
Essentially, yes you can. Simply do not turn over the card played to a trick until you are finished thinking about the hand.
In fact, East in your example may not pause to consider the whole hand before playing to the first trick (unless that is necessary to determine which card to play to the trick). Instead they must usually play immediately to the trick, ...
4
Casinos are much like any other business; if they want, they can tell you that you are no longer welcome for any reason, or no reason at all. There are some exceptions, primarily the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prevents "places of public accomodation" (basically any property that welcomes the average Joe coming in off the street) from refusing service ...
4
Tom Sloper, an apparently very experienced American player, writes about etiquette. It turns out that "One person's bad etiquette is another person's official rule" - so you have to adapt. There is a huge difference between tournament play and casual games with friends. Also, you need to consider house rules. In the end, there is a definite answer to your ...
4
In games I play where 2 of the players are very experienced and 1-2 players are less experienced/cutthroat, then much advice is freely given/taken and that pretty much solves it.
For example, let's say my 6 year old son really needs a brick to build a settlement and he has an unneeded sheep and 2 ores. I may offer him the brick for 2 ores and a sheep but ...
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