[kmck95415]

Lately I have been watching a 'team' of at least 13 IDs, who I'm certain are all the same person. If the main ID, 0-------n, is on there will be exactly 2 of the other IDs on too--1 to partner and 1 to kibitz. The kibitzer will be swapped out every so often, but there is always 1 kibitzer at the table. The opponents never seem to be aware that there is a kib at the table.

I have reported to abuse, but it is still happening.

My question is: could there be a way for opponents landing at a table with a kibitzer (especially a single kib) to be alerted that someone is watching? Or for a message to the table when the first kibitzer arrives? Or a message to the table every so often when there has been a single constant kibitzer? Players might at least wonder about unlikely results if they knew there was a kib. Players look at "results", not the tab that shows who is kibitzing. Another idea would be to give players the option to choose: "take me to a table that does not allow kibitzing" or "take me to a table that has no kibitzers".

Some months ago on this forum, I suggested that the default for starting a table be "no kibitzers" or "permission required to kibitz". That idea did not go over and would not help anyway when the cheater starts the table. My point then was the same as now--these people do not know there is a kibitzer at the table.

thanks for listening...Kathleen McKenna

[steve2005]

In the main room you can see table you can join and if there are any kibitzers and if kibitzers require permission to join table or if they are not allowed. If there are kibitzers you do have to join table to see who they are.
If you are really concerned I suggest you set up your own table the way you want.

As for cheating, you have to be patient even if evidence is damning it takes a while and other instances for bbo to be able to act. Also there is not much preventing user just using another username. Blocking the user seems the right thing to do..

[GrahamJson]

You have my sympathy and support. I have reported cheaters twice before. In both cases several times. They no longer play here so I guess they eventually got banned, although they may well have just changed their ID.

One of these cases was similar to yours, with two partners, who only ever played with each other, being almost certainly the same person. In this case it was obvious that they/he were cheating from their bidding and play. They frequently opened or overcalled on shortages, including singletons, thereby preventing oppo finding their fits. Sometimes they would bid all around the houses before eventually magically arriving at the perfect contract. Using these methods they would get a positive imp score on almost every hand. Just about the only time their oppo managed to get a good score was when oppo dealt and opened the bidding and had good enough hands such that the cheater could not come I'm without risking a massive penalty.

The other cheater played with random partners but was obviously also kibbing. He never took a losing finesse and frequently took anti percentage lines which just happpened to work. In one case he used Blackwood, found an ace to be missing but still bid seven. Dummy turned up with an undisclosed void. He then played a trump suit of AKJxx opposite xxx by cashing AK and dropping the offside queen. And no, there were no clues from the bidding or play to suggest this line of play. However what was most annoying about this particular cheater was that he would criticise the others at the table and would boast about how good he was. If anyone asked how he came up with his "lucky" lines of play he would tell them that they wouldn't understand as they weren't an expert like he was. If fact it was his awful table manners that made me determined to report him more than his obvious cheating.

Why these people do this I have no idea. In the first case above I initially thought it was probably a teenager new to the game having a joke. But he would play dozens of boards a day, far to many for it to be that. In the second case it was clearly to bask in the limelight, as he tended to attract many kibs, most of whom realised what was up and watched merely to see how blatant his cheating would be that day.

[xbabarx]

if you repot @ abuse..bbo take time..it should be faster

[barmar]

BBO is supposed to be a friendly place. While we would like to get rid of cheaters as much as possible, we're not going to make the defaults based on paranoia about them. That sets the wrong tone.