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If you might recall from it's intro, "The Dark Side: Cheating at Euchre" was written for the sole purpose of informing people who play euchre for money how they might avoid being ripped off.
I wasn't really concerned with Joe Schmoe jacking his Yahoo! rating up to 50 bazillion+ by unfair means. Methods that one could use to cheat online are so simple that virtually anybody can figure out how to do it. Simply talking to your partner on the telephone while you are playing is a strength that can prove unbeatable. No rocket science here. No skill or sleight of hand required! If you are capable of dialing your partner's telephone number then you can cheat your ass off at online euchre!
The question here is, for what? So you have a high rating. Big deal! You can't buy anything at the store with it. No round of drinks at Kelsey's Pub. No gas for your '74 Gremlin. Why on Earth would anyone want to spend any time playing a game on a computer and cheat at it with no real reward for doing it?
Clyde McSnerdley - rating 11,867 on Yahoo!
I think the answer as to why someone would cheat in most cases is just to be a "big-shot" with a big rating. Most of us wouldn't find it a whole lot of fun playing euchre if you always knew what your partner's cards were.
Then there are those who just seem to like ruining a good thing. Those are the guys that will actually enjoy online cheating.
In case you just think that I am just jealous because I don't have a high rating and am paranoid in thinking that everyone else is cheating, maybe I had better explain my position on this matter.
First of all, I don't think the majority of online players are cheating. I am quite positive that some of them are though. You would be correct to think that I don't have a very high rating however. I don't really like to spend a lot of time playing euchre online. I'm more of a hit and run player. I'll play anyone just to get a game going right away.
As far as paranoia goes, no. I have seen obvious cheaters online. I saw a guy just a few months ago with a rating over 10,000 on Yahoo! He came into a room where my partner and I were at and looked around, but would not play with us. He said he only needed a few more consecutive wins to make a streak of 1000 games in row! I took a peek at his profile while my partner was talking to him and noticed that most of his games were with the same partner against the same two opponents. Actually all of the games that I looked at were exactly the same match-up and he had won over 990 games in a row!
Now, how many players do you know that will sit in the same room with the same partner and lose several hundred games in a row? Doesn't seem very likely.
Also, I believe that probability almost completely rules out the possiblity of an honest 1000 game winning streak. Even if you play with all of the cards face-up and the opponents try to help you, it still seems possible that you might lose a game eventually.
A live euchre league I once played for kept percentage stats of all of their players and very few ever had much higher than a 65% win ratio for very long. Many of these guys were strong players with years of experience.
That makes it even more difficult for me to phathom the possibility of online players with over a 90% + win ratio over a long haul.
With telephones and instant messengers and such, there is no doubt in my mind that some players online cheat.
Playing online for Money
Sister Mary Olliphant - rating 1297
I can remember one time dealing poker at a riverboat casino and an old guy joked that he always lost at Texas Hold-em over the telephone. "What 'chyoo got? Damn, ya' beat me again!"
Today there are perhaps thousands of websites online that allow actual gambling. Everything from sports to blackjack and even slots are available. It's hard for me to imagine giving up my credit card number to gamble on something over the computer. Can you trust that somebody makes sure that these games of chance are fair?
In case you didn't know about it, you can now play euchre online at Yahoo! for money! Yes, that's right, if you just go to the picture at the right and click on it, the hyperlink will take you to a club where you can join and set up an account through "Pay Pal" where you can play money euchre tournaments. The average tournaments cost around $2-$5 with the entire pot going to the winner.
To be totally fair to the Euchre 4 Money Club, I have never played one of their tournaments. The main reason is, I just can't trust that this game is on the level. The founders of the club may be a good bunch of friendly euchre players just having a little fun but somebody out there might decide to get in it just for the money. It's not the $2 that I mind losing, it's the way I lose it that would bother me. These tourneys are played 2 or 3 times a week. With 20-30 players in it, this could become a nice little hobby for a lascivious character and his cohort.
When it comes to gambling, it's really not a good practice to trust much of anything. Money will attract a bad element many times. I think I'll settle for the little $5 tourney that I like to have at the house with real cards and real people that I can keep an eye on! -Harv
Dear Harv,
How come you don't mention anything about cheating online in your cheating pages? I play euchre online all the time and I think a lot of the players are cheating. Sometimes they just seem to get too lucky. I always wonder what is going on when a player takes unusually long to bid.
Frank
Detroit, MI
