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BGonline.org Forums
What Are the Odds? -- LMAO
Posted By: Bill Riles
Date: Sunday, 1 June 2008, at 11:29 p.m.
I got another lesson in my on-line server cynicism today.
For the first time in a long time I played a little on-line for money this weekend. I played a LONG 19-point match this afternoon with an opponent. It took 14 games and 426 moves. I didn't specifically note the times but we're talking 3-4 hours here.
The opponent took something approaching the allowable two minutes for almost every move -- so, yes, I was playing almost all afternoon. But, the naive, trusting side of me thought maybe the foreign opponent had a slow connection and was a deliberate player. He also had the match on mute so there was no opportunity to question -- not that I wanted to talk a lot anyway.
He got out way ahead 11-4/19 and I clawed back to trail 12-9/19. Then I lost a 4-cube gammon for the match that could have easily gone the other way without a saving 5-5 for the opponent.
I'm thinking all along that I'm playing fairly well and this opponent is really pretty good. A fun, challenging match.
While bemoaning my last game bad fortune I ran the match through Snowie. The opponent, on a 3-ply evaluation of the match played 1.01 !!!
Now, in my experience and in my opinion, no one -- not Ballard, Falafel, Lyllhof, Tardieu, Kazaross, Sax, Woolsey, or others -- plays 1.01 for a 14-game, 426 move match.
The bells went off -- no wonder he was so slow. I was playing someone using a bot !!
Once again my decision to rarely, if ever, play on-line for money is ratified. So, I'm sure it will be even longer before I do it again. The servers seem not to care as long as they're making their rake. I sent them a scathing e-mail citing the evidence, but I'm not holding my breath on a response.
Such cheating is one of the biggest obstacles to increasing backgammon's popularity -- because the growth certainly needs to occur in some significant measure on-line. As has poker.
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