This is really a rhetorical question because I am convinced that the program (Hearts card game) by Microsoft DOES in fact cheat.I first noticed it on XP. But, I've REALLY noticed it on Vista. Here is what I mean.
I've played X amount of games. The game keeps track of overall stats. Whenever I go over a 38% win rate (which isn't really all that hot but it's respectable) the program starts to gain up on me and kick my ass. I mean, seriously. I get dealt hands that NO ONE could do anything with. I will lose over and over again; then, once I drop back down to 37%, I will start to win again (I'll be dealt hands that any idiot could shoot the moon with).
This has happened over and over again. I cannot get past 38%!
I looked this up on Google and someone said, "Well, I don't think it is cheating, rather, like with "real" people, once one person starts to get ahead, the computer might attempt to "gang up on you".
Ok, this is true. If you are playing with REAL people that are half-way respectable, they will, in likelihood, "gang up on you" if you are out ahead.
But, this is NOT what happens with the program. No, not at all. First off, "real people" can't deal you particular rotten hands over and over and over again. And, "real people" won't allow someone else to shoot the moon just to get YOU (not in my experience, anyway). But, the program continually allows one of the other players to shoot the moon (whilst I sit by unable to stop them and watch my opponents throw the Ace of Hearts or something on someone trying to shoot the moon...I mean...DUH!)
Obviously, this blog entry is meant to be somewhat mindless. A ramble, a rant. Man, this pisses me off, though, which is why I am writing about it.
I played one game this afternoon and just hit 38% AGAIN. Any guesses as to who will NOT win the next game?
Mrs. B
1,588 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 801 – 1000 of 1588 Newer› Newest»The game has an interesting grudge built into it I guess. It seems like whenever you get your winning percentage up near 60% it goes into this super cheat kind of mode where it gives you games that you just can't win. How strange. This isn't a slot machine you know.
Response to a recent post....
I know what you mean about the protection of the "chosen one". It's completely laughable because it's so friggin' obvious. If you should be so lucky to actually throw a few points at him toward the end of the game, the game will almost certainly hit you right back on the very next hand. Those are games that no matter what you do, you are not going to be ALLOWED to win. Yes, that's right. This game allows you to win at times and not win at other times. It has nothing to do with your actual Hearts playing ability.
Here's a recent example of one of those games that you just are not going to win because it's already been decided that this game will be won by the chosen one:
Hand-S,W,N,E
1-1,0,3,22
2-4,22,0,0
3-13,0,0,13
4-0,14,1,11
5-6,0,0,20
6-1,24,1,0
7-26,26,0,26 (the guarantee)
8-4,0,0,22
Cumulative Scores by hand:
1-1,0,3,22
2-5,22,3,22
3-18,22,3,35
4-18,36,4,46
5-24,36,4,66
6-25,60,5,66
7-51,86,5,92
8-55,86,5,114
So the chosen one goes 8 hands and only picks up 5 points. Here are some other interesting observations. I was passed the QS 4 times and dealt it 2 times, both of these being on the two no pass hands in the game. I was also dealt the 2C on both no pass hands. Out of the 8 hands that made up this game, we had the x-x-0-0 or the x-x-0-1 scoring results 7 times, the only other hand being the moon shot by the chosen one.
So, there's the proof in the pudding that this game is completely rigged.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out why it is so damn important to make the human lose. The "strategies" have nothing to do with making a competitive game. The cards are rigged to make you lose certain games. Period.
Ugh! I finally broke my 'Win Three Games In A Row' barrier but then I got cock and went for four in a row. It was a nightmare. The cards got worse with every hand. I played super-cautiously. At the end I was on 96 and the other three players were all in the 70s. Final hand: I played a (in my humble opinion) brilliant game with a nothing hand and shot the moon! But, alas, I had miscalculated: two of the hands broke 100 but the other one came in at 94. So I lost after all. No-one can beat four-in-a-row. Sigh.
That strategy to which you refer is actually the "game's" fatal flaw. The primary goal of any computer game is to maintain the player's interest in the game. The blatant card rigging utilized in this game's programming does just the opposite. Thus, if the programmers who designed this game were responsible for actually putting out a game that could be sold, they would have been sacked and the game thrown out. That sounds like ultimate failure of a game to me.
I love how the game throws in a guaranteed moon shot for the chosen one in the last few hands of a game to ensure that you won't be able to overtake his lead. Many times the bots, who, as you know, all work for the same team, that being the game trying to defeat you (say, that's not how Hearts actually works), will throw the AH to the chosen one right on a break of hearts. Gee, that sure makes things easier for him. Of course, you won't have a single card to stop the run either since the cards are stacked perfectly for the golden one.
As if it really needs to be said again, but here goes.
This game is entirely phony!
All it ever does it keep passing you the high spades (as well as the two of clubs) at a totally unbelievable rate of occurrence.
I might play a game or two every now and then, but otherwise the sheer repetitiveness of the card stacking bores me to tears. Frankly, I don't know why they even bother to continue to include with windows.
Yeah, I don't understand it either as to why they keep trotting out this pitiful game with every update of Windows. I don't think there is a more manipulated game out there.
I've played games where I've been passed the queen of spades on more than 80% of the hands in a game. That's sort of like tossing a coin 100 times and having it come up heads 99 times. Is it possible? Of course. Is it probable? Not in the least.
why do i get all my points on the 4th, 8th and 12th hands? oh, yeah, the game is fixed like that.
Yes, it cheats. But most people already know that. The bigger question is WHY did they suck all the fun out of the game by rigging it. Big mistake for them.
That is a good question. One of my profs at school studied this game and proved that the game was indeed rigged. I guess he had some of his grad students run a whole bunch of games and backtrack to what the "dealt" hands would have been. He showed us the resulting odds that backed up his assertions. The question then came up as to why the game would have been designed this way. There were several theories tossed out but the class concluded that ultimately it didn't matter because we felt it actually ruined the game in the end.
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was that the prof showed us how the bots will withhold throwing points at one another when they have the opportunity to throw them at you, indicating that the game is actively playing against you rather than taking a neutral position as a fair game would.
One last thing...
On those 25-1-0-0 hands he showed us how the cards are exactly distributed to prevent the player (most likely you) from achieving a moon shot but getting stuck with 25 points. This occurs fairly routinely in this game whereas it would hardly ever occur in the real world (where card stacking and collusion are NOT involved).
This game is a real piece. It cheats, misdeals, moves cards from one hand to another, protects a player while another takes tricks to gain points and beat you.
Send an e-mail to SteveB@microsoft.com
Mention this blog and any other you know of. Let's make them fix this piece of crap. I sent an e-mail, the response was it's not programed to cheat. Well, obviously they don't play it or they would understand our frustration.
Not programed to cheat?!? What the hell do you it? I've had the "cutesy play" pulled on me 20 times in the last 9 games (4 times in one game). I'm averaging getting dealt a singleton spade twice a game (and of course passed the queen). It's like the game is showing me all it's cheats just 'cuz it can.
Not programmed to cheat? That's just a big fat lie, pure and simple.
Ask them this then: how can you keep getting dealt the 2 of clubs on no pass hands (many times along with the Ace of clubs)? I've had the 2 of clubs on every no pass hand in some games multiple times. Statistically extremely, extremely improbable. Something like getting struck by lightening twice in your lifetime.
I too suspect that the cards in the three bot hands are not actually dealt but are just placeholders. Play oddly sometimes to test this for yourself. It still seems like the bots will have just the right card to counteract your unorthodox style of play.
In other words, MS's response is BS and they know it.
I love those games where you lose by just one or two points to the chosen one, even after having survived a bunch of terribly rigged hands. On that last hand of the game, you'll get just enough points to lose when one of the bots goes bust but yet the chosen one will just seem to have every perfect card to escape getting any points. If all else fails, one of the bots will fall on the sword for the chosen one as well. More proof that the game is not credible.
So MS has a cheat AND a liar on the payroll? If the deal is NOT random, it is cheating. I don't think anyone could swear in court that the deal is random. I get dealt the QS over 70% of the time on "no-pass" hands. And over 50% of the time with only one or two defenders. Lately I've been getting QS, 6S about 25% of "no-pass" hands - has to be a programed set.
A selective deal IS cheating and anyone who has played a decent amount of games can tell you that the deals are rigged to the detriment of the human player.
Yep, a cheat to program the game, a liar to deny it, now we need a perjuror to swear to it.
I could swear that on those hands where you get stuck with 25 points that one of the bots is holding back a heart in violation of the rules. Anyone else ever get that feeling?
I wanted to check out the "cutesy play"(5,4,3,2 of hearts) odds so I dug out a deck of cards and, just for grins, dealt 50 hands (admittedly a small sample). There were 6 "cutesy's" in the 50 hands. Remarkably they were distributed 2E,1S,1W,2N getting the 5H. Hell, I've gotten the 5H myself on a "cutesy" 10 times in a 50 hand stretch.
Another thing I paid note of was singleton spades. I got dealt a singleton spade ONCE in the 50 hands. I was dealt a singleton spade 4 hands in row in a recent MS game (including KS on the hold-em hand).
Tell old Lyin' Steve his game cheats, facts is facts.
Hehe
I've renamed one of my bots Lyin' Steve
Here's why this game is BS.
Current game, hand #11 just completed, score stands at:
S-31
W-39
N-93
E-97(has held at 97 for last 3 hands)
Hand #12, S dealt the following hand:
Clubs-Q,J,9,8,6,5
Diamonds-Q,2
Spades-A,K,5
Hearts-A,3
North leads with 2C, East throws the AC (I discard my QC). East of course leads out with 2S, I throw my only protector the 5S and I TAKE THE TRICK?? I risk it by throwing the QD and take the trick right back, so I lead out with my 2D to void me in that suit. North takes that trick and naturally leads out with the 6S and I take the trick but the QS does not get thrown by E or W. Hmmm. It appears N must be holding it. Hearts has not been broken yet but it represents my other danger since I hold so many of them. Is N void in clubs? Maybe. Do I have the cards for a moon shot? With only one low heart in my hand, I probably don't. So, I throw out my lowest club and hope for the best. Guess what. N is void in clubs and throws the QS on me, W breaks hearts with the 10H and E has a lower club. I just picked up 14 points and now have to lead out again. Can I complete a moonshot now? It's highly unlikely since I'm sure one of the bots will hold back one of the hearts at the end. So I have two options really. Go for the moonshot and pray or try to get as many points to W for the rest of the hand and hope that one of the other bots doesn't bust so the game can continue. Based on my experience with this game, neither option will likely pan out. I go for the latter as I'm sure my moonshot will get ruined on that very last trick where a heart comes out but one of the other players has a higher card. Or if I lead out with a club a heart will get thrown right away and E will take the trick and then throw hearts until I have to play my AH. So, I just try to escape with as little damage as possible and hope one of the bots doesn't bust.
Of course, it doesn't work out that way. Here's the scoring on hand #12:
S-15 (thanks you rigged game)
W-6
N-0
E-5
So, the final scores were as follows:
S-46 (second place yet again)
W-45
N-93
E-102
Give me a break. I've played way too many games just like this so I know for a fact that the game is entirely rigged, which, as I stated at the outset, is complete BS. In other words, this game has no credibility in the gaming world.
I've played so many games just like the one you describe and totally agree with you.
Any game where you can routinely take the queen of spades with the 4 of clubs or the 4 of diamonds is corrupt. I mean it can happen occasionally in a real game but no way in hell with the regularity that it occurs in this game. I guess that about sums up this game. It doesn't function in the real world. Honestly, I don't know why they throw this junk on your computer with Windows.
Yup. It is a pretty crappy game the way they've obviously rigged the cards.
I think they need to get a new deck too. It seems like the 2 and Ace of Clubs keep sticking together. I've lost track of how many hands I've gotten both of those cards dealt to me in a hand.
My only gripe is that the computer players will not wreck an attempt by another computer player to shoot the moon. The computer player will discard high hearts when another computer player is shooting the moon. But if the human player is shooting the moon, the computer players wisely hold high hearts til the end. That's not really cheating.
For all the other BS about "cheating", I suggest this website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
It's like I've said before, the purpose is to make you LOSE-not make the game competitive. Anyone who has played has seen this crap over and over and over.
My last two games were the same basic scenario as yours. One game I was leading br 9 points, got dealt void in hearts, got passed A,K,Q of hearts, took 11 points and lost by two. Next game I was leading by 10, held the 5H, and 3 spades (only spades remaining, queen was gone). Got the f****** "cutesy play" and, of course, took all remaining tricks and 12 points. Third time that game for the "cutesy". Tell me again that calling the game a cheat is BS.
I've got one that "proves" the bots "looks" in your hand. Last hand, one of the patsies had busted and I was up by 3 on the chosen one. I held the KH and 3 small diamonds. North leads the QH! I take the 4-pt. trick and lose by 1. I watched north's remaning cards - 6C, 8D, 9D. What a stroke of genius to lead the QH on the off chance that the human (who you are trying to beat) holds the lone KH out of the 5 remaining hearts.
Check out this ridiculous game I just played. There were 3 moonshots (2 by the chosen one) in just 7 hands!
Scores by hand were:
1-26,26,0,26
2-1,3,13,9
3-0,18,7,1
4-26,0,26,26
5-0,11,2,13
6-0,11,13,2
7-26,0,26,26
Game over. Cumulative scores by hand were:
1-26,26,0,26 (North leads)
2-27,29,13,35 (North leads)
3-27,47,20,36 (gaining on North)
4-53,47,46,62 (kiss that goodbye)
5-53,58,48,75 (there's still hope)
6-53,69,61,77 (I take the lead!)
7-79,69,87,103 (third moon shot wins game for West)
And they really expect us to believe that this game is legit?
The "confirmation bias" angle is interesting, indeed, and I'm sure plays a role to an extent. We're probably all a little guilty of remembering the "bad beats" to a larger extent than they actually occur. That being said, I have actually kept charts on certain card distibutions and found them to be well out of statistical norms. One example is being dealt the QS as a singleton on hold-em hands.
I was dealt QS as a singleton then 12 other cards as singletons, then the QS, then 7 other cards, then the QS, then 14 other cards, then the QS. then 22 other cars, then the QS. That makes 5 times for the QS in about 60 cards, when it should be 2.
I have absolutely no doubt that the cards are not dealt randomly, which means even a small shift in the odds can skew results. What if you added an extra ace to a deck in blackjack? Or removed a face card? If odds say you should be dealt an ace once every 10 hands and you rigged it to once every 5 hands, how would your evening of blackjack go? I think you'd win a lot of money and bad things would happen if you were caught.
Well put.
The probabilities that this game produces are light years beyond statistical norms. Our class project demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that the cards are not randomly distributed, i.e., actually dealt as in a real Hearts game.
Conclusion: the game is rigged.
I totally agree. It's so blatantly rigged that in the final analysis the programmers ultimately failed to achieve the goal of any game designer, that being to keep the players interested in the game. Why would anyone want to keep playing any game once they realize it's rigged. Answer: they don't.
Again, you get what you pay for. MS couldn't sell this product if they wanted to, it's just that poorly designed. Oh well, keep throwing it out with every successive flawed version of Windows.
The game will stop at no amount of rigging the cards to try to make you lose. Why is this? The game should be neutral as far as you winning or losing is concerned. The deals should be random, which they are not, and the outcome should be the outcome. All else being equal, you should expect to win around 25% of the games you play. That isn't true with this game at all. It's easy to win at a better rate than that but it doesn't really mean anything in the end. It doesn't really reflect anything about your Hearts playing ability when you're playing a rigged game. The reason you're allowed to win quite a few games is to compensate for the rigging that goes on. If it did not and you consistently lost because of the card rigging, you would lose all interest in playing the game. Thus, the "winning" that you experience playing the game is the counterbalance to all the rigged "deals". In the end though, I think most of us that enjoy playing Hearts would strongly prefer a legitimate game that dealt the cards randomly over this version that clearly uses card rigging in its design.
How many times have you played a game like the following:
Scores by hand:
1-13,2,0,11
2-0,26,26,26
3-1,18,6,1
4-6,3,0,17
5-3,14,5,4
6-1,0,12,13
7-1,2,0,23
8-3,0,23,0 (had to stop N's moon shot or game would end here)
9-22,0,4,0 (dealt an impossible hand)
10-16,0,5,5 (passed the A,K,Q spades all together)
Cum scores by hand:
1-13,2,0,11
2-13,28,26,37
3-14,46,32,38
4-20,49,32,55
5-23,63,37,59
6-24,63,49,72
7-25,65,49,95
8-28,65,72,95
9-50,65,76,95
10-66,65,81,100
And I lose again by 1 point!
Notice that East was kept from busting on hands 8 and 9 while the game could throw me points. Meanwhile, the ultimate winner, West, held steady for the last 3 hands at 65 getting exactly 0 points over those last 3 hands.
It it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck....
Another card disribution I charted was the "cutesy play". A poker-playing buddy worked out the odds of the 5,4,3,2 of hearts being in the 4 respective hands. His calculations wre that it should occur roughly every 8-10 hands. If you held the 5 25% of the time, that means you should be the butt of the "cutesy" every 3-4 games. Acoording to my charts, I held the 5H and took 4 hearts 147 times in 100 games, nearly 5 times the statistical probability. That would be plenty to convict in any court.
Statistical anomalies that MS will not defend:
1. 2,3,4,5 of hearts even distribution
2. 2 of clubs to South on no pass rounds
3. A,K,Q of spades all passed to South at once
4. Q of spades passed to South on pass left
5. Q of spades dealt to South, passed left, replaced with A and or K of spades
6. Cards in all suits dealt to South when leading late in games are all 6 and up
There are many others, but feel free to add yours to the list. When we sent our data to a contact at MS we were promised a reply but never received one after multiple requests. What are they hiding, hmmmm?
Just got the "daily double" again (second time in about 100 games). Dealt the QS as a singleton on the "no-pass" hand (no big surprise there) and then again on NEXT hand. Passed it left, got passed the KS. What are the odds of being dealt ANY card as a singleton on back-to-back hands, much less a SPECIFIC card AND the one card in the deck that causes the most harm?
I never pass the QS to the left. Nine out of ten times it will be followed by the AS or KS or both, and guarantee it will be late in games that you leading in or closing in on the chosen one. Also, for some reason, it seems to repeat this move very frequently on the very first hand (just keep starting a new game over and over and you'll see what I mean), although many times you can escape it on this first hand. You would think that intelligent programmers would have been quite a bit more clever about disguising their card rigging, but, alas, they weren't up to the task. The card rigging is so blatant that I'm sure an 8-year-old playing this game would quickly figure out that they've been had.
You can't tell me that a game that consistently has one player way out ahead of the player who ultimately goes bust isn't fixed. I've seen games where the winner has like 5, 6 or 7 points after 12 or more hands. I guess that player (what you guys call the chosen one) just has the perfect cards hand after hand, eh? Yeah, sure.
I too call bull**** on this game.
Get this. I just played two games in which I was stuck with the Queen in both games by throwing out my 3 of diamonds when the 2 of diamonds was led. First diamond trick led. Both times, the other two players had the Queen of spades and the Ace of spades. It was the exact same play both times. What a freaking coincidence! I don't think so.
Here's further proof that the game cheats. When you're near the end of a trick after the queen is gone and hearts has been broken, watch how the bots will not discard hearts when they "know" that another bot, especially the protected one, will take that trick. They will keep those hearts and throw them on you since they know what's in your hand and can dump them on you in a later trick. It happens all the time, whether you are leading or not. That's proof that the game is only trying to make you lose and not a true game of Hearts at all. If it were, those hearts would be thrown on every player whenever the chance arose. This game clearly does not work that way.
Good one.
What about those hands in which you are attempting a moon shot and that one player holds back the ace of spades and takes your queen on the very last trick? Like any player is actually going to hold that card to the end when they had so many earlier tricks to discard it, knowing the queen was still out there. That play is a sure giveaway that the game cheats.
I agree with the comments above. This game isn't even clever enough to hide its card fixing. My 5th grader played this one day in the car on a trip and asked me why the one player never gets any points. I had to break it to her about how the game was rigged. Her response was priceless, "that's stupid to make a game like that".
Haha. Well, I can tell you for fact that the game reneges on discards. So, the only one actually required to follow the rules of the game is you. I've caught the game plenty of times not throwing out a heart until later or at the end.
Wow, I've always suspected that something funny was going on with this game.
Anyway, don't you hate it when you're playing an interesting game and you're contending with the chosen one only to have the game ruined toward the end by the game kicking into its "super cheat" mode. You know, you get one of those 25-1 hands or hands that look more like Pinochle hands than Hearts hands. For me, it totally sucks the fun out of the game. Many times I don't even bother to finish it. Swoosh. New game or, more often than not, I'll go online to play the real game.
We also spent a little time studying this game in one of my college classes. Once you see the card distributions for each hand, there is no doubt that the game fixes the cards, and thus, is not really playing a fair game with you. The designers really erred with the distributions because they go to both extremes. The even distribution of the 2,3,4, and 5 of hearts has been documented, but there are many other examples once you see the distributions laid out. One example of the other extreme is when you are holding the queen and are up against that one other player who has all the other spades, the other two players being totally void in the suit. Those are just two examples, but like I said there are many others. There's also the lopsided distributions that occur when you look at the weighting of each hand, the weighting based on the value of each card. This is evident even anecdotally by players who find themselves in the lead or challenging late in a game. These are all clear indications of a game design strategy that is based on card fixing.
I forgot to add this one point.
These uneven distributions are why you see so many hands end up with the 0-0-x-x or 0-1-x-x scoring scenarios. These scoring results happen many more times than what occurs in the real game of Hearts where the card distributions are actually random. But since they are not random in this game, you get these types of scores very frequently.
Those are good points. Another way that you can tell the game is rigged against the human player is by the suit led after the first trick. If you are at risk because you hold the A, K, or Q of spades, spades will almost without exception be led out. Sometimes it will skip that first (actually the second) to position itself for where the QS is. Then it will lead out with spades. Likewise, if you are heavy in a suit, many times the suit passed to you, you can guarantee that the game will try to nail you with the queen in this suit by quickly voiding the suit (if it isn't already) in the hand of the player holding the QS.
An honest game wouldn't play like this because it wouldn't know what was in your hand.
Exactly. The game knows at all times what cards you're holding and uses that knowledge against you.
Essentially the game has one goal: to make you lose. It does this mostly by trying to stick you with the queen as often as possible. It doesn't force it out when it's in one of the other players' hands but will always do so when it's in yours (or you're at risk because of the ace or king).
Thus, the game is really pointless as a game of Hearts. They really should name it something else because it clearly isn't Hearts.
You're absolutely right. The card distributions are totally bogus. Take this from someone who has been in game design my entire career. I can assure you that this game is totally, unequivocally rigged through selective "dealing". Why the folks at Microsoft keep putting this so-called "game" out with every version of Windows is a real mystery to many of us in the gaming field.
Wow, I think I just set some kind of new record for myself. I got stuck with the queen of spades 3 times in the SAME GAME by throwing my lowest club, twice the 5 of clubs and once the 4 of clubs. All 3 times the queen came out from West. No surprise there considering how crooked this game is. But 3 times with the same play in one game. Give me a freaking break.
Yup. The game outdoes itself sometimes in its ridiculousness.
I just played the following game. I could have predicted the outcome of this game with one hand to go with such certainty that I would have bet my entire nest egg on that prediction. I've seen it so, so many times before....
Hand 1: 4-0-21-1
Hand 2: 4-4-35-9
Hand 3: 4-6-42-26
Hand 4: 4-28-46-26
Hand 5: 4-45-47-34
Hand 6: 5-45-72-34
Hand 7: 17-45-86-34
Hand 8: 21-51-86-50
Hand 9: 34-51-89-60
Hand 10: 38-70-92-60
Hand 11: 54-77-93-62
Hand 12: 61-96-93-62
Hand 13: 65-96-115-62
Game over and I finish second after leading the whole game! Notice how it kept the game going by not busting North for at least five hands while it could stick me with some points. Likewise, the chosen one picks up just two points over the last four hands.
Come on programmers. Give us a real game of Hearts or don't bother including it with Windows next time.
What's the point of actually playing this game, given that is it so obviously stacking the cards against you? It doesn't test your Hearts skill if you're playing a rigged game. Why would you play a game that can stick you with points basically whenever it wants, especially on those no pass hands? It just doesn't make any sense to me why they made it this way. It's self-defeating since once the player realizes that the game is not really dealing the cards, he stops playing the game altogether.
Great blog on the subject matter. I came across it while looking up some info on game cheats. Thanks for putting it out there.
The frequency at which you are playing in front of West, where the QS is kept again and again, is a dead giveaway that the game uses card rigging. It reflects some truly pitiful programming to be this blatant with it.
I think the game has some kind of pre-set "patterns". ie., I'll get the "cutesy play" 75 times in 50 games, then maybe once evety 4 games for 50 games. Another one is being dealt short in spades. I've gone game after game getting dealt one or two spades (and getting passed the Q,K. or A) 7 or 8 times a game. Or the same with high hearts. Right now I'm in a streak where suits are stacked and hands are void in one or two suits almost continually. This is where you take the QS with the 3D or 3H. I took 9 points with the 4,6,9,10 of hearts. West held one heart and north the rest.
Hey programmers of this lousy game product. Are you hearing us? How about a real game of Hearts? You know, one that actually deals the cards and not one that consistently gives South or West the queen of spades. We tore this game apart in my high school stats class. When a group of high school students can accomplish this, boy, you guys really need to get your act together or don't bother next time. Otherwise, you're just wasting hard drive space with every pc and laptop you populate.
Some associates of mine that work at Microsoft confirmed for me a long time ago that this is a fixed game. The deals are not random. That's good enough for me.
It is absolutely a rigged game and thus cheats. No other player gets passed the A, K and Q of spades more than South does. Our class stats proved that. No one actually even comes close to getting passed these cards as often as South does. And if you don't have the Q of spades in your hand, it is almost always being held by West.
The game is totally bogus!
I totally agree. This game shouldn't be included with Windows as it is not a legitimate game at all. The card "dealing" is blatantly rigged against you. The number of hands where only two players get points is a dead giveaway that the game uses card rigging. The protection of the "chosen" winner is laughable because it's so flipping obvious. If the programmers that turned out this piece of crap ever worked for my company, they would have been fired for their inability to produce a game that actually played like a true game of Hearts. This one is quite the dud.
I agree. MS should be embarrassed to have this pretty terrible game included in their Windows game package. I might play Spider Solitaire or Free Cell on occasion but I rarely, if ever, play their Hearts game. Everyone knows the game rigs the cards. I remember one time when I was playing the game while waiting for a phone call and in that game I was dealt and/or passed the Queen of Spades every hand of a 13-hand game. Every one of them. Come on. At least put out a game that is a bit more believable than this crappy one. Until then, I'll stick with playing the game with friends or perhaps online.
Since the game doesn't generate random deals but rather plays out card distributions with known probable point outcomes, one can only conclude that the game cheats.
So, yes, the game definitely cheats. I too can't understand why Microsoft continues to include it with their game package. It is indeed a piece of crap.
The game cheats at the most basic level: the bots don't follow the rules and will hold cards that they are required to play in order to facilitate pushing points in your direction. Watch carefully and you'll catch "misplayed" cards toward the end of the hand.
P.S. We contacted the game's maker about this and they would not deny nor defend the practice.
I'm joining the ranks of people calling out MS on this rigged game. The programmers should be fired. And doubtful people who are like: "A computer can't cheat." This isn't Transformers; software are a whole bunch of algorithms written by programmers i.e. your fellow human beings and not E.T.
I just played a game where I was leading up to the 9th hand and then in the next two games I got stuck with the queen of spades both times by the holder of the queen being void in the suit led. In the first hand, I took the queen with the 4 of diamonds and in the second hand I took it with the 5 of clubs. Both times it came out from West and was the first time the suit was led out. Gee, I wonder if the game planned for that particular card distribution to play out that way. Hmmmm.
After these two hands, I went from first to fourth position, having "earned" 13 and 20 points on these two totally contrived hands.
This is why I can only play a game or two of this game. The card rigging totally ruins it for me. It takes all the fun out of the game in the end.
Maybe you should pay attention to some of these comments posted on this blog MS. Perhaps then you can actually put out a game you don't have to be embarrassed by.
Yet another irritating -'how can possibly this be?' - trait of Microsoft Hearts...how can one possibly get 95 points in 5 hands?!? Happend way too often. Point #2: Is it me or do the other 'players' simply discard hearts and/or the Queen not in an effort to win the game but simply not to take the point themselves. I see no strategy where other players go after the game leader. Very unrealistic.
I wouldn't be here if I didn't think/know the game cheats, I have gotten up to a win ratio of 41% before being "set upon". The most frustrating thing is either one "seat" gets almost no points in a game or your winning until the last two hands and then you get slammed. But maybe that's how the games designed, to keep you hooked and playing.
Besides all the blatant card rigging, the game is fatally flawed in that it doesn't play like a true game of Hearts. The game's only objective is to make the human player lose. You can see this by how the bots will hold back their hearts at the end of a hand until they can drop them on you instead of discarding them earlier in the hand when one of their fellow bots would have picked up the points. So, besides the total silliness of the rigged card distributions, the game is not even really playing the game of Hearts, and thus, imho, is ultimately a huge failure.
It doesn't matter what the makers claim. There was a group of college students (at MIT I believe) that published a paper awhile back that demonstrated how ridiculously rigged this game truly is. You can't argue with statistics and this game produces odds that are, simply put, unbelievable. Personally I think the programmers were morons because any good programmer would have realized that the card rigging deters people from playing the game once they are aware of it. And, of course, you would have to be under the age of seven to not be aware of it since it's done so blatantly.
Again, the odds speak for themselves.
Eureka! I just played the 10th hand of a game where one player has had the lead the entire game. I've been closing in bit by bit until on hand #10 I have all the heart points and lead the QS on the 2nd to last trick. The leader I'm chasing has two spades - the Ace and a lower non-face card. I lead the QS, he discards the lower card thus, I run the deck and take the lead by, get this 13 points! So, rather than play the Ace, take the QS and 13 points and accept a tie, he choses not to take the 13 points and lose the lead. I won the game on the next hand! Point of all of this is that the computer' strategy is very unrealistic. Never happen with real people playing.
Exactly. The game is not realistic in the least.
Here's a game I just played:
Hand. S,W,N,E
1. 0, 3, 0, 23
2. 0, 9, 13, 4
3. 0, 1, 17, 8
4. 0, 15, 0, 11
5. 0, 1, 4, 21
6. 0, 0, 1, 25
7. 0, 7, 0, 19
Final tally-
0, 36, 35, 111
Game over in 7 hands and I win with a score of "0". It's almost like the game was trying to lose this one.
No one should ever take this as a serious game. The programming behind it is extremely amateurish. If Microsoft actually paid some company for this game, then they surely got taken.
Something seemed kind of fishy about this game. If I go 4 hands in a row without taking points I get slammed on the fifth and sixth hands. I also noticed I got another players points at the end of a hand. I noticed it plays a little nicer if you take a 2-4 points a hand.
You can dump a game without it counting as a loss by clicking the red X in the upper right corner. Then click game sHortcut. When it asks if you want to continue saved game. say "Not only no, but hell no!" I do this every time the game pulls one of it's cheats. Not occasionally, not every now and then EVERY MF-ING TIME!!!
That trick doesn't appear to work in the Vista version. Even after clicking not to save the game, when you open Hearts again, that game you dumped is counted as a loss.
Do you have the "always save" box checked
No, that box is unchecked.
There is absolutely no doubt to anyone that the game uses card rigging to try to make you lose. There's plenty of proof out there. But here's one easy way to show your friends that the game is indeed fixed. Count the number of hands in which you are dealt or passed one of the high spades (AS,KS,QS). If you pass one of these, it will most likely be replaced by another, unless the hand is using it's void suit strategy (holder of the QS will be void in the suit it tries to load you up with, usually West). Now count the number of times you are NOT holding any of these high spades before play begins. Since the pass direction moves around, there's as much a likelihood that you don't hold any of these cards as the converse scenario. Yet, I bet your numbers don't show that to be true.
Statistical anomalies abound in this game which is the direct result of one thing: CARD FIXING.
How many times have you seen this ending to a game? I call this the miracle moon shot. Of course, it's the protected one that pulls it off. In this particular hand, I had no card to stop East's moon shot even though I knew it was coming.
1. 5, 0, 18, 3
2. 1, 0, 25, 0
3. 0, 14, 1, 11
4. 0, 0, 13, 13
5. 0, 0, 3, 23
6. 0, 3, 17, 6
7. 5, 13, 0, 8
8. 17, 9, 0, 0
9. 0, 3, 21, 2
10. 2, 0, 13, 11
11. 13, 9, 2, 2 (passed AS,KS,QS)
12. 26, 0, 26, 26
Cumulative scores by hand:
1. 5, 0, 18, 3 (2nd place)
2. 6, 0, 43, 3 (2nd place)
3. 6, 14, 44, 14 (1st place)
4. 6, 14, 57, 27 (1st place)
5. 6, 14, 60, 50 (1st place)
6. 6, 31, 63, 56 (1st place)
7. 11, 44, 63, 64 (1st place)
8. 28, 53, 63, 64 (1st place)
9. 28, 56, 84, 66 (1st place)
10. 30, 56, 97, 77 (1st place)
11. 43, 65, 99, 79 (1st place)
**Note that North is kept from busting here**
12. 69, 65, 125, 105
So, after all that time leading, the game throws in the miracle moon shot at the end and I finish in second place, which is complete and utter BS.
I had an entertaining game going. Scores were something like 69,72,69,74. I held almost exclusively diamonds and spades. My lowest diamond was the 7 and I had a "gut feeling" about diamonds. I got the lead and led spades 4 times. West was void in spades and played two clubs and a diamond on my first three leads. My fourth lead finally drew North's ace and East's queen - North immediately ran off 6 club leads to draw West's THREE hearts as well as the rest of them. Maybe a little "teamwork" going on, with West holding off on playing hearts on my spade leads?
Absolutely it is.
That's how this game works. It's not really a game of Hearts at all since you're not really playing against three other independent players, all of whom should be trying to win. Instead, you get a game where the other player is the game itself just trying to beat you. It already knows what's in every "player's" hand. It also knows how the cards were "dealt" to achieve a statistical point outcome. The only thing variable is your play (cards passed and cards held and played). There are so many tells in the game, such as the one you describe above, that expose the card rigging and collusion (not sure if one can really call it that, but you get the point) the game programming relies upon that a child could figure out that this game is not on the up and up.
Again, Microsoft should be embarrassed to include this game with their Windows game bundle. But, nonetheless, they give it a new coat of paint and throw it out again and again with every new version of Windows. How truly sad.
By the way, MS, getting passed the A, K and Q of spades over and over again, hand after hand, and constantly playing in front of West gets old. Got any new tricks in the next version, or are you just going to put more lipstick on this pig?
Hehe. That was funny.
You ever notice how after a hand, especially later in a game, wherein you are able to outplay the chosen one and dump some major points on that player, on the very next hand the game slams you? For example, you'll get dealt no spades and then passed the ace, king or queen or some combination of the three with no other defenders. Or you'll get dealt no cards less than seven in any given suit. Or you'll get half the hearts in the deck, again none less than the six.
Could this game be even more obvious with the card rigging? I think not.
Mention this game to anyone you know that works in the game programming business and you'll get plenty of laughs. As one who used to work in that field, I can tell you that this game is a complete joke. But great blog on the subject matter. I didn't read all of it but I think the general consensus here is along these lines.
Boy, this must be my lucky day. I've been keeping track of how frequently I'm passed the ace, king or queen of spades. I've now played over 200 hands and the figures are in. I'm getting those cards passed to me on 82% of the hands. Wow. That's freaking amazing.
Oh, I forgot to add this interesting stat. I also kept track of how frequently I was dealt the queen of spades on no pass hands. That was an amazing 70% of those hands. That is simply incredible, don't you think?
Wow, this really is my lucky day.
The first thing I always do whenever I get a new pc or laptop is to delete crap files like this. If I want to play a decent game of Hearts sometime I'll just go online to play. This version is about the worst one out there.
I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but here's another tell that the game is completely fake.
Watch the last few tricks of a hand carefully. Ever notice that the game will try to give you the lead back by passing to the bot that has a lower card in one of the suits you still hold. Then, once the game has you in this position, the other bots will dump their remaining hearts on you. They pass on earlier opportunities to dump them on one another and instead hold them since the game knows what everyone is holding and can pass the lead back to you and dump them on you at the end. Obviously, in a real game of Hearts, a player would dump these points as soon as possible. But this is anything BUT a REAL game of Hearts.
I know. Could this game be any more obvious in its card rigging? I've seen hands where one player has almost all the cards in one suit. The odds of that happening are about nil.
If you like playing Hearts, there are plenty of online games to play. Don't waste your time with this Windows garbage.
This game has no legitimacy whatsoever. They should stop even trying to pawn it off on PC owners as a valid Hearts game; it is not.
Actually I can't believe that this game is even acceptable to a company like Microsoft. I've been doing programming my entire life and frankly I've had college interns that have worked for me over the years that could produce a far better game than this abysmal one. Microsoft should think long and hard about having their name on such an inferior product.
I guess there are people that still play this game. Who would have known? I find the game incredibly dull. It employs the same tactics to make you lose over and over again. Seriously, how many times can one be passed the ace, king and queen of spades in one game? Or dealt the two of clubs on no-pass hands? In this game, these plays occur like clockwork. A game that actually dealt the cards randomly would actually be far more interesting to play.
So, in conclusion, I agree with the other posters in that I think this game is a total failure. Maybe with the next version of Windows they will actually deliver a good game of Hearts for us.
It's a pointless game.
Would you ever play cards with someone who knows what's in your hand each and every hand? The play in this game is based on the three players, i.e., the game itself, knowing exactly what you are holding. So, essentially it's a game of one-on-one with you going heads up against the game (with all its deviously rigged "deals"). This is why bots will hold hearts when they have opportunities to discard them, because they know that they can dump them on you later in the hand. This is also why spades is led at you when you're at risk of taking the queen, whereas other suits are led out when you are not at risk so as to try to assist the bot that is holding the queen and still foist it on you. (There are many other examples of how the game uses the knowledge of what each player is holding to your detriment, but I think you get the idea.)
Now if you were somehow able to ascertain what each player was holding on each and every hand (such as the cheat that works with the XP version), wouldn't you consider that to be cheating? So, why should it be any different if the tables are turned? Thus, my conclusion is that the game does cheat.
I guess the game's developers weren't smart enough to actually come up with a program that was more involved than a simple you versus the computer approach. Pity.
I couldn't agree with you more fellow poster. It is a pointless game. Our little class project demonstrated how ridiculously rigged the "deals" are. The Queen of Spades, if it's not being dealt or passed to you, which itself happens well beyond statistical probabilities, practically lives in the West hand.
When it's all said and done, this game is just not a legitimate game of Hearts. Playing the game online instead would be my advice. It's far more interesting than playing this incredibly dull game.
It's worse than that. The bots simply break the rules when it suits their play for that particular hand. Watch carefully and you'll see cards played that should have been thrown earlier.
Just lost an 8-hand game 6-1. Yep, 1 point for the chosen one. And 4 of my 6 points? The g-damn cutesy play, of course. Why is it so DAMN important to make you lose? Somebody tell me!
One point over 8 hands? Wow! It must have been one of those games in which they just hammered the patsy again and again intentionally to end the game in a hurry with you trailing the chosen one.
This game is a complete joke. (Spread the word.)
The true genius of the programer of this game is the "cutesy play"
(the 2,3,4,5 of hearts evenly distributed in the four hands, of couse, YOU have the five). It is nothing short of brilliant how this distribution comes up again, and again, and again......
I charted 12 games. There were 34 "cutesy plays" with me holding the 5H 21 times. Not only do you get the automatic 4 points, you don't get out of the lead and stand to take many more points. It is truly a game programer equivalent of the holy grail. How proud mommy must be.
Yeah, the "cutesy" play probably is the game's most overused card stacking ploy. Another one that is used very frequently is the A,K,Q of spades distribution where you are always passed the QS, East takes the first trick (of course), leads out with a spade, you throw a spade protector, North takes the trick with the A/KS, North then leads spades again, you throw your last spades protector, West takes the trick with the A/KS, then follows with another spade to stick you with the queen. You can't get out of it because if you try to throw your queen earlier, the two positions having the higher spades also hold enough protectors. I think I see this play almost once per game.
These sort of card distributions don't happen by chance. The game proves over and over again (how many times have you ever been passed the A,K,QS all together in a real game)that is completely based on card rigging. Any game built on that premise is by definition a cheat.
The game has some very predictable patterns. For example, if you are leading after the first three hands, it is almost certain you will get the QS on the fourth hand and the rest of the spades will be distributed in just the right way to force it on you. I guess this is one of the game's "equalization" ploys, i.e., it won't allow you to get too big of a lead over the prima donna player.
Again, there is nothing random about this game which is what essentially ruins the game in the end.
I agree. That "guaranteed" 13 points on the 4th hand gets old very fast.
Come on Microsoft. If this is the best third-party Hearts game you can come up with to include with Windows, don't bother next time. It truly stinks!
If you're lucky enough to win 3 or 4 games in a row - I've got a standing $50 bet that you will take at least 20 points on the first hand of the next game. If I could find a way to do it, I'd retire in a couple of weeks, I'm that sure of the odds of it happening at a 75% rate or better. If it isn't a bot shooting the moon, it will be the human getting trashed. Any takers?
This game infuriates me - yet I keep coming back for more rigged losing. Why, oh why can't I stop playing when I know it will cheat and not let me win in the end no matter what I do? I have renamed the players asshat, douchebag and tool. Seems more fitting...
I found this blog and it piqued my curiousity, so I dedicated myself to play 100 games of MS hearts. I've played hearts quite a bit and consider myself a competent player.
I won 47 games. Several games I lost because of my own blunders, but the majoriy of my losses I attribute to the cards being purposely situated to my detriment. I did not see any reneges, but the distibutons seemed way out of kilter of statistical probabilities (I was dealt the queen of spades 19 times in 32 hands where you did not pass cards). In nearly every game there was one computer player with a far lower score than the others and I lost nearly half my games after being in first place until the last or next to last hand. I know this is a small sample, but I'm convinced that the dealing is not random and hands are stacked to favor one of the computer players.
13 games in a row with at least one "cutesy play". You have got to be kidding!!! What a pathetic boob of a programer. It'd serve you right if you got fired AND your mom kicked you out of the basement.
Contrary to evryone else's opinion I am convinced that this game is on the level. If the game was rigged then in all likelyhood no one would go beyond winning 20% of the time. For if the human was equal in skill to the computer then a 25% success rate would be in order. A success rate of 38% is one clear indication that it is not rigged. The algorithm that that the program uses to play the game is quite good but has many flaws. If you study these then it is possible to win at around 50% of the time. Alos it is quite bad at defending any attempt to shoot the moon - once you know its tactics it is a simple matter to outplay it most of the time - given a good hand. So all in all i disaggree with everyone :). A little patience and soon you will be there enjoying it again and winning 45% of the time. Just don't get personally involved when you lose and do something rash that will only make it worse.!
You're the programer living in your mom's basement, aren't you?
Almost right - I am the programmer living in my wife's basement:)
Play hearts for a while and it will give you all the confidence you need to short the stock market..
Believe what you want. Enjoy the "non-rigged" game to your heart's content. As for me, there is no doubt that, if the game could talk, it would lie, too.
Hey MS - just sent your hearts game to Chuck Norris
This is Chuck Norris. I say the game cheats...and sucks. I'm going to roundhouse kick somebody in the face.
Please, oh please, Mr. Programer, do the "cutesy play" to Chuck one time.
hehe
Yeah, show Chuck how clever you are.
http://s787.photobucket.com/albums/yy153/superheat1/?action=view¤t=HEARTSBEATENINTOSUBMISSION.jpg HAHAHAHA!!
FOR A HUNDRED BUCKS APIECE, ILL SHOW YOU HOW I DID THAT ;)
I've played some crappy computer games, but nothing that just outright cheats like thie piece og s***.
Had a "double-cutesy" three games in a row (5 & 9 of hearts take 8 pts.)Absolutely the definition of a f****** cheat!!
Well, guess this is the first comment about MS Hearts since one year ago. It is truly a "rigged" game. However, I have a 53-54% win rate right now. I am up to 6,100 games (not including the 3,000 games played prior to upgrading to Windows 7 that erased all prior games), and so I guess that I know this game well (addicted????). It is a game of cheating most definitely, since when are you dealt consistently 1-2 spades with each hand and then the Queen repeatedly. How about the 10 of hearts repeatedly coming from the East player? Or all of the other players having only one suit of cards, i.e. the North has Clubs, the West has Spades, etc.? How about the 2 Clubs being dealt almost 80% of the time? How about the fact that one player did not have a particular suit of cards but then all of a sudden they play a heart when the last hand they did not play this same suit? The only way in which I found that you can beat the "odds" and increase the percentage is by deleting the game on your PC and then reinstalling it. Once it recognizes that you are a good player, then they switch the program and start stacking the deck. Having played for years in Vegas and other places in the world, the odds of having the Queen of Spades dealt to you 5 times in the row, by the way without any other Spade, is beyond the pale. I just tried to get onto games.com but they apparently require an AOL account, which I do not wish to have. Oh well, back to MS Hearts. By the way, my longest "streak" of wins is 11 in a row, which is not bad. They seem to start losing more with more games played. Another trick is to pass off the suit of cards which you are dealt the least of, such as two Diamonds. That way if you are dealt a bad hand, hopefully if a player leads with a Diamond you can get rid of the Queen of Spades or other undesired card. This helps to put some of the odds in your favor. Amazing how one of the players "seem" to have the exact same suit of cards which you have as a player. You play a Diamond and then they play a smaller Diamond, etc.
Have fun!!!
Mr. B (not the original Mr. B)
Oh by the way, I also get the Ace, King or Queen of Spades passed to me almost every time. If I receive the Queen, and then pass her off, then many times I get the Ace and King of Spades passed to me. What do you think are the odds of that happening in "real" Hearts playing? Rigged? Definitely.
There's more than simple ineptitude at play here. The person(s) responsible for this game have honesty and morality issues.It is simply not right to rig a game to cheat, even if it is just a silly game. The game DOES cheat. Cards are not "dealt", they are selectively placed in the hands. When something "triggers" it, you will be set up to take points and lose the game. When the three "bot" hands hold 2, 3, 4 of hearts, you will take at least four points. When you a given a lone QS, 95% of the time you will take 13 points. When the "chosen one" cannot be forced to even take a trick, you will not catch up with it. And on and on and on.
I'm basically confined to home with health issues and play several games daily. I've played several thousand games and have seen almost all the irregularities the different posters have mentioned. They are FACTS, and
MS ought to do something about the people responsible for the blatant dishonesty in the game.
I agree. We're dealing with some serious dishonesty here. There is no doubt the game could be programed for random deals, which it clearly is not. A poker-playing friend of mine figured out that the 2,3,4,5 of hearts spread evenly in the four hands should occur every 12-15 hands. Even I'm smart enough to figue out I should hold the 5 once in four times. That means I should get the "cutesy play" about once every 4 to 5 games, not every damn game, sometimes two or three times a game. No those cards are PUT there to make you lose. That is bullshit and someone needs held accountable.
lol..you all kill me..i posted the link where im at 99% and i stay there..i play the game as fairly as the pc does..therefore inside that context..i dont cheat..and the game doesnt cheat..i now when it starts to..and i adjust to my environment..put in that context..and folowing those guidelines..unless you really suck at the game..you should be at 99% check my link above
You must be dumping games...or you've got access to the program and can change cards held
Anybody who says MS Hearts doesn't cheat is a liar or a fool. The cards that pile points on you or beat you are NOT there by "luck" or accident. They are PUT there by a g-damn cheating game program. Randomly dealt cards will ALWAYS eventually reach the levels of probability, ALWAYS. If you get a "once in a hundred" scenario 5 times in twenty hands, you won't see it for several hundred hands...in a true random deal, but not in this piece of sh**. You'll probably see it 5 times in the next 20 hands, and the next 20 hands...
It's just amazing how just the right card seems to be in just the right place, time after time. Or how just the right hand takes (or doesn't take) points. Yep. a real straight-shootin' game there.
Try this little experiment. Get a real deck of cards, shuffle and deal hands. See how many hands it takes to deal yourself a "cutesy play". It took me 76 hands. Now play MS hearts and see how long it takes to get the "cutesy". I didn't have the two or three weeks it would probablt take to get dealt a singleton QS on a "no-pass" hand. Just plat MS and you'll get it every night or two.
lol, indeed. Any boob should be able to win 99%. If you're not cheating, you're lying.
lmao..you guys still kill me..why do you ALLOW the game to cheat you..? i mean really..its like a guy has a gun on you and he turns his back and youre afraid to hit him, because you might be breaking some cardinal rule about harming someone..cmon..its hearts with a computer..MAKE the pc play fair.im at 99%..and i will be at 99% because im pretty good at a FAIR game..quit bitchin about being cheated..look..his back is turned..HIT HIM AND TAKE HIS GUN!
Haven't checked with Windoze 7, but on my old Win98, on the no pass round, i received the QS 55% of the time (i tracked it).
That said, I'm at 83% on W7. I do notice that i get the 2C somewhere around 75% of the time on the no pass round. Estimate that i shoot the moon at least once per game. In W98, i could go 4 & out approx every 5-6 games. Not so easy in W7.
East is generally the machine genius, tho if i pick on him, the machine will frequently switch targets. Makes it more interesting.
You would think by now that the argument of whether or not the game 'cheats' would have run it's course. Opinions are like the proverbial, everyone has one. Opinions should NOT come into it! Statistically it has been shown, and can be replicated to show that the cards are NOT randomly dealt! This alone proves beyond any doubt that it cheats. The Human player is also 'dealt' the 2C far greater than 25% of the time, which should be the average but in fact is over 75%. There are multiple examples of collusion with ALL PC players. "Shooting The Moon' is farcical.As to whether it is cheating or it is just good/bad programming is a moot point. If the MS version does not play as the original game with randomly selected cards, then it CHEATS! Whether the program or the programmer cheated is irrelevant. To argue this point is semantics and emotive.
I agree that this thing must be cheating. I notice that if I try to Shoot the Moon that one player will have 5 hearts to the jack or even six clubs to the ten. I suspect that the computer counts winner positions and then shifts cards in the other three players to defeat the player.
How about a winning ratio of 1 in a 100 games or lower where I am now on XP!
I's flagrant! Anyone ever notice the Queen of Spades was not played during the hand but shows up in one of the other players hands as having been played on the first counter trick! What are the odds of the player to my right always having big hearts and/or big spades nearly every hand for me.
How about How about reneging on a play only to play that suit later in the hand. I'm going to the Apple store for my next computer. Price is not a consideration. I'm so displeased with Microsoft, HP and Compaq. Glenn
My sense is that it's mostly on the level, but not always that sophisticated. If the game were optimally configured, then only a genius would be able to consistently win more than 25% of the games (as we're playing against 3 other people). I'm at 46%. But.......I have a hunch that it's randomly programmed to make a really dumb response (maybe randomly play a card) every so often, as I notice it occasionally makes a really 'dumb' move (simulating a 'human' response). Has anybody else noticed that?
-Larry S
Are people really that thick? Mrs B's original comment was that it was a "rhetorical question", she had no doubt that it cheats, that it is not on the level. If it does not deal the cards randomly or pass the cards across randomly then it CHEATS. that is a simple fact! whether you win 32, 47 or 99% is totally irrelevant. Whether you think your a whizz at the game or just a genius is irrelevant. Whether you blame the program or the programmer is irrelevant. Percentage wise how often do you get the 2C? On the pass across how many times do you get the KS, AS and/or the QS? When you have the 5H notice the other 3 players always have one of each of the 2,3,4H. These are just a few examples of it cheating. Renege? It doesn't need to! You should receive any and every card 25% of the time for it to be average, if you play enough games. It doesn't even come close to 50% little lone 25. Do the math if you still don't believe it. Still think its on the level? You are playing the computer, not 3 separate individual players. The program can 'move' cards in between these so called 'players'. The program can also give you any card it deems necessary. It's just you against a rigged computer program. Simple. The only thing more annoying than the idiotic game are the idiots that wrote the program and even more so, the idiots that are STILL speculating, guesstimating and making a emotive judgment as to whether the game plays true. 3 years of back and forth blowhard OPINIONS when the simple answers are in the FACTS of chance and probabilities.
The "game" does nothing BUT cheat. It does very little play patterns of an actual hearts game, ie. take tricks early in a hand to get rid of big cards. It's only "strategy" is to stack cards in totally non-random deals to dump points on the human player.
Many have made reference to only expecting a 25% win percentage. Against players of this caliber, with honest deals, I would win 90%. Doing dumb crap like playing your 2D on the second trick would kill you in a game with competent players. If the programmer of this game came to our town and played hearts like he designed this program to, me and my buddies would send him home penniless in a day. he would not win ONE game ( as long a s we didn't let him "deal" the cards.
One good thing has come out of my experience with MS Hearts - I no longer have the slightest interest in any type of on-line poker game. Can you imagine playing a poker game designed by the pathetic bastard that did hearts? I shudder to think what kind of odds-skewing crap you'd see if there were money involved. It's already proven in Hearts that there are no morals or scruples involved.
I've gotten to the point where I refuse to let the cheating bastard win. I just flush the game when it pulls one of its cheats. I don't care if its being dealt a lone QS on the first hand or getting hosed on the last hand. I've flushed games with one card left to play and before the first card is played. Sometimes it takes flushing 5 or 6 games in a row before you knock it out of "hyper-cheat" mode, but I refuse to put up with it. Screw you MS.
If the pant-load that designed this game worked for me, he'd be applying for a job at Wal-Mart or McDonald's tomorrow.
Does this a-hole think we are all too stupid to remember? I just got dealt a singleton QS for the fourth time in about ten games. Is the programer so arrogant of his superior intellect that he thinks us morons won't notice the egregious irregularities in the card distibution? What a pant-load, indeed.
Just wanted the share the perfect score I achieved today playing MS hearts.
check out the Pic!!!
https://picasaweb.google.com/ajay.kallur/MSHeartsPerfectScore?authuser=0&feat=directlink
yes, the game "cheats". It does not "play" hearts as we know it, but rather relies on placing cards to boost your score and keep one computer hand with a low score. The amount of times you are "dealt" a lone spade and end up forced to take the queen are so out of whack with "normal" odds of distribution that it leaves no doubt. A "real" player in a "real" game who dealt like that would leave with a "real" deck of cards shoved up his ass.
Here is a simple test for all those trusting souls out there who STILL think this game is on the level and MS can be trusted to give you a fair game. This will prove beyond any doubt that this mongrel program cheats. Do we agree that the game has to be random in its actions to be above board? Of coarse! If we shuffle and deal a pack of cards manually, and we DON'T CHEAT we are dealing these randomly. If you deal 4 hands enough times on the average any one of these hands will receive any particular card 25% of the time. If there was only 2 hands dealt then it would eventually be 50% of the time. The exact same odds as tossing a coin. Now open a game of MS Hearts. You DON'T need to play the game to prove it cheats. Keep a score of the deals on a piece of paper but DO NOT play any cards. Mark #1 deal in column A and QS, KS and AS in columns B, C and D, if you receive any(yeh,right ha,ha). Now hit F2 key for a new deal and repeat the process for deal #2. keep on hitting F2 and writing down the deal your up to and any of those 3 cards you receive. Remember after 100 deals you should be getting close to getting any one of these 3 cards 25% of the time. The more you deal the closer it should get to 25%, IF the game was legit! The higher the percent the more it is cheating. Good luck. You don't need to hypothesize about any other cheats it may or may not do. If it CHEATS on one aspect of the game it CHEATS! It can't partially cheat. ALL MS card games cheat on the deal let alone the machinations of the game. This is why you should NEVER play electronic pokies or poker. There you have to pay for the privilege of seeing the cards that are ripping you off.
Getting dealt the QS as a loner (esp. on the "pass left" or "no pass" hands) occurs about 15 times more often than "random deal" odds say it should. Kind of convenient that the QS is the card that defies the odds like this, huh? For crying aloud MS, at least TRY to hide your corrupt nature.
You have to ridicule and scorn your opponents without mercy and laugh at them when they loose. Then gloat right in their faces when you win. Be fearless and intimidating. I do this regularly and I average 61%.
Sorry, MS, you lost this game. and you will lose the next thousand. I've had it with the cheats. I'm going to show you what cute and clever is, you brilliant sob.
I just stumbled on this blog. I've wasted far too much of my spare time playing against ms hearts and have not noticed any cheating. Maybe my the hearts game on my windows 7 system is different than others, but I can tell you all that I've kept track of my statistics for a while, and over the last 1100 games, I've had a 78% winning percentage. I would say "persevere" and your numbers will improve. That's what has happened for me.
-PJ
Unbelievable! What part of cheating don't you's people get? your winning percentage has nothing to do with whether the game cheats. The facts of chance and probabilities determines that it cheats. This can be repeated over and over again without opinion interfering. Some people just don't get the difference between fact and ego based opinion.
I’ve figured it out! Microsoft has devised a devious Machiavellian plot to include a seemingly innocuous throw-in game program to its operating system in its effort to raise blood pressure and ultimately help destabilize world order. In fact, the whole Windows environment has been cleverly constructed to appear as an operating system when it is in reality a tool for the forces of evil to bring chaos to an unsuspecting population. Thank you for waking me up to this and I hope your flagging of this issue will alert people up the threat!
Congratulations PJ! I had heard MS put out like five "golden ticket" MS Hearts games that play fair and square without the "cheats" so often mentioned. So run, run home as fast as you can, PJ.
lol! Golden ticket games. That's pretty funny/
It says a lot about the programer, his department, and the company that the only way they could find to make this game "competitive" is to stack cards to make you lose. What a shame.
Very first hand of first game this a.m. Dealt void in spades, got passed the queen, spade led on 2nd trick. Incredible!
I play 10-20 games 3 or 4 times a week. EVERY SINGLE TIME I PLAY I get dealt a singleton QS on the no-pass hand at least once. This is absolutely the most ridiculous and dishonest crap I've ever seen. That's a deal you should see every 200 games at best. All the proof I need to convict the corrupt bastards responsible for this garbage.
If I lose, I just kill the game in task manager. That way, it doesn't count as a loss. I have 76 wins in a row w/ a 100% Win Percentage ....lol
What an absolute genius it took to program this game. Just utter brilliance to program it to deal a singleton QS to the human on the "no-pass" hand. Just an immediate way to make the game "more competitve". And nobody would ever realize that you should see each of the other 51 cards as singletons on a no-pass hand before you see the QS again. No, we're way too stupid to catch the brilliant programer at his clever cheat.
I totally agree with you. Plus Windows 7 hearts will do the exact same thing. I play, have junk in my hands and still wind up with the queen of spades, and most hearts except 1. It's not like one gangs up on you but 3 computer players gang up. Would have been nice if Hearts could have been more customizable. Like setting one computer player to be halfway decent, and the other 2 idiots. or something like that. But its like, they all can see each others cards while you can't see theirs. I am ranting too. I love and HATE this game. LOL
If half the effort went into programing strategy for the indvidual hands as obviously went into "non-random" card stacking, you might have a half-decent game. But, alas, you chose instead to stack cards to make the human lose and ended up with a boring, crappy game.
Some just plain simple things. Recently I had a hand where me and west had one spade each. North led spade after spade which east ducked until, finally, north led the queen, which east took with the king, DUH, with no spades behind him, why didn't east dump the king several leads ago? Too complicated to program, I guess. Easier just to deal me a lone QS next hand.
wice in same game - dealt lone QS on pass left hand. Passed it left, got passed AS. Hand to the right took 1st trick, led spade. You are a cheating f.. MS
I don't know if anyone else mentiond it cuz the comments are far too many, but i do feel the need to clarify that a game being programed to keep you interested is not really cheating. the three bots fighting against you is cheating in a way, but there is a far more serius form of cheating in this game. the rules say that players pass cards AT THE SAME TIME, so you cant pass on the cards you just got from another player. well i passed the queen of spades to east (the player to my right), but during the game north (the player opposite me) used it.well thats clearly cheating!
I get much joy from beating game even when it cheats. I tell it how much of a pathetic loser it is to cheat and still lose! If it does not cheat, it could never win. Even a little girl who not know how to play would win.
hehe. You're right. The game plays like alittle girl who just made the peepee in her pants.
If someone cheated me like this in a "real" game, a little peepee in his pants would be the least of his worries.
Cheatingest piece of sh** I've ever seen. Just one example. I fought from behind all game long and finally got the lead. Had a no-pass hand and got dealt lone QS. Of course, ate it on 2nd lead. Took a heart on the 1st diamond lead with the 4D. Led the 5H and took four hearts. Led the 9H and took four more hearts, the "double cutesy". 22 points and out of the running. This was a no-pass hand. All the cards were PUT in the hands to affect this outcome. They were NOT dealt, they were PUT there specifically to MAKE me lose.
Great way to build confidence and trust in your integrity, Microsoft. You have cheats working for you
Yeah - I've kept track and I get the "cutesy play" over 40% of the time on the first hand of a new game, unf**ingbelievable. What a blatant travesty. Fire this SOB MS!
Haven't played MS Hearts for a few days. Tonight I started a game - first hand - cutesy play - dumped game - turned on the tube. Guess it's futile to expect anything else. I sincerely hope this is the highlight of the programer's life. The dedication and character he's shown in developing this program should lead to a career and life of mediocrity.
"cutesy play" 5 times in firt 2 games tonight - including 3 hands in a row. Come on, tell me that's random dealing
First hand of first game tonite (5 minutes ago) I'm dealt 5H SURPRISE!!! 4,3,2
For those of you who haven't met "Supercheat".
Hand 1 - "dealt" 5 & J of hearts, get "cutsied" and take 8 hearts.
Hand 2 - "dealt" 2,3,4,6,Q of spades, north is "dealt" 7,8,9,10,J,K,A of spades. North leads spades 5 times, I eat the queen. Even sweeter, north collects ONE heart in those 5 leads. East and west dump clubs and diamonds, which, of course causes me to take hearts with my clubs and diamonds.
Hand 3 - East takes first trick, leads 2D, I play my lone 4D, west plays 3D, north plays QS.
Hand 4 - "dealt" lone QS. I lose, right? WRONG! I flush game before first card of hand#4 is played. F*** YOU MS!
After (if) you win a couple of games in a row, keep track of the percentage of times you take the QS (without much of a chance to avoid it) on the first hand of the next game. It'll astound you.
You will never convince me that this game wasn't designed specifically to cheat. By cheat, I mean that the cards are PLACED in hands, not randomly dealt. I've had all the "point loading" hands hundreds of times. Also, (like my last two games)there is the "protect the chosen one" strategy. I've lost the last two games 13-11 and 12-7 (with me TRYING to steer points). If the ability to program all the "cheat strategies into the game exists, why the hell can't legitimate strategies with fair, random deals be programed?
You would think that those posting their comments would at least look at the preceding comments to see if they have something new to say, to actually add to the Mrs B's original comment. Not rehash the "cutsie" play or how many times they get QS or any other cheat the game DEFINITIVELY does and has been mentioned multiple times to do. If it has done it to the majority of people posting, (yes I know there is the SPECIAL people who always win and are AMAZING - well they've convinced themselves that they are) then you would have to surmise that this blog is a pretty good cross section of the population that actually plays the game and have caught on to the fact that it cheats i.e it does NOT deal the cards randomly!
You may have noticed that others have alluded to MS games like solitaire, spider solitaire (one of the worst) of cheating. This is an ABSOLUTE fact and can be proven with very basic mathematics. If you consider that ALL the cards in all of MS card games that are not on show to be liquid and mobile, until such time that card has been shown and then consequently locked in. It is a bit like a running volcano with a hard crust and very mobile lava underneath. Why MS chose to do this cheating method, as oppose to a simple random deal is beyond me but that's what they did, and made crap games because of it. As for some geniuses out there, what is the point of using "cheats" to beat a game that cheats? Duh! MS is not the only game developer to be guilty of this. Some are far worse and even more blatant.
WC
You would think that those posting their comments would at least look at the preceding comments to see if they have something new to say, to actually add to the Mrs B's original comment. Not rehash the "cutsie" play or how many times they get QS or any other cheat the game DEFINITIVELY does and has been mentioned multiple times to do. If it has been done to the majority of people posting, (yes I know there is always the SPECIAL people who always win and are AMAZING, some even ethereal and cryptic in there wisdom (bit like the gambler who always wins but chooses to live on a park bench - read f***wits) then you would have to surmise that this blog is a pretty good cross section of the population that actually play/ed the game and have caught on to the fact that it cheats i.e it does NOT deal the cards randomly!
You may have noticed that others have alluded to MS games like solitaire, spider solitaire (one of the worst) of cheating. This is an ABSOLUTE fact and can be proven with very simple mathematics. If you consider that ALL the cards in all of MS card games that are not on show to be liquid and mobile, until that card has been shown and then consequently locked in. It is a bit like a running volcano with a hard crust and very mobile lava underneath. Why MS chose to do this cheating method, as oppose to a simple random deal is beyond me but that's what they did, and made crap games because of it, also pissing off a lot of paying customers in the interim. No, they are not "free", you paid for the O/S. As for some geniuses out there, what is the point of using "cheats" to beat a game that cheats? Duh! MS is not the only game developer to be guilty of this. Some are far worse and even more blatant and even more crappier!
- WC
I'm glad I haven't played the games that are worse than MS Hearts because it is truly pathetic.
1. In the Start Menu, select run.
2. Type in ''regedit'' and then hit enter.
3. Click on H_KEY_CURRENT_USER
4. Click on Software
5. Click on Microsoft
6. Click on Windows
7. Click on CurrentVersion
8. Click on Applets
9. Click on Hearts
10. Select New String Value from the Edit menu.
11. Name the string ZB, and give it a value of 42.
You should now be able to press ''Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F12'' to see your opponents hands.
Have you played with all the cards exposed? What did you notice? Do cards move in the bot hands? Do the bots pass low cards to "the chosen one"? Do the bots ever make useless passes, ie. pass three diamonds and get three diamonds back? Do they ever pass the 2,3, or 4 of hearts to set up the "cutesy play"?
I, for one, like to read about the ways people have been cheated by the game. Sometimes I'll see something I hadn't noticed and start watching for it. If enough people voice their displeasure over the game not being "strategically competitive" but rather setting up hands to make you lose, maybe somebody will take notice and improve new editions of the games.
I have a new challenge for MS. Can you program a game that cheats more blatantly than this one? Short of "click start-sorry you lose" I have my doubts.
Unbelievable, but I just played a perfect game (4 moon shots in a row).
After the first three moonshots, I got a very lousy hand, and thought I couldn't go for a perfect game. (I had only the eight of hearts, no spades at all and a lot of diamonds, without having the ace of diamonds).
Diamonds was played and the ace disappeared. Fortunately no points were falling, even during the next a few rounds of spades. Suddenly a clubs was played and I could pick up the hand. Played the highest diamond left and I couldn't believe that the hearts were broken. I played an all or nothing attempt, playing the 8 of hearts in the hope it was not taken.
Fortunately it wasn't. I was the only player left holding diamonds and could shoot the moon for the fourth time.
But the game definitely cheats. How often I got only got cards with values > 6 in my hand is just unrealistic.
Hi how interesting. I was running at 56-57% over 200 odd games when I decided to wipe the stats with a view to improving my win ratio!!
Result - I can't lay a glove on the damn game now and some of the hands are just bizarre. The number of times I lead the 5 hearts as my only escape route only to be ducked by the with the 2/3/4 held by the other guys is surely a statistical impossibility!!
Why was the programer of this game not fired? I would not let such an unethical person anywhere near my business, my home, or my family. The programer was either too lazy or too incompetent to develop strategic play for the game, so instead resorted to "stacked" deals to initiate "competitive" play.
I know there are a lot of people who would say "Lighten up, it's just a dumb game." You're probably right, but I feel that this attitude of substituting shortcuts and cheating for hard work and integrity have permeated our lives. From business to government, everywhere you turn has dolts like this undermining our trust.
There are games you are SIMPLY NOT ALLOWED TO WIN. Recent game (after a 2-game winning streak).
1st hand - I hold the 6 & 8 of clubs. East takes 1st trick, leads 3C. I play 6C, take QS and a heart.
2nd hand - I have 5 & 10 of hearts, take 8 points.
3rd hand - North shoots the moon ( with the 6 thru A of diamonds ).
Three hands and I trail north 48-0. North finishes the game with 12 points.
Rest assured, people, that those resposible for this crap will pay a price. When cheating is that ingrained in your fiber, it will manifest itself in other areas of your life, and you will be caught.
coparPlayed a game today where I was "dealt" void in spades 4 times in 12 hands. Got passed the QS 3 times and the A-K the other times. LOL Yahoo, why would MS put out a game that cheats? Maybe, instead of being so damn flippant, you should look into it.
Thirteen games in a row taking four hearts wiith the 5 of hearts (21 times total in those games). Why, indeed, would MS have a game that cheats?
Ain't it amazing how many times one of the bots will end up on 99 with you in the lead? And then you take just enough points to fall behind and lose.
What are the odds of being passed the A,K,Q of spades on back-to-back hands? I swear I'm going to see the perfect hand, all thirteen clubs (one of the bots will have it, of course). 'cuz this programer is so brilliant.
Saw somewhere on the net that all 13 cards in one suit is something like 65 billion to 1. Yeah, I'd say you have a pretty good chance of seeing it ......with THIS game.
This game absolutely cheats. I am stuck on 48% win percentage and have literally stopped playing because of how much it cheats. It is unbearable and complete garbage. I have been dealt the queen and no other spades as soon as I get ahead so there is 0 chance of winning hands. Just give up, its not worth stupid aggravation.
Five times in a row when you don't pass cards, I was dealt the two of clubs.
Also three times in a row when I had a singleton King of spades, I was passed the Ace of Spades.
Way too many coincidences in this game.
Why oh why would Microsoft want to make a game like this that cheats.
Just played back-to-back games where "the chosen one" finished with 1 (one) and 10 (ten) points, respectively. You just could hy NOT force points on "the chosen one". First game was East, directly to my right and I couldn't even get any HEARTS to stick to him. If the program is capable of this type of "strategy", why can't it have legtimate game strategies and random deals?
Three of the first four hands in a game this morning I got "cutsied" (5 of hearts takes four points). I will NEVER purchase a MS product because of the shabby and dishonest attitude the company shows in this game.
Three games, 34 hands, NINE "cutesy plays". Does the stupid a$$hole think men in black come by and erase our memory after every hand?
got "dealt" QS as singleton on two consecutive hands (including "no-pass hand, of course). What are the odds on that?
Must be the hot item of the day. I got dealt the lone QS twice in the same game on "hold-em" hands. That's what's at the heart of this farce of a game. If there were true random deals, there would be billions of possible hand combinations. But this fool just programed in combinations (probably no more than a few thousand) which skews the odds considerably. Like I posted a while back - what happens if you throw an extra ace into a blackjack game? Or remove a couple of face cards? Somebody wins or loses a bunch of money and sombody learns to deal with no thumbs.
How do the people who designed this game live with the shame of it. The game is on millions of computers all over the world. Everyone who plays more than a few games knows what kind of inept and dishonest people are behind it.
Some simple math reveals the extent of cheating in this game.
>You should be dealt the QS 25% of the time on any given hand. I get QS 41% on "hold-em" hands.
>You should be dealt the 2, 3, or 4 of hearts 92% of the time, I average just under 60% of the time.
>A poker-playing friend of mine says the 5,4,3,2 of hearts being equally distributed in all four hands is approx. 10%. Divide that by four and you should get the "cutesy play" once every 3 or 4 games. I've gotten it at ten times that rate many times.
I think the game designer reveals his intent with the little blurb at the end of games. "sorry, but you lost this game". NO! The (almost always) bot that busted LOST the game. I think this proves that the purpose is to make the human lose. If MS won't fire the boob and fix the game, at least put an honest blurb at the end. "Sorry, but we've cheated your dumb ass out of another game."
Ever notice how, after you've won a game or two, you end up getting nailed with the QS on the first hand of the next game? On a whim, I dumped the game as soon as I took the queen and restarted. Eight times in a row I took the queen. Some kinda "random", MS.
Look At Other Player's Hands
1. In the Start Menu, select run.
2. Type in ''regedit'' and then hit enter.
3. Click on H_KEY_CURRENT_USER
4. Click on Software
5. Click on Microsoft
6. Click on Windows
7. Click on CurrentVersion
8. Click on Applets
9. Click on Hearts
10. Select New String Value from the Edit menu.
11. Name the string ZB, and give it a value of 42.
You should now be able to press ''Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F12'' to see your opponents hands
"Does Microsoft Hearts CHEAT?" Maybe the question should be "Which Microsoft Card Game Does NOT Cheat?"
Beats me, they all appear to. Played much of Spider Solitaire? Try it on Vista where you can undo your shot. I am not advocating this "undo" to cheat but to prove the game cheats. Best idea is to play "Advanced" so the cheating pattern shows up more regularly and is easier to spot.
The most important thing with this game is to get at least one but preferably more than one column vacant so you can shunt cards about till you eventually win. That's the principal. Now try it. Notice how your deal will have 4 or five Queens or Sevens or both or multiples of any other card. Also notice that when you can actually make a move, say an Ace, how often you will turn over another Ace or two or more. These are very deliberate moves to stop runs.
Now getting back to the "undo". Every time you get blocked go back and try an alternate move. Surprise,surprise, you will probably turn over another card similar to the previous move. Go back and try another alternate. Guess what? You will most likely receive a similar card (if there is any left in the decks) and will be soon blocked again. The odds of this actually happening in real life are nothing like this! This will go on right to the end of the game no matter how many "undo's" you do. You will eventually find that getting towards the end of the game the repetative cards come thick and fast (and are quite often Kings which really stuff you up). The cards are obviously fluid until they have been exposed and then they are locked in. The game will "fight" you till the end unless you have managed to open up 3 or more columns. The more games you play the more it will "fight" you. Like Hearts there is NOTHING random about this game either. Just another example of Microsoft's ethos. Win at all costs mentality. What a pathetic bunch.
WC
That's my point completely. The goal isn't to make a competitive game, it's to make you lose. I was tied 59 -59 with the other two bots in the 90's. Hand 12 (hold 'em ) I get dealt lone 5 of hearts. Of course I get the "cutesy play", take four points, the "chosen one" takes no points and a "patsy bot" busts. The game WAS competitive. For chrissake it was TIED! Then the f***ing cheat PUTS the 5,4,3,2 of hearts in the four hands and "wins". Your programer is a true genius, MS. The odds of that combination is about 40-1 and it just "happens" to hit at that time.
I will not be buying any MS products in the future because of the dishonesty amd total lack of ethics in this game. I will not trust or support this morally bankrupt company.
I will not be buying any MS products in the future because of the dishonesty amd total lack of ethics in this game. I will not trust or support this morally bankrupt company.
Here's an interesting little exercise. After you've selected your pass cards, pause for a second or two, look at your hand and ask yourself "What is the worst card (or two or three) I could possibly get passed to me?" The odds that you get that card would be passed SHOULD be one in three that the card is even IN the hand passing to you (then there are odds that is the card actually passed.) The odds of the two or three worst cards being passed to you increase exponentially. See how this works out for you.
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