Accidentally Revealing Cards - Sportsmanship
- Thread starter Slycne
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Having never played a game of magic in my life my opinion is shaped by my years as a profitable poker player.
You owe nobody nothin. If you can't keep your cards hidden that's your own fault. As "Canada Bill" Jones said, "it's immoral to let a sucker keep his money".
You owe nobody nothin. If you can't keep your cards hidden that's your own fault. As "Canada Bill" Jones said, "it's immoral to let a sucker keep his money".
I'm an honorable MtG player, I'm not going to give away information but I'll let a player know if they're being careless or stupid about giving away "hidden" information especially if they're new players. I try to play fairly though because there's no sense in being a cutthroat bastard through and through. A good community ultimately fosters a good game IMO and honorable play fosters a good community, plus how're you going to get good card trades if you play like an ass? 
That's a really different situation though. Poker for money is absolutely dog eat dog and you can't possibly accept that level of charity if you're playing seriously.2HF said:
Playing a game for fun though is a different beast entirely. You should really let your opponent know.
Tournaments are middle ground. When there's enough at stake you can expect the balance to shift over.
At a PTQ I'd either tell them or not depending on the level of talkativeness across the table but it's a moot point at my FNM, the Modern event is small so we all know what each other are playing. In this situation I'll generally not give them info in return but I also won't look and if they dropped their opening hand I'll offer them a mulligan to whatever number they were at.
As I tell people; if I wanted to win I wouldn't play Faeries.
As I tell people; if I wanted to win I wouldn't play Faeries.
If it was a Causal game, I'd let them know right away and remind them to be more careful. If this was during tournament play, especially one where buy-ins were a factor, I'd keep it to myself and let them know after the match. My local game store has a very competitive environment (one regular placed top 10 at the last GP in Edmonton), so any edge I can get, I take.
This completely depends on the REL. If we are at a prerelease my opponent carrying around a Silumgar Box probably doesn't want the pointers because he is just there to have fun. On the other hand if I'm at an Open, PTQ, IQ, or GP I'll tell my opponent because
1 they just paid around $50 to be there, so they probably are somewhat serious about getting better
2 I want them to win more to help my breakers when I'm playing for top 8
1 they just paid around $50 to be there, so they probably are somewhat serious about getting better
2 I want them to win more to help my breakers when I'm playing for top 8
If it's just a friendly game with a player who may not take the competitive side quite as seriously, then do whatever you want but keep in mind that some casual players may quit playing for the stupidest of reasons reducing your available player pool if they aren't having fun.
If it's a competitive game at a tournament, convention, or whatever, then too bad though. If you're playing to win then it's up to you to guard your own hand. I don't play Magic, but if I did and someone was tipping their hand in this setting I'd absolutely take advantage and I wouldn't say a word until after our games were done, if at all. It's not my job to babysit them and I see no reason to feel guilty if they do something stupid that gives me an edge.
If it's a competitive game at a tournament, convention, or whatever, then too bad though. If you're playing to win then it's up to you to guard your own hand. I don't play Magic, but if I did and someone was tipping their hand in this setting I'd absolutely take advantage and I wouldn't say a word until after our games were done, if at all. It's not my job to babysit them and I see no reason to feel guilty if they do something stupid that gives me an edge.
To me it doesn't matter if we are playing a friendly or playing a serious tournament, I would inform them immediately and help them rectify their mistake. Whether or not it's just for laughs or for major money, I'm not playing the game to pay for my next meal and therefore, there's no reason to not play the game on as fair and honorable a platform as possible. If the game dictates that information should be hidden from me, but a quirk of my opponent is feeding me that information anyway, then I would feel like an ass for taking advantage of that.
I'm not going to play stupid because i gained information that I shouldn't have though. If they end up showing me a card that lets me know what sort of deck they are playing, I can't help but use that information. But if I can help make sure they don't reveal more information, then I will. If it costs me the game, I didn't deserve to win in the first place.
I'm not going to play stupid because i gained information that I shouldn't have though. If they end up showing me a card that lets me know what sort of deck they are playing, I can't help but use that information. But if I can help make sure they don't reveal more information, then I will. If it costs me the game, I didn't deserve to win in the first place.
I'd say it's a pretty similar situation. Poker and MTG can both be played for fun (just friendly games), for small prizes (a local tournament or playing poker with friends with a small buy-in, say $5 or $10), or for large sums of money (casino poker/World Poker Tour, or MTG Pro Tours, which award $250,000 in cash prizes), so in both poker and MTG, it would rely on the atmosphere and the stakes.Rack said: