[maryob713]

One of my foursome thinks that the host (the one who set up the table) gets better cards than the others. Is this possible? We have a one player who always sets up the table. That player rotates their seat N, W, S, E every time the table is set up. I thought the deals were random. This question applies to casual games. Thank you.

[smerriman]

They're wrong; they are random.

[pilowsky]

maryob713, on 2021-June-17, 16:19, said:

One of my foursome thinks that the host (the one who set up the table) gets better cards than the others. Is this possible? We have a one player who always sets up the table. That player rotates their seat N, W, S, E every time the table is set up. I thought the deals were random. This question applies to casual games. Thank you.

"better" is a bit subjective. The statisticians that write on this forum go into a bit of a feeding frenzy every time this question comes up - it comes up randomly!

Each player can change the settings on their browser to alter the fonts, so in that sense, the appearance of the cards may become "better".
If you play at a teaching table, then you can import hands where one side of the table has a "better" shape or more HCP.
This is useful for practising bidding/play of specific hand types.

In every other case, the deals are 'unpredictable' but not truly random in a mathematical sense.
There is an interesting discussion about the dealing program by the guy that made it (Hans van Staveren) on Bridgewinners - here's the link: https://bridgewinner...s-van-staveren/

They are sufficiently unpredictable that the average player has absolutely no chance of working out what the next deal might look like.
But to answer your question (except for the teaching table) no, there is no God in the machine.

[johnu]

maryob713, on 2021-June-17, 16:19, said:

One of my foursome thinks that the host (the one who set up the table) gets better cards than the others. Is this possible? We have a one player who always sets up the table. That player rotates their seat N, W, S, E every time the table is set up. I thought the deals were random. This question applies to casual games. Thank you.

Yes, the table captain always gets better cards than the rest of the table. It's only fair that the person who went to the trouble of setting up the table is properly rewarded. Otherwise, why would anybody set up a table?

[helene_t]

pilowsky, on 2021-June-17, 17:28, said:

no, there is no God in the machine.

What? I want my money back! I paied 300 bucks for my computer and you tell me there's no god in it? Not even a small one?

[pilowsky]

helene_t, on 2021-June-17, 22:19, said:

What? I want my money back! I paied 300 bucks for my computer and you tell me there's no god in it? Not even a small one?

$300? - you don't even get a tiny totem pole for that.

[pilowsky]

johnu, on 2021-June-17, 21:00, said:

Yes, the table captain always gets better cards than the rest of the table. It's only fair that the person who went to the trouble of setting up the table is properly rewarded. Otherwise, why would anybody set up a table?

How do you up and down vote simultaneously?

[hrothgar]

maryob713, on 2021-June-17, 16:19, said:

One of my foursome thinks that the host (the one who set up the table) gets better cards than the others. Is this possible? We have a one player who always sets up the table. That player rotates their seat N, W, S, E every time the table is set up. I thought the deals were random. This question applies to casual games. Thank you.

They are wrong

However, they are to be congratulated on a unique version of this tired, old canard

[mycroft]

Oh, I don't know, Hrothgar, I'm sure they're right 25% of the time or so...

The deals are random. In fact, if "prefer the host" was on, since they're each played 16 times, there would have to be a flag on the deal saying which player is host and only serve up the hands to tables where the same location is hosting. Which, given most hosts (start out) are South, is going to make getting the duplicate scores much slower for the "east is host" tables. Have you seen that?

[RD350LC]

The host may get better cards. I do not believe this to be the case, however. BUT, since the true score is compared to other players who get the SAME cards, in my opinion, it does not matter for the most part. It is what you DO with them is what counts.

[jillybean]

RD350LC, on 2021-June-18, 15:18, said:

It is what you DO with them is what counts.

The same can be said for many things in this world.

[morecharac]

pilowsky, on 2021-June-17, 17:28, said:

there is no God in the machine.

Little know fact: God and the machine had a relationship but they eventually agreed to go their separate ways.

Don't believe me? It's a classic adage.

Deus ex machina.

[pilowsky]

morecharac, on 2021-June-20, 09:52, said:

Little know fact: God and the machine had a relationship but they eventually agreed to go their separate ways.

Don't believe me? It's a classic adage.

Deus ex machina.

Hence my tag line.