| Books |
From Backgammon for Blood, by Bruce Becker
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| White to play 2-1. |
For the 2-1 opener, I play 13/11, 6/5.
An alternative to this, which I do not like as much, is to split the back men, 24/23, 13/11.
I like to keep the B1 point intact for several throws, if possible, in order to preserve the option of a strong back game; splitting these back men drastically diminishes this possibility. Remember, the B1 point is the best point on the board to hold for a back game; once you break it and leave a blot on it you can re-cover it only from the bar. and then there are only eleven out of thirty-six ways to do it. Therefore, caution: don’t break up this point too soon.
In the 2-1 move I recommend, of the nine advantageous ways my opponent can hit my blot on the W5 point, two (6-4, 4-6) also hit the blot on W11; if this happens I of course may then decide to go into a back game earlier than I otherwise would. However, should my blots not be hit, the chances for me to cover the W5 man are now increased to thirty-one, because of that extra position on the W11 from which to make that point! Therefore I love this opener: it’s almost foolproof.
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Rollout
 Tom Keith 2013 |
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Money play Centered cube White rolls 2-1 1296 games with VR Checker play: 3-ply Cube play: XG Roller |
| 2-1: | Game | G | BG | Equity | ||||
| 1 | 13/11, 6/5 |
W L |
.5065 .4935 |
.1433 .1436 |
.0061 .0087 | +0.0220 |
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| 2 | 24/23, 13/11 |
W L |
.5017 .4983 |
.1410 .1373 |
.0065 .0063 | +0.0111 | (0.0109) | Alt |
| 3 | 24/21 |
W L |
.4914 .5086 |
.1286 .1365 |
.0063 .0056 | −0.0374 | (0.0594) | |
| 4 | 13/10 |
W L |
.4890 .5110 |
.1404 .1458 |
.0061 .0075 | −0.0544 | (0.0764) | |
| 5 | 24/23, 24/22 |
W L |
.4845 .5155 |
.1265 .1388 |
.0051 .0059 | −0.0701 | (0.0921) |
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