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From Backgammon for Blood, by Bruce Becker
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| White to play 6-5. |
For the 6-5 move, I bring two men from B12: one to W8 and one to W7.
Other authors recommend moving one man from B1 to B12. This alternative is called “lover’s leap,” though no one seems to know why. I pondered this for a long time, and then it suddenly dawned on me: a lover’s leap is a death jump, and that’s exactly what this is. Play this throw in this fashion, and you are virtually destined to doom.
| ‘ | A lover’s leap is a death jump, and that’s exactly what this is. Play this throw in this fashion, and you are virtually destined to doom. | ’ |
Not only do you have the disadvantage of breaking up your B1 point, but also the handicap of effectively immobilizing yourself: you have no flexibility. Six men on the B12 point is a hazard; the only faintly reasonable claim for this move is that your man is “safe.” True, but so what? Not only is this a game that will be very hard to win, but it also is going to be very dull and plodding, and too often you will find yourself at the bottom of the cliff.
The move I recommend for this throw is surprising in its statistics: here, the W7 blot can be hit in the seventeen ways I’ve talked about before; six of these, you will recall, are at the expense of what would otherwise be a strong move for your opponent. But against this, thirty of your throws on your next turn will make a point, and four more of them (5-3, 3-5, 5-4, and 4-5) will even make the W3 point, if you want to cover it this early. (Only the 5-2 and 2-5 throws do nothing.) These are very good odds in your favor, and it’s well worth making the move this way — even if the alternative was not as bad as it is.
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Rollout
 Tom Keith 2013 |
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Money play Centered cube White rolls 6-5 1296 games with VR Checker play: 3-ply Cube play: XG Roller |
| 6-5: | Game | G | BG | Equity | ||||
| 1 | 24/13 |
W L |
.5295 .4705 |
.1211 .1232 |
.0060 .0037 | +0.1032 |
| Alt |
| 2 | 24/18, 13/8 |
W L |
.5093 .4907 |
.1359 .1354 |
.0070 .0051 | +0.0338 | (0.0694) | |
| 3 | 13/8, 13/7 |
W L |
.4828 .5172 |
.1461 .1456 |
.0072 .0081 | −0.0678 | (0.1710) |
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