| Books |
From Backgammon, the Cruelest Game, by Barclay Cooke and Jon Bradshaw
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| Black to play 3-3. |
Bring two men from black’s 8 point to black’s 5 point and two men from white’s 1 point to white’s 4 point.
With this roll there are alternative plays. Some favor moving two men from white’s 12 point to black’s bar point, but this play may best be described as atrocious. Though it does block sixes rolled by your opponent, your own bar point is not that important this early in the game. More importantly, there are better plays.
Another alternative is to bring two men from black’s 8 point to black’s 5 point and two men from black’s 6 point down to black’s 3 point — thereby giving black three immediate points in his inner board. It is a good offensive play, but second-best.
Our recommended play 
achieves two immediate advantages: a good offense and a good defense. Its alternative (making the two points in black’s inner board) might be effectively employed in a tournament, for example, should black require a double game, but in most cases your position is not considerably improved by making the extra point, particularly in view of the other, better defensive play of bringing two men up from white’s 1 point. An additional advantage of this play is that it renders white’s 5 point, should he make it early in the game, much less valuable than it would normally be.
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Rollout
 Tom Keith 2013 |
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Money play Centered cube Black rolls 3-3 1296 games with VR Checker play: 3-ply Cube play: XG Roller |
| 3-3: | Game | G | BG | Equity | ||||
| 1 | 8/5(2), 6/3(2) |
W L |
.5836 .4164 |
.2140 .1083 |
.0113 .0053 | +0.4062 |
| Alt |
| 2 | 24/21(2), 13/10(2) |
W L |
.5799 .4201 |
.1662 .0835 |
.0060 .0031 | +0.3602 | (0.0460) | |
| 3 | 24/21(2), 8/5(2) |
W L |
.5707 .4293 |
.1802 .0837 |
.0068 .0033 | +0.3486 | (0.0576) |
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| 4 | 24/21(2), 6/3(2) |
W L |
.5739 .4261 |
.1617 .0832 |
.0065 .0032 | +0.3414 | (0.0648) | |
| 5 | 13/10(2), 6/3(2) |
W L |
.5720 .4280 |
.1917 .1141 |
.0113 .0049 | +0.3350 | (0.0712) | |
| 6 | 13/7(2) |
W L |
.5505 .4495 |
.1725 .1213 |
.0099 .0047 | +0.2360 | (0.1702) | Not |
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