| Books |
From Better Backgammon, by Tim Holland
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| White to play 4-1. |
The correct play is to bear one man off your 4 point and move one man from your 4 point to your 3 point. If Black fails to enter on his next roll, only 6 and 2 will cause you to leave a blot. If you were to break your 6 point by moving one man 4 to your 2 point and one man 1 to your 5 point, and Black did not enter, on your next roll you would be forced to expose with 6 and 5, 6 and 4, 6 and 3, 5 and 4, 5 and 3, doubles 6s, 5s, and 4s. This adds up to 13 possible combinations that will cause exposure, while there are only 2 with the correct move. If you were to break your 5 point by moving one man to the 1 point and one man to the 4 point, then you would expose with 6 and 1, 5 and 1, double 6s, 5s, and 4s — seven combinations in all. This is better than moving from the 6 point, but hardly correct when you can make a move that will leave only 2 possibilities.
It is true that by breaking your 6 point, if Black enters, he is out of your hair for good; whereas, by breaking your 4 point, if he enters, you still must get your men past him. If this occurs, only the roll of 6 and 2 will cause a blot. This slight possibility should not in any way influence the decision to choose the move that you did.
Rollout
 Tom Keith 2013 |
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Money play Black owns 2-cube White rolls 4-1 1296 games with VR Checker play: 3-ply Cube play: XG Roller |
| 4-1: | Game | G | BG | Equity | ||||
| 1 | 4/3, 4/off |
W L |
.9370 .0630 |
.0089 .0000 |
.0001 .0000 | +0.8631 |
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| 2 | 5/4, 5/1 |
W L |
.9091 .0909 |
.0053 .0003 |
.0001 .0000 | +0.8023 | (0.0608) | |
| 3 | 6/5, 6/2 |
W L |
.8898 .1102 |
.0082 .0000 |
.0001 .0000 | +0.7589 | (0.1042) |
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