| Books |
From The Backgammon Book, by Oswald Jacoby and John R. Crawford
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| White to play 5-1. |
Move one man from black twelve point to your eight point, and one back man from black one to black two point. With 5-1 we do recommend splitting your two back men, but that split to the black two point is quite good. Your opponent can hit both your men with 4-1, but this doesn’t represent much gain for him. To begin with, you might then roll some combination with a 1 and send his blot all the way back to the bar. If you don’t roll a 1, that man he has placed on his one point will be out of play for the rest of the game. If he proceeds to cover it, he will have a second man out of play. Good players do make their one point on occasion, but they prefer not to do so until they have made at least one higher point.
If instead of 4-1, your opponent happens to roll 6-4, he will be able to hit your blot on his two point and secure that point; but this also represent little real gain, and there are betters plays on the board for his 6-4. As we have said, at this early stage of play the two point is worth very little to him.
If he fails to hit either of your men on his one and two points, you will be in position to make one of the advanced points in his board, or his bar point, with one of several rolls. In addition, you will have doubled your coverage of the black out board, so that if he chooses to move a blot into that terrain, you are twice as likely to be able to hit it.
There are two other plays with 5-1 that have achieved some popularity and have a good deal to recommend them. One is to move a back man right to the black bar point. It’s an interesting gambit — you have lost little if your opponent takes the bait and hits that blot, and moreover you have a very good chance of hitting him back when coming in off the bar.
The other play is to use the 5 to move from black twelve to your eight point, but use the 1 to move a man from your six to your five point. You lose a good deal if that blot is hit, but you gain a lot if it is missed.
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Rollout
 Tom Keith 2013 |
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Money play Centered cube White rolls 5-1 1296 games with VR Checker play: 3-ply Cube play: XG Roller |
| 5-1: | Game | G | BG | Equity | ||||
| 1 | 24/23, 13/8 |
W L |
.5016 .4984 |
.1376 .1339 |
.0061 .0051 | +0.0127 |
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| 2 | 13/8, 6/5 |
W L |
.4976 .5024 |
.1377 .1417 |
.0063 .0075 | −0.0153 | (0.0280) | Alternate |
| 3 | 24/18 |
W L |
.4934 .5066 |
.1219 .1422 |
.0053 .0054 | −0.0443 | (0.0570) | Alternate |
| 4 | 13/7 |
W L |
.4770 .5230 |
.1368 .1478 |
.0068 .0077 | −0.1004 | (0.1131) |
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