| Books |
From The Backgammon Book, by Oswald Jacoby and John R. Crawford
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| White to play 6-1. |
You roll 6-1. You have to move 6 from black’s nine point; your problem is the 1. If you move your blot to black’s ten point, you leave only fourteen rolls instead of fifteen to hit you, but the correct play is to stay exposed on the nine point.
The reason is that here you are really worried about the rolls that will allow your opponent to hit your blot and at the same time to cover his own blot in his inner board. If you move up, he can hit you and cover his blot with five rolls (double 3, 3-4, and 3-6). If you stop on the ten point, he can hit you and cover with only four rolls (double 2, double 4, and 4-5).
Let’s see why you are so worried about the hit-and-cover combination. The reason is that if he hits you and fails to cover, you have twenty ways to come right in, and eleven of these twenty ways allow you to come in and hit his blot. If he hits you and covers, you have only eleven ways to come in at all. If you don’t come in immediately, you will be doubled (if it is a gambling game or tournament play) and you would have to concede the game right away. The rules don’t compel you to refuse that double, but if you are playing for anything of value you really can’t afford to take it.
Rollout
 Tom Keith 2013 |
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Money play Centered cube White rolls 6-1 1296 games with VR Checker play: 3-ply Cube play: XG Roller |
| 6-1: | Game | G | BG | Equity | ||||
| 1 | 16/9 |
W L |
.7000 .3000 |
.0483 .0042 |
.0004 .0001 | +0.5540 |
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| 2 | 16/15, 16/10 |
W L |
.6986 .3014 |
.0453 .0052 |
.0005 .0001 | +0.5387 | (0.0153) | |
| 3 | 16/10, 6/5 |
W L |
.6746 .3254 |
.0465 .0121 |
.0009 .0003 | +0.4714 | (0.0826) | |
| 4 | 16/10, 5/4 |
W L |
.6731 .3269 |
.0438 .0127 |
.0009 .0003 | +0.4665 | (0.0875) | |
| 5 | 16/10, 4/3 |
W L |
.6651 .3349 |
.0437 .0144 |
.0008 .0004 | +0.4541 | (0.0999) |
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