| Books |
From The Backgammon Book, by Oswald Jacoby and John R. Crawford
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| White to play 5-5. |
You have several choices with this roll. You can bring your two men forward from the black five point all the way to your ten point; this will bring more guns to bear on black’s blot on your four point. Or you can move two men from the black twelve point to your three point. Either of these plays leaves your blot on the nine point exposed to a 5 or a 6-2. If black rolls one of those numbers, he will hit your blot; if he rolls a 3 or the right small combination, he would be wise to make your four point instead.
Both these plays with double 5 are good, but a far better play is to use two of your 5s to make your three point with the men on your eight point; use one 5 to hit his blot with the man on your nine point, and use the last 5 to move a man from the black twelve to your eight point. This is a very aggressive play, since you will be leaving a long-range blot on your eight point in addition to the unavoidable direct blot on your four point. If your opponent rolls double 4, he will hit both of them; if he rolls any other 4, 3-1, or double 2, he will hit the blot on your four point; if he rolls 6-2, he will hit the blot on your eight point. This adds up to a total of sixteen possible good rolls for him, but not one of those sixteen will give him more than an evenly matched game with you. On the very bad side, his man will have to stay on the bar if he rolls any one of the nine combinations of 6, 5, and 3, and he will still have a poor game if he rolls any of the remaining eleven numbers that will enable him to enter from the bar without hitting you.
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Rollout
 Tom Keith 2013 |
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Money play Centered cube White rolls 5-5 1296 games with VR Checker play: 3-ply Cube play: XG Roller |
| 5-5: | Game | G | BG | Equity | ||||
| 1 | 20/10(2) |
W L |
.6763 .3237 |
.1739 .0691 |
.0107 .0024 | +0.7227 |
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| 2 | 13/3, 9/4*, 8/3 |
W L |
.6591 .3409 |
.2492 .0633 |
.0190 .0024 | +0.7168 | (0.0059) |
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| 3 | 13/3(2) |
W L |
.6525 .3475 |
.2221 .0643 |
.0133 .0026 | +0.6968 | (0.0259) | |
| 4 | 20/15(2), 13/8, 9/4* |
W L |
.6620 .3380 |
.2021 .0787 |
.0137 .0031 | +0.6923 | (0.0304) | |
| 5 | 20/15(2), 13/8(2) |
W L |
.6486 .3514 |
.1806 .0845 |
.0118 .0035 | +0.6168 | (0.1059) |
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