Forum Archive : Miscellaneous

Handicapping--Rerolling 5-4 From:   Mary Hickey Address:   thehick64@hotmail.com Date:   17 February 2004 Subject:   Re: Useless(?) statistics Forum:   GammOnLine Back when this bear was a nice little cub, I used to get the "spot" of re-rolling any 54 I rolled (any time, including the opening roll) but then having to keep whatever the re-roll was (can't go back to the original 54 if the new roll is worse). I didn't invent this spot, but at the club where I played I guess I was the one who made it famous, since people would give it to me quite often. Sometimes another player would argue that I'd chosen the wrong roll, that 52 or 21 was actually worse. I don't recall anyone ever suggesting that 51 was worse; someone may have suggested 65, not sure. Here's why I liked 54 for the spot: 1) Fans less often in the early middle game, where often a flunk can result in a quick double-out but any entry saves the cube; 2) Good in ace point games since it tends to be a double-blot leaver at the worst possible time, when you have a small number of checkers off and so have to pass by a small margin even if only one checker gets picked up; 3) wins bar-anchor/midpoint standoffs more often when you get a 6-shot after he's forced to break with a 6--this spot raises your odds of hitting to 50-50, so sometimes if 55 and 44 are also market-losers, you can even get a cube out of it! On the downside, 54 tends to be OK in bearoffs, since it's both "above average" and above median. But at the end if you need a double to win, it's as good as any other non-double as a spot. It swings some otherwise weedy 4-roll and 3-roll endings into takes (p.e., you lose 1.008 by taking a 2-cube in a pure 3-roll with all the checkers for both sides on the ace, so any improvement for your side and you can take). However IIRC it turns a pure 4-roll ending into a pass for the opponent. At the time I estimated this spot was worth 4.0 to 4.3 percent. This was based on hand calculations done with my really cool, at the time brand-new, HP 15C, which I still use almost every day about 25 years later. It was fun stuff, but for some reason nobody wants to spot me this re-roll option any more. Mary H.   Did you find the information in this article useful?           Do you have any comments you'd like to add?

 

Miscellaneous

Backgammon computers  (Graham Bayne+, Mar 2005) 

Backgammon in famous paintings  (Dan Scoones, Mar 2000) 

Backgammon versus poker  (Peter Hallberg, June 2006) 

Backgammon's popularity  (Anon+, Sept 2003) 

Board orientation  (Daniel Murphy, Mar 1999) 

Calculation versus instinct  (Kit Woolsey, Jan 1998) 

Checker play versus cube play  (Gregg Cattanach, Oct 2004) 

Checker play versus cube play  (David Montgomery, Jan 1998) 

Copying positions from books  (Stick+, Nov 2005) 

Famous people who play  (Carem Wiklicm+, Dec 2002) 

Free lesson  (Donald Kahn, Apr 1999) 

General tips  (Hank Youngerman, Aug 1998) 

Giants of Backgammon list  (Raccoon+, Mar 2006) 

Handicapping  (Kees van den Doel+, Aug 2003) 

Handicapping  (flash, Aug 1998) 

Handicapping--Pass or pick a roll  (Michael J. Zehr, Dec 1997) 

Handicapping--Rerolling 5-4  (Mary Hickey, Feb 2004) 

How bots rate you  (Phil Simborg, Mar 2010) 

Initiatives by local clubs  (Raccoon, Mar 2006) 

Is online gambling legal in the U.S.?  (Chuck Bower+, June 2006) 

Maximizing earnings  (Stanley E. Richards+, Oct 2005) 

Money management  (Carly Robson+, Jan 2009) 

Money management  (Gnoh Mon+, July 2004) 

Money management  (Adam Stocks, Jan 2003) 

Money management and the Kelly Criterion  (Stuart Thomson+, June 1999) 

Notation  (Dean Gay, Feb 2000) 

Notation  (Kit Woolsey, July 1995) 

Position cards  (Francois Hochede, Jan 2004) 

Posted diagrams are scrunched up  (Dale+, Sept 2000) 

Top women players  (Tami+, Nov 2006) 

Typesetting backgammon  (Jason Lee+, Apr 2006) 

What is Zbot?  (Douglas Zare+, Dec 2003) 

What is backgammon?  (David C. Oshel, Aug 1997) 

Why do people play for money?  (Hank Youngerman+, Sept 2005) 

World Champions  (John Bazigos, June 1994) 

rec.games.backgammon mini-FAQ  (Daniel Murphy, Mar 1998) 

From GammOnLine         Long message         Recommended reading         Recent addition

 

Book Suggestions Books Cheating Chouettes Computer Dice Cube Handling Cube Handling in Races Equipment Etiquette Extreme Gammon Fun and frustration GNU Backgammon History Jellyfish Learning Luck versus Skill Magazines & E-zines Match Archives Match Equities Match Play Match Play at 2-away/2-away Miscellaneous Opening Rolls Pip Counting Play Sites Probability and Statistics Programming Propositions Puzzles Ratings Rollouts Rules Rulings Snowie Software Source Code Strategy--Backgames Strategy--Bearing Off Strategy--Checker play Terminology Theory Tournaments Uncategorized Variations