Forum Archive : Terminology

"Equity" From:   Michael J. Zehr Address:   tada@athena.mit.edu Date:   1 March 1996 Subject:   Backgammon terms (was Re: JellyFish 2.0 Release) Forum:   rec.games.backgammon Google:   4h79i2$io0@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU Dave Biggs writes: > Fredrik Dahl says: > > In the Tutor you can have positions evaluated with equity and > > the 6 probabilities. > > Dumb newbie type questions...what do you mean by equity & 6 > probabilities? I've seen both mentioned in the periodical "Inside > Backgammon". > > And what do you mean by "rollouts"? Equity is used in several slightly different ways all generally meaning the value of a position to a particular side. Here's an example of the most common meaning: Suppose I have two checkers on my two point, you have two checkers on your ace point, and I'm on roll. If I roll any 1 except 11, I bear my two checkers off and win the value of the cube. Otherwise, you roll and bear two checkers off and I lose. I win 26/36 times and lose 10/36 times. What I expect to win is (26-10)/36 or 16/36. Thus my equity is 16/36 or .444. Suppose I am considering doubling. If I double and you take, I win just as many games but for twice the value, so my equity becomes .889. Since I increase my equity by doubling, I want to double. Should you take or not? If you drop, you lose the game all the time and your equity is -1.00. If you take, your equity is -.889. Since this is an improvement, you take. Some important observations: Equity depends on the cube position. If the cube is in the center or I own it, my equity in this position is .889, otherwise it's .444. In more complicated positions, my equity by doubling is less than twice the equity by not doubling because the opponent gets some value out of being able to redouble. Opponents have equal and opposite equity. (This must be true because anything one side loses, the other side wins.) In this sense of the word, equity is being used to describe the value of a position assuming perfect play by both sides. Rollouts are used when a position is more complicated than being able to simply list the winning rolls for one side. A rollout is playing the game to completion over and over and over and keeping track of the number of points won or lost by a side. The existence of computer programs that are good enough to do a reliable rollout has greatly increased our understanding of the game in recent years. Rollouts by hand are a great way to understand a position, but are necessarily much slower. For a serious backgammon student, the rollout featuer of JellyFish is an important study aid. "6 probabilities" -- I believe this refers to the chance of winning a single game, a gammon, or a backgammon, and the chance of losing the same. This gives greater detail than simply the equity of a position. For example, you can have an equity of .50 by winning a gammon .5 times and losing a single game the rest of the time (.5*2 - .5 = .5) or by winning a single game .75 times and losing a single game .25 times (.75 - .25 = .5). When looking at a position for a match, gammons and backgammons are not always worth twice and thrice a normal game. (For example, at double match point, one of the two positions mentioned above is much better!) Other uses of equity: Sometimes it's used to compare the relative strengths of players rather than a specific position assuming perfect play by both sides. For example, I might say that my equity against some other opponent is +.1, i.e. I expect to win .1 points per game I play that person. (This represents a fairly wide gap in skills, and I would be very happy to play this person for money of course! <grin>) On the other hand, my equity against Kit Woolsey might be -.05 pts per game. "Equity surge" -- You can say this when you've just gotten a great roll. Your equity suddenly went up. I hope these explanations helped. You can also look for the Backgammon FAQ (posted here periodically or available through anoymous ftp at rtfm.mit.edu). -michael j zehr   Did you find the information in this article useful?           Do you have any comments you'd like to add?

 

Terminology

Alphabet soup  (Tom Keith, Apr 2004) 

"Anchor and guard" position  (Chase+, Apr 2010) 

"Back game"  (Marty Storer, Jan 2004) 

"Baffle box"  (garyo+, Mar 2005) 

"Bagai position"  (Timothy Chow, Dec 2012) 

"Banana split"  (Rich Munitz+, June 2011) 

"Banana split"  (Adam Stocks+, Sept 2004) 

"Beavers"  (Sander van Rijnswou, May 1999) 

"Beavers"  (Shuman Lloyd Lee, Aug 1991) 

"Blunder", "whopper"  (Raccoon+, July 2005) 

"Bot"  (Pit Bull+, Mar 2004) 

"Bronstein" clock setting  (rew+, Sept 2012) 

"Calcutta auction"  (Roland Scheicher+, Dec 2001) 

"Chouette"  (Roland Scheicher+, Mar 2002) 

"Cube provocation play"  (Chuck Bower+, Apr 2007) 

"Dance"  (William R. Tallmadge, May 1998) 

"Dropper"  (Robert D. Johnson, Sept 1996) 

"Duplication" and "diversification"  (Simon Woodhead, Nov 1991) 

"Equity"  (Gregg Cattanach, Aug 2000) 

"Equity"  (Gary Wong, Dec 1998) 

"Equity"  (Chuck Bower, Oct 1996) 

"Equity"  (Michael J. Zehr, Mar 1996) 

"Equity", "volatility", "claim", "market"  (Erik Gravgaard, June 1995) 

"Freeroll"  (montygram, Nov 2005) 

"Gammon price"  (Ron Karr, Aug 1996) 

"Gammon rate", "gammon price"  (David Montgomery, June 1995) 

"Gammon-go" (GG) and "gammon-save" (GS)  (Mary Hickey, Feb 2004) 

"Gammon-go" (GG) and "gammon-save" (GS)  (Marty Storer, Oct 2002) 

"Gammon-go" (GG)   (Chuck Bower, Jan 2004) 

"Golden point"  (Daniel Murphy, Dec 2004) 

"Holding game"  (Alan Webb+, Dec 1998) 

"In the box"  (Ken Bame+, Sept 2012) 

International phrase dictionary  (David Allen Sorensen, Sept 1997) 

"Joker"  (Richard Divdesman, Sept 1998) 

"Kamikaze play"  (Bill Patterson+, June 2011) 

"Kauder paradox"  (Carl Tait+, Nov 1995) 

"Latto paradox"  (Jean-Pierre Seiman+, July 2004) 

"Lose your market"  (Shuman Lloyd Lee+, Aug 1991) 

"MCV"  (Mislav Radica+, Oct 2009) 

"PRaT"  (Raccoon+, Jan 2007) 

"Phantom double hit"  (Marty Storer, May 2010) 

"Polish prime"  (Jason Lee+, Jan 2006) 

"Pure play"  (Daniel Murphy, Nov 2000) 

"Pure play"  (Casey Forrest+, Feb 1996) 

"Raccoon"  (Steven Keats, Feb 2011) 

"Root number"  (Ken Bame, June 2004) 

"Russian Bridges"  (leobueno+, Mar 2013) 

"Short play"  (AJ+, July 2012) 

"Speed board"  (Gregg Cattanach, June 2004) 

"Splot"  (mamabear, Apr 2007) 

"Squeeze", "trap play"  (Philippe Michel+, Feb 1997) 

"Suicide play"  (Brian Sheppard, Aug 1997) 

"Swing tournament"  (Carlo Melzi+, Mar 2006) 

"Table stakes"  (Carlo Melzi, Sept 2002) 

"Technical play"  (Adam Stocks+, July 2002) 

"Thematic"  (Beauregard+, Aug 2009) 

"Thorp count"  (Stephen Turner, June 1996) 

"Time," "timing," "checker," "dancing"  (Marty Storer, Apr 1992) 

Turkish names for rolls  (Lars Soezueer, Mar 1997) 

"Vigorish"  (Anthony R Wuersch, Feb 1995) 

"Volatility"  (Michael J. Zehr, June 1998) 

"Wash"  (Hardy Hübener+, Sept 2004) 

"Wash"  (Brian Sheppard, July 1997) 

"Weaver"  (Alan Webb+, May 2000) 

"Zone" of attack  (Matt Reklaitis+, Dec 2007) 

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