Forum Archive : Match Play

1-away/1-away: advice from Stick From:   Stick Date:   9 March 2007 Subject:   My Ideas on DMP play Forum:   GammOnLine Before the last ABT tourney in Pittsburgh I decided to start my long, probably never ending, jump into match play. Up until then I really didn't pay the least bit of attention to anything other than money play. I'd picked up this and that here or there of course, but never played any real matches against either of the bots or in real life. I don't know if it's the best way to go about it but I'm starting at the ground & moving up. What I mean is DMP, or -1 -1, -2 -2, -1 -3 to start with (at -1 -3 Crawford you should both be playing as if it's DMP, winning/losing a gammon is basically meaningless [free drop] and the only minor consideration is winning/losing a backgammon). After that I'll ascend in score, -2 -3 (always from both angles), -2 -4, -3 -4, etc ... up til @ least 7 or I scratch my eyes out, whichever comes first. I've done what I consider reasonably well playing DMP games v. Snowie. I dropped the thresholds for errors to .020 and blunders to .060. DMP checker play errors are much more serious, often costing you many %s of MWC. Below is what I've observed so far and I'd be happy if anyone could add to it. * From the first move on your moves may differ from normal checker play because winning & losing gammons does not matter. This may seem obvious but it's important to keep it at the forefront of your thinking while playing. As early as the first move you can give away serious chunks of equity. For example an opening 6-4 for money the 3 plays are interchangeable with making the two point winning the rollout wars by the slightest margin. This is because of the gammons it wins and since gammons don't matter @ DMP making the 2 pt. with an opening 6-4 is a .0168 error according to Tom Keith's Opening Move Rollouts ATS [http://www.bkgm.com/openings/rollouts.html]. * Blitzing should usually be put on the back burner if a more structural play is available. You don't want to commit to only one game plan at DMP. For money the blitz pays off again, because of the gammons won, but at DMP a lot of the time another play will win a larger % of the time than a pure blitzing play. Of course if the blitz play is strong enough it may still be correct, let's not go to extremes, but as an example an opening 5-4 followed by a typical blitzing 5-5. For money the automatic unquestionable play is 8/3(2) 6/1*(2). At DMP the plays are too close to call though. I actually prefer the more structural 13/3(2). * When to hit throughtout a DMP game will be one of the harder decisions you have to make. Money play if you don't know it's usually correct to go ahead and whack away, it is probably a small error at worst. DMP is different, you could be chunking away lots of equity by hitting (or not hitting) at the correct times. When you've extricated your back men there are many times you will pass up a normal looking hitting play if your race lead is large enough. Your hope is to bring the game around and win, period. Sometimes you won't want to leave the indirect/fly shots, other times you simply won't want your opponent entering on one of your lower points and hassling you the rest of the game. Remember, it's double match point, if he gets a checker back there it's no leaving unless he has a real reason to get the hell out of there. * Do not fear playing a backgame at DMP. On the same note, don't go overboard when there's another solid option to win the game (such as going forward). * If you do end up in a backgame don't be afraid to go balls to the wall to time your backgame. All of this reflects back to playing to win. Slots, double slots, crazy hits, all these plays must be considered once you fall into a backgame. You have to know what will keep your timing and preserve your forward position. * When you're lucky enough to have your opponent on the bar and you're bearing your checkers in (bearing in, not off), always consider the *tricky* plays that clear your highest inner board point before you bring them in. This usually happens when you have more than one of your opponent checkers on the bar and you will leave no jokers of course. You try to push your opponent forward while smoothing your up & coming bearoff. * When bearing in against a checker on the bar play as safe as possible. If you have a won race already all you want to do is clear from the rear safely and get your opponent off the bar asap. As soon as he comes in its typically game (and match) over. * Same goes for bearing in against any anchor. Play for safety no matter what anchor your opponent holds, play for long term safety, we're just trying to win here. * Did I mention winning & losing gammons does not matter. I only reiterate this point because all the other points are basically an extension of it. Are you ready for the DMP quiz? [http://www.bgonline.org/forums/webbbs_config.pl?read=2900%22] Stick rew  writes: Splitting and running plays are generally more correct at dmp than money. For instance you should often split off your anchor in situations where in money play opp has too much wood for it to be correct, or you have a good timing alternative of building. This theme comes up a lot in the opening phase. Casper van der Tak  writes: Robertie on Gammonvillage had some good articles about DMP play. If I recall correctly: - Race more important than usual. - When behind in the race, stay pure. - Full primes, and what may soon become a full prime, gain in value. - Blitzes go down in value. And probably some more that I forgot. Good illustrative positions too!   Did you find the information in this article useful?           Do you have any comments you'd like to add?

 

Match Play

1-away/1-away: advice from Bernhard Kaiser  (Darse Billings, July 1995) 

1-away/1-away: advice from Stick  (Stick+, Mar 2007) 

1-away/1-away: and similar scores  (Lou Poppler, Aug 1995) 

2-away/3-away: playing for gammon  (Tom Keith, Feb 1996) 

2-away/4-away: Neil's rule of 80  (Neil Kazaross, June 2004) 

2-away/4-away: cube strategy  (Tom Keith, Dec 1996) 

2-away/4-away: practical issues  (Mark Damish, Jan 1996) 

2-away/4-away: trailer's initial double  (Kit Woolsey, Jan 1996) 

3-away/4-away: opponent's recube  (William C. Bitting+, Feb 1997) 

3-away/4-away: racing cube  (Bill Calton+, Nov 2012) 

3-away/4-away: tricky cube decision  (Kit Woolsey+, July 1994) 

3-away/4-away: what's the correct equity?  (Tom Keith, Sept 1997) 

4-away/4-away: take/drop point  (Gary Wong, Oct 1997) 

5-away/11-away: redouble to 8  (Gavin Anderson, Oct 1998) 

7-away/11-away: volatile recube decision  (Kit Woolsey, May 1997) 

Both too good and not good enough to double  (Paul Epstein+, Sept 2007) 

Comparing 2-away/3-away and 2-away/4-away  (Douglas Zare, Mar 2002) 

Crawford rule  (Chuck Bower, May 1998) 

Crawford rule  (Kit Woolsey, Mar 1997) 

Crawford rule--Why just one game?  (Walter Trice, Jan 2000) 

Crawford rule--history  (Michael Strato, Jan 2001) 

Delayed mandatory double  (tem_sat+, Oct 2010) 

Delayed mandatory double  (Donald Kahn+, Dec 1997) 

Doubling when facing a gammon loss  (Kit Woolsey, Jan 1999) 

Doubling when opponent is 2-away  (David Montgomery, Dec 1997) 

Doubling when you're an underdog  (Stein Kulseth, Dec 1997) 

Doubling window with gammons  (Jason Lee+, Jan 2009) 

Free drop  (Ian Shaw, May 1999) 

Free drop  (Willis Elias+, Oct 1994) 

Gammonless takepoint formula  (Adam Stocks, June 2002) 

Going for gammon when opp has free drop  (Kit Woolsey, Jan 1998) 

Going for gammon when opp has free drop  (Kit Woolsey, Apr 1995) 

Holland rule  (Neil Kazaross, Apr 2010) 

Holland rule  (Kit Woolsey, Dec 1994) 

Leading 2-away with good gammon chances  (Douglas Zare, Feb 2004) 

Match play 101  (Max Urban+, Oct 2009) 

Matches to a set number of games  (Tom Keith+, Oct 1998) 

Playing when opponent has free drop  (Gilles Baudrillard+, Dec 1996) 

Post-crawford doubling  (Scott Steiner+, Feb 2004) 

Post-crawford doubling  (Maik Stiebler+, Dec 2002) 

Post-crawford doubling  (Gus+, Sept 2002) 

Post-crawford mistakes  (Rob Adams, Sept 2007) 

Post-crawford/2-away: too good to double  (Robert-Jan Veldhuizen, July 2004) 

Slotting when opponent has free drop  (onur alan+, Apr 2013) 

Take points  (fiore+, Feb 2005) 

Tips to improve cube handling  (Lucky Jim+, Jan 2010) 

When to free drop  (Dan Pelton+, Oct 2006) 

When to free drop  (Tom Keith+, July 2005) 

When to free drop  (Gregg Cattanach, Dec 2004) 

When to free drop  (Kit Woolsey, Feb 1998) 

When to free drop  (Chuck Bower, Jan 1998) 

Which format most favors the favorite?  (Daniel Murphy+, Jan 2006) 

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