Backgammon Chouettes

Chouettes

When box takes a partner

From:   Dan Pelton
Address:   dpeltonil@yahoo.com
Date:   20 March 2009
Subject:   Chouette Question
Forum:   BGonline.org Forums

We had a nice little 6 person chouette Wednesday nite here in town. Box against the Captain and 4 crewmembers. I understand that with 7 players often the box will take a partner. I'm wondering how the cubes and points work for a situation with the box taking a partner. Example, Box and Partner (Player P) play against a Captain (player A) and Crew (Players B,C,D and E). Do the box and partner have individual cubes, so that Box and Partner each have 5 cubes? Can team members double both the box and partner individually?

garyo writes:

They split the result. There is only one cube from each player to the box (with partner). If an odd number of points is involved the box gets credit for the odd point (either won or lost).

Keene writes:

Its quite easy when you break it down: Box is taking a partner, thats entirely his deal not anyone else's. The Captain and Crew are still playing against the box. So, when Box is handling the cubes, his risk is shared by his partner, to whatever extent was discussed. Typically this is a half share of the cubes in play. The box is still in charge, he is merely financially liable for whatever he and partner have discussed. The same goes for a captain or crew member making an offer - this is outside of the game, and a crew member buying the captains stake in the game still means that for all practical purposes, the captain is still the captain, and must play accordingly - the feature of this agreement is that captain should make whatever play crew member tells him to - unless there are other considerations (like other players with turned cubes etc). Keeping it simple is key. Basically any and all deals made by players with the primary participants of a chouette are outside of the chouette, and should not in any way affect the play or position of the players in the chouette. Make sense? Can you tell I play in a lot of chouettes?

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