r/backgammon

Any ideas how to improve the consistency of (good) PR?

Of my last 12 x 9pt matches against the bot (pip count hidden, all between 4 and 10 games): five were between 2 and 5 PR; six were between 5 and 9 PR, one was 15 PR(!). Long-term average is around 6 (5.6 checker, 8.2 cube) and I feel it's realistic to drive it down closer to 5.

Some of this will be luck in terms of whether positions come up that I don't understand as well. And when I'm 50-50 between 2 options some days I pick correctly, other days I get it wrong.

But I feel like there is something about the mental approach. Maybe some days I am feeling bolder or more risk-averse, sometimes maybe I'm lazy about counting the race or counting all the shots, maybe I forget to consider the cube, lose track of the match score etc. There are definitely situations where I consider ABCD and the answer is E that I never saw as a possibility. I think more of my biggest blunders come from these "silly" errors than from the positions that I genuinely don't understand, so I'm trying to work on my psychology for a while rather than theory.

Any tips for consistency, or for a more robust/reliable mental approach to become a bit more consistent and reduce these lapses?

So I'm an intermediate player and I've been using backgammon NJ for a while. I started to notice that when I play with the cube the computer seems to always dominate. It's not uncommon for it to get a series of fortunate rolls and then proposes doubling the cube before the match has even started. If I accept the double, the match ends up with 2 or 3 of my guys stuck on the bar in a spot where I need several lucky rolls just to not get backgammoned. Often it will make early moves, such as hitting my guys and leaving theirs fully exposed in a way that statistics would say is not worth the risk, only to be rewarded by me being stuck and rolling back to back double 6s.

At first I assumed I just wasn't that good, but the more I played the more it felt like the computer was just getting fortuitous rolls to a statistically improbable degree. Now I know all of the rolls are programmed in advance and it can't just will up a double 6's in the final stretch of a close match (though it often can feel that way), but it seems like it always gets the better starting rolls. To test this theory, I started asking for hints on every single roll for a series of matches. For context, I play on hard and I assume the hint button mimics an expert or statistically perfect player. And yet I (or rather the expert computer via the hints) still got outplayed by the computer on hard mode. I suppose I could've tried this for a larger sample size to test my theory, but frankly I don't have the time. I resorted to literally cheating and looking at the next rolls before making certain high impact moves and yet the computer on hard mode would always seem to pull things out. It would seem to dominate in a way that I never experience when playing real people on a board, even with friends I've played that are borderline experts. It seems to win with a dominance that can only be achieved with unbelievably hot rolls.

And then the weirdest thing happened...

I switched to playing without the doubling cube. All of a sudden things became much more even. I often win matches to 9 or 11. When I lose single games it's often close and I almost never get gammoned. It's rare that either I or the computer end up in obviously dominant positions early on that would warrant doubling the cube.

Is there any explanation to this? Am I just crazy and reacting to events that can be explained with normal dice roll variance? I may not be that good but I'm not THAT not good and the computer on hard mode shouldn't be THAT dominant.

So, I know that failing to roll a successful incoming roll from the bar is dancing or fanning.

Question: Is there similar terminology (or is it the same?) for rolls during bear off where one can only bear off one checker, or worse, none?

Thanks! Roll on my brothers and sisters!

Do you know of any great asynchronous cross-platform backgammon apps? My friends and I love Backgammon NJ, but we can’t play with Android friends.

I’ve read DailyGammon could be an answer, but I was hoping for an app. I’ll try DailyGammon out too though.

Anything else out there?

Complete beginner here. How to determine which player will have the right or left side?

What if both want the right side?

I know it is mirrored and maybe there's really no advantage, but what if a player is so used to playing at right (moving counter-clockwise). He'll need time to adjust playing with unfamiliar direction. Wouldn't it have some effect on his strategy? He may even move the piece in opposite direction due to muscle memory.

Hi! An amateur player here. Backgammon makes me see things different in life, for example in videogames. This main thing of backgammon of when to race or when to stay make me a better videogames player, situations like if it’s worth going back to save a teammate or do I need to rush forward, am I ahead and play safe or Do I need to create problems to get back in race, etc. Have you experienced something like this?

Would you still play as often if backgammon was only 1 match play with no cubes?

Hey guys wondering what books you recommend to learn the game better. I know how to play but I’m fairly new to the game still. Thanks all!

This is NOT a “poor me” post, bear with it !

I’ve been on the wrong end of higher than 100% luck ratings many times on Galaxy and literally not once on the right side of it.

I am not very good but I mostly play people lower rated than me and who play worse

Is it a thing that a weaker player is more likely to record a high luck rating - because they put themselves in more positions where they really need a joker -?

Just making sure I'm not missing something. When I try to play a match of any length but 1, it pops up the subscription dialog, and the only options I can see are to subscribe or to return, with no way to select a length other than one once I return. Is that right? I can't play a match vs ai without paying?

I find that if for whatever reason, opponents end up with 4 or more blots in my home. The chances of, getting hit , even when playing perfectly, are enormous.

So what often happens, i get lucky or opponent plays bad and ends up with a lot of blots in my home base, i keep.plagijf perfect and am ahead all of the time.

Meanhwile opponent just slowly closes his home base and eventually hits me once and my full lead will evaporate.

Im even thinking of this could be used as a strategy? Play extremely risky in the beginning. Either you get ahead and lock up and play conservative or if you get behind, you purposely sacrifice a couple more blots to be able to get back in the game.

Thoughts?