Position 30, page 68
From Backgammon for Blood, by Bruce Becker

White to play 4-3.

For the 4-3 throw, you should bring two men from B12 to the W9 and W10 points.

Here there are eleven ways in which you can be hit: 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 5-4, 4-5, 5-3, and 3-5; two of them (the 2-2 and 3-3 throws) are really better for your opponent to play otherwise and not hit you. Here too, should you not be hit, on your next throw anything except a 5-2 will allow you to make a valuable point.

Some authors recommend making your 4-3 move as 24/20, 13/10. I advise against this for several reasons.

First, I do not want to break up the B1 point this early (for reasons I have already discussed), especially since I would not be gaining any discernible advantage.

Second, the blot on B5 can be hit in twenty-three ways, which not only puts it back on the bar but allows my opponent a builder on this important point. Should the blot be hit, I can then hit my opponent’s blot in twenty-one ways, which is an advantage in the trade-off; however, in either event I have the subsequent problem of how to deal with this man. If I don’t move him, he remains vulnerable, and on a point I don’t want my opponent to build on or cover. And if I do move this man, he really can’t do me any practical good on his next move; his only immediate value, then, is to serve as a threat against my opponent’s bringing a builder down into his outer board. Therefore I don’t like this move as much as the one I recommend for this throw.

13/10, 13/9  *
Alt: 24/20, 13/10
Rollout 
XG logo
Tom Keith 2013 
Money play
Centered cube
White rolls 4-3

1296 games with VR
Checker play: 3-ply
Cube play: XG Roller
XGID=-b----E-C---eE---c-e----B-:0:0:1:43:0:0:0:0

4-3: Game BG   Equity
1 13/10, 13/9 W
L
.4988
.5012
.1572
.1405
.0081
.0077
+0.0178 x  *
2 24/20, 13/10 W
L
.5019
.4981
.1422
.1405
.0070
.0072
+0.0062 (0.0116)  Alt
3 24/21, 13/9 W
L
.4987
.5013
.1404
.1354
.0073
.0065
−0.0040 (0.0218) 
4 24/21, 24/20 W
L
.4984
.5016
.1246
.1349
.0063
.0049
−0.0098 (0.0276) 
5 24/20, 6/3 W
L
.4767
.5233
.1232
.1529
.0055
.0074
−0.1088 (0.1266) 

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No. 32, page 70

List of Positions from Backgammon for Blood

Backgammon for Blood (1974), by Bruce Becker

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