| Books |
From The Backgammon Book, by Oswald Jacoby and John R. Crawford
|
| White to play 5-4. |
In Position 87 black doubled you a couple of rolls back and has succeeded in completing a prime against your two back men. You proceed to roll 5-4. You have one, and only one, good play here. This is to move the man on your eleven point to your bar point and a man from the black twelve point to your eight point.
You won’t be happy if black then rolls a 5, and hits your blot on your bar point, but the game won’t be lost. If you fail to enter on his one point for several rolls and he fails to roll another 5 in that same period, you will hold your position while he will have to break first his prime and then his board.
Even if he gets his other man on your two point out and away and hits the blot you have left on his twelve point, you will still be holding the one point in his board and have a chance to win the game if he fails to roll safe numbers.
If he does not roll a 5 on his first roll (and remember that the odds are twenty-five to eleven that he won’t) you will have two men in position to complete your own prime. If you succeed in this, since he will be more advanced in his board than you are, the odds are that he will have to break his prime first, whereupon you should win the game easily.
As a matter of minor interest, if instead of a 5 he rolls double 3 or double 4, he will be forced to break his prime then and there, and you would be able to double him immediately.
Rollout
 Tom Keith 2013 |
|
Money play White owns 2-cube White rolls 5-4 1296 games with VR Checker play: 3-ply Cube play: XG Roller |
| 5-4: | Game | G | BG | Equity | ||||
| 1 | 13/8, 11/7 |
W L |
.4601 .5399 |
.0899 .2124 |
.0029 .0242 | −0.0502 |
|
|
| 2 | 13/9, 13/8 |
W L |
.4016 .5984 |
.0815 .1663 |
.0029 .0132 | −0.1413 | (0.0911) |
|
|
