Books

Move one man from black twelve point to your nine point, and one back man from black one to black two point. This is not a good roll of the dice, and our recommended play has its risks, as you know from previous discussion. The good alternate play with 4-1 is to move one man to your nine point and the other man to your five point. This is wonderful when it works — that is, if black doesn’t hit one of your blots, and if you can cover them on the next roll. The trouble is that your blot on the five point is exposed to any 4, plus 3-1, double 2, and double 1, while your other blot is exposed to 6-2, 5-3, double 4, and double 2. In addition, double 4 and double 2 hit both your blots. This represents too much risk.

24/23, 13/9

Alternate: 13/9, 6/5

Rollout  Tom Keith 2013

Money play Centered cube White rolls 4-1 1296 games with VR Checker play: 3-ply Cube play: XG Roller

XGID=-b----E-C---eE---c-e----B-:0:0:1:41:0:0:0:0

	4-1:		Game	G	BG	Equity
1	24/23, 13/9	W L	.4979 .5021	.1442 .1391	.0059 .0059	−0.0080
2	13/9, 6/5	W L	.4996 .5004	.1428 .1481	.0065 .0091	−0.0090	(0.0010)	Alternate
3	24/23, 24/20	W L	.4890 .5110	.1284 .1386	.0060 .0059	−0.0465	(0.0385)
4	13/8	W L	.4877 .5123	.1381 .1493	.0069 .0061	−0.0563	(0.0483)
5	24/20, 6/5	W L	.4892 .5108	.1279 .1478	.0060 .0071	−0.0592	(0.0512)

Previous Position No. 18, page 76

Next Position No. 20, page 78

List of Positions from The Backgammon Book

The Backgammon Book (1970), by Oswald Jacoby and John R. Crawford