Backgammon Cheating

Cheating

Dice manipulation

From:   Paul Epstein
Address:   pauldepstein@att.net
Date:   20 November 2005
Subject:   Re: How good were Bruce Roman and Gaby Horowitz?
Forum:   rec.games.backgammon
Google:   1132479450.533486.89860@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com

> Out of curiousity, how does one "fix the dice" in backgammon, assuming > you are using shakers with the trip edge as well as dice with rounded > corners? Excellent question. It's an important practical one too, because the knowledge can be used to detect cheating in your opponent. The most common dice-cheating method is called "placing". The cheat places one die in the cup, and turns the other die to the desired number. The die is shaken in the cup and bounces againt the predetermined die to produce the familiar dice-rattling sound. Then the die is shaken onto the table, and the cheat simply places the predetermined die on the table while the other die is bouncing around. On reading this, a probable impression is "I would never be fooled by that." However, it does work in practice. Many backgammon clubs provide their own equipment. Hence the cheat knows the design of the dice in advance, and that makes cheating easy. The cheat simply obtains loaded dice with the same design as the club's equipment and uses sleight-of-hand to switch them as needed. Switching back and forth from straight dice to loaded dice is clearly much easier than most sleights of hand that anyone with even a passing interest in conjuring can do. Paul Epstein

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