Backgammon Mistake 6

Backgammon Mistake 6

Cash game on Play65 35p/Point

I rolled 61 as white and moved 8/1* which lost me a massive .296 equity. This move probably resulted in me losing the entire match in the end with the cube on 8!

Reasons behind my play:
This was a pretty bad roll whichever way you look at it and there wasn't anyway to move without leaving a blot. I could either leave a blot on the 1 point by moving 8/1* or leave a blot on the 13 point by moving one of those checkers away. My thoughts were that if red missed his next roll then I could cover the 1 or if he had entered on the 2 or 3 I wouldn't need to.

Correct play : 13/7 6/5
Advantages:

• Leaves spare checkers on 4 separate points which gives me a massive chance to create a 6 point prime.
• Red will only hit roughly a third of the time.
• If I am hit I lose less pips than my chosen play of 8/1* 

Disadvantages:

• With 5 points made in his home board red will become massive favourite to win if he hits.

  

Backgammon Mistake 5

Backgammon Mistake 5

Cash game on Play65 35p/point

Rolled 62 as white and played 110/4 6/4 which lost me 0.112 equity 

Reasons behind my play
I'm usually content to make the 4 point early on in the game, this move also had the added benefit of lowering the number of blots I had from 2 to 1. With the opponent having already split his back checkers leaving 2 blots seemed like an unnecessarily risky play.

Correct play :  24/16*
Advantages:

• Hits an enemies checker and which loses him 16 pips.
• Puts an enemy on the bar which stops him building any decent strategic points next roll unless he gets any lucky doubles.
• If I'm not hit next roll then I'll be favorite to build my 5 or 7 point.  
• Getting hit at this stage isn't a big concern as the enemy hasn't started developing their home board 

Disadvantages:

• Leaves 4 blots, if Red gets a lucky few rolls he can potentially hit a lot.
• Gives up the chance to build a home board point 

  

Backgammon Mistake 4

Backgammon Mistake 4

 

Cash game on Play65 35p/point

This mistake of mine isn't a specific move but a really awful double. I was in the situation shown as white and my "bright idea" was that due to the average roll being 8.2 I was actually ahead in pip count. As this was a pure race situation I was therefore ahead and should double. The double was quickly accepted by my opponent who then won whilst I was left with 6 pips to bare off dispute neither of us rolling doubles.

This served as a very valuable lesson that demonstrates how much of an advantage having spread out checkers is. I thought I was somewhere in the region of 50%-55% favorite but running is through GNU it turns out my winning chances are 29% ! I guess I should count myself lucky that red didn't redouble me as I would have probably accepted.

I'm not going to beat myself up too much over this as I lost an extra 35p here but learnt a potentially very valuable lesson about just how much spreading your checkers is worth.

Backgammon Mistake 3

Backgammon Mistake 3

Cash game on Play65 35p/point

Rolled 62 and played 24/13 which lost me .104 equity

Reasons behind my play:
I couldn't see any amazing plays so thought that instead of leaving more blots around I'd run one of my back checkers to safety and hope that next round I could use the checker on my 11 point to either build the 5 or 7 point. I was also a bit concerned about having 2 blots in the enemy board which gave him lots of rolls next round that would hit my checker and build a a point in his home board,

Correct play : 21/15 13/11
Advantages:

• Makes my 11 point safe from rolls of 8 or 9 next round. 
• Could potentially be used for an 11-6 point prime
• Makes it a little bit harder for red to escape his back checkers
• Still leaves me with lots of rolls that make the 7 or 5 point as long as I am willing to leave a blot on my 11 point again
• If any of my 2 back checkers get hit I don't lose too many pips

Disadvantages:

• Lots of rolls are left for red that hit my back checkers and establish a new point in his home board.
• All rolls of 8 or 9 hit my 11 point 

Backgammon Mistake 2

Backgammon Mistake 2

Cash game on Play65 35p/point

Rolled 63 and played 24/15 which lost me .147 equity 

Reasons behind my play
I wasn't keen to relinquish my anchor on the 21 point so running and hoping I wasn't hit seemed like the best move. I was aware that the opponent was favorite to hit on his roll but with only 2 home points made I wasn't afraid of dancing if I was put on the bar.

Correct play 24/18 21/18
Advantages

• Moves my point forward which makes it easier to escape next round
• if I roll big next round the spare checker on the 21 point could run home whilst I maintain the 18 point to hit enemy blots safely from.
• It wastes less pips if hit
• If the enemy does hit on his 4 point and can't cover then my next roll has over 1/3 chance of hitting him back, with 5 points made in my home board this could prove fatal for red. 

Disadvantages

• Breaks my current anchor in the enemies home board

  

Backgammon Mistake 1

Backgammon Mistake 1

Cash game on play65 65p/point

Rolled 63 and I played 16/7* which lost me .207 equity.

Reasons behind my play:
I was using the backgammon advice of "if in doubt, hit"  I knew there was a good chance that my bar point would be hit back on my opponents next roll but felt the aggressive play would put me in a good position to prime my opponents checkers on the next turn if he missed. The pip count wasn't vastly different but I was happy to knock the opponent back a few pips as well.
  
Correct Play : 16/10 13/10
Advantages:

• Leaves no blots.
• Builds a new point in my outfield .
• Fills in a point in the potential 11-6 prime.
• Checkers are well connected which means future rolls are less likely to leave blots which is good as the opponent has 4 points in his home board already made. 

 Disadvantages

• Isn't aggressive.
• Opponent can escape from my 7 point next turn and then comfortable sit on my 5 point until he can safely escape.
• Opponent is ahead in the pip count and stays ahead .

  

Format of the analysis

I'm going to try and create a standard template for reviewing my moves to try and keep things consistent from the start.

I'll take a game ive played at random and run each move through GNUBackgammon until I come across a play where I gave away +0.1 equity. I'll then list the advantages and disadvantages of the move I did and then the advantages and disadvantages of the move GNUBackgammon suggests.

Hopefully I'll learn from this and if anyone reading wants to comment i'd love to discuss specifics.