Backgammon

[yendi]

LJ-less Gerry came over last night, and we played backgammon for three hours. I'd never really seriously played the game (usually playing Elayna, in fact), and hadn't really had to contemplate the strategy involved. Nor did I realize how much the doubling cube could influence strategy. We played a number of individual games (no cube), followed by two five-point matches, which we split. Was damned fun, and a habit I'll need to add to my ever-growing list of gaming addictions.

Comments

[creentmerveille.livejournal.com]

I love backgammon, but I don't know how to play with the doubling cube. :( How does that work?

[fiddledragon]

Backgammon was a family tradition in my parents' house.

*sigh*

I miss it. But I'm not good anymore since I haven't played in so long....I must dig out my board and play some this weekend, I think :)

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

[yendi]

Basically, if you're playing a match to a certain number of points, the cube is initally considered to be at "1." A player can, before he rolls, offer to double, and the opponant can decline (in which case he forfits and loses the point(s) on the cube), or accepts. The player who has been challenged can, at a later point, re-double, etc.

This is complicated by the fact that getting gammoned or backgammoned increase the inital value that is doubled.

[yendi]

Just commented above to creentmerveille

[yendi]

Sadly, I don't think I even have a board anymore. Need to rectify that.

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

But...what do the points mean? Is it just a gambling thing?

[yendi]

To an extent -- they're a form of gambling, but it's really a question of whether you're playing a single game, or playing to a score of somthing like 5. Compare it to, for example, a tennis match, where you can win a game in four "turns", but need six games to win a set.

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

Oh, ok. I see now. Sort of. It just seems like...you're only going to double if you're winning, and why wouldn't you want to if you're winning? And if you refuse, you just lose?

[yendi]

Well, if you're winning early in the game, and see a chance to gammon or backgammon, you might not want to double, because if your opponant sees that he'll get gammoned, he might just take the one-point loss.

And yeah, if you refuse, you lose, so the only situation in which you'd want to do it would be if you knew you were going to get backgammoned or something.

Then again, I only learned how to use the cube last night, so I suspect there's a lot I don't get.