mercredi 11 juillet 2012

Advanced Backgammon Strategies - Making use of the Doubling Cube

By Albert Magana


Even though, the Doubling Cube is unknown to most of the backgammon casual players, it's an vital tool in advanced backgammon strategies and in dollars matches and tournaments.

This cube is designated for raising the stakes of the match and its introduction to the backgammon world is one of the key reasons for the rise of popularity of backgammon.

The cube has 6 faces and also the numbers written on it- 2, 4, 8,16,32,64.

At the beginning of the match, the doubling cube is placed beside the board or on the Bar between the players.

Any player, who feels at any stage of the match, that he is leading sufficiently inside the match, prior to throwing his dice, could suggest to double the stakes by placing the doubling cube with the number 2 facing up.

As an example player A decided to raise the stakes.

Player B, his opponent, the player the give is given to, after reviewing his scenario, has two solutions:

He may refuse the offer and thus lose the game and one unit.

He might agree to double the stakes, and in this case the match continues with higher stakes.

Player B, who agreed to the provide, is now the owner of the doubling cube, meaning only him (player B) has the option to double the stakes once again at any stage of the game.

If player B decides to do so, he has to do it on his turn before throwing his dice.

Now he takes the dice and locations it to ensure that the number 4 is facing up.

Player A, has now the exact same two choices, only this time if he declines the offer he will lose two units, and if he agrees the stakes will rise to 4 times the original along with the doubling cube returns to his control.

The cube can pass from player to player, each and every time raising the stakes.

The Crawford rule-

If you're playing a game until N- points, and your opponent is leading and reaches N-1 points, meaning he is short one point from winning the game, you are not allowed to use the Doubling cube within the following game, nonetheless, you could use the dice in the following matches if the game continues.

The reason is the weaker player will generally need to raise the stakes because he has absolutely nothing to lose anymore and we want maintain the use of the dice in fairness of both sides.

The Jacoby rule-

This rule is used in dollars games and never in match games. It decides that a backgammon or gammon may not be scored as such only if the cube has been passed and accepted. The reason behind this rule is speeding up.

The Holland rule-

The Holland rule is used in match games and decides that in post-Crawford games, the trailer can only double right after both sides have played two rolls. The rule makes the free of charge drop much more valuable to the leading player but usually just confuses the problem.

In contrast to the Crawford rule, this rule is not favorite, and is rarely utilised today.

The beavers, raccoons, otters and any other animals within the backgammon game-

These animals appear only, if wanted by both sides, in dollars games and by no means in match games.

If player A, doubles the stakes, and player B believes A is wrong and he (player B) has the benefit, B can double the stakes and maintain the doubling cube on his side. For instance, if A makes the initial double and puts the doubling cube on 2, B can say "Beaver", turn the cube to 4 and keep the cube at his side. If A believes B is wrong he can say "Raccoon" and turn the cube to 8. All this time, B remains the owner of the doubling cube. If B wishes to raise the stakes once far more, he only requirements to say an additional silly name (the animal's name is really a controversy among players) and so on.

The Chouette-

Chouette can be a version of backgammon for more than 2 players. 1 of the players will be the "Box" and plays against the rest of the group on a single board.

A different player will be the "Captain" of the group, who throws the dice and makes the moves for the group playing against the box.

If the Box wins, the Captain goes to the back of the line along with the next player becomes the Captain of the team. If the Captain wins, he becomes the new Box, plus the old Box goes to the end of the line.

The rules regarding the ability of the group to consult with the Captain changes from

version to version. In some versions of the Chouette the group can freely give suggestions to the Captain, and in other versions, consulting is strictly forbidden.

The compromised version will be the most popular- consulting is legitimate only soon after the dice have been thrown.

Originally, Chouette was played having a single die .The only decisions that players other than the Captain had been allowed to create on their own was concerning the takes: If the Box had doubled, each and every player on the team could take or drop independently. Nowadays, a multiple-cube Chouette is more favorite; every player on the team has his own cube, and all doubling, dropping, and taking decisions are produced independently by all players.




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