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Victor was right

Posted By: Phil Simborg
Date: Monday, 2 February 2015, at 8:38 p.m.

In Response To: 10-10/11, they started with 11 and 21 seconds clocktime, and played 30 minutes (Jason Lee)

I was on deck to play the winner and of course, when you know you are going to play the winner one reason you watch is to see if you can find any flaws in your next opponent that you can exploit.

So I sat down next to Mochy, and planned to concentrate on his opponent's play to find weaknesses in case he got lucky and beat Mochy....I did not expect to discover any weaknesses in Mochy's play! I was on the wrong side of the clock, and had just sat down when I saw Mochy's 6-1 opening move of slotting the 7 and 5 points. I thought he was drunk and I began to question everything I have ever learned about backgammon. I started wondering if there are times it is wrong to make the 5 point with an opening 3-1. I had no idea it was about the clock. And then I started hoping that Mochy would win so I could play someone so crazy...surely he had flipped out.

Very clever play by Mochy. I wonder if that's what cost him the match? Would he have gotten into that back game if he had played normally?

XG says it costs him 5 percent wins at DMP...that's a lot, no matter how much better you are than your opponent..but the clock factor certainly will mean your opponent will play even worse, and Mochy certainly would have the edge in a speed gammon game against any non-giant.

This is a classic example of what Victor said in an earlier thread....this game should not be about playing for PR. If there was a PR bet or aspect to this match no way would Mochy have been able to make such a daring, creative play.

Here is the best player in the world who usually plays under 2 PR playing at 31 PR, and while no one can justify that high a number, with 3 seconds on your opponent's clock it might have been the right strategy. It seemed to me to be a lot like throwing a pass at the end of a super bowl when you only need to run for a couple of yards, but it's easy to criticize when it doesn't work. If Ron had timed out or Mochy had won the match people would be awe struck by his genius instead of skeptical of what he did.

Win or lose, right or wrong on this occasion, anyone who doesn't think Mochy is a genius is stoopid.

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