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Have players gone overboard...

Posted By: Daniel Murphy
Date: Tuesday, 19 June 2007, at 6:44 p.m.

In Response To: Have players gone overboard... (Chuck Bower)

http://www.bkgm.com/glossary.html#D:

Duplication: A position in which the same number can be used in more than one way.... All else being equal, a position which duplicates the opponent's good numbers is better than one which does not because it means the opponent has fewer good rolls in total.

The key phrase being: all else being equal.

Duplication's not a be-all end-all. Being aware of duplication is a shortcut to finding the best move. Instead of trying to figure out who stands better after 1296 2-roll sequences, you can observe, for instance, that after Play A opponent's 5s, 4s and 1s are good returns, but after Play B only opponent's 4s and 1s are good. That's an indication that Play B just might be the better play.

So if, for instance, I make Play B -- the right play -- and say I made it because it duplicated some number, and I'm not overlooking other crucial aspects of the position, I've nothing to apologize for. There's nothing wrong with my explanation. My goal was not to duplicate at all costs. My goal was to make the right play, and I found the right play, and by observing duplication I made my decision easier and faster.

If Play B was the wrong play, then I've got a problem. Hopefully, that problem is that I overlooked some other aspect of the position that favored Play A, and not I that intuited that Play B must be right just because it duplicated.

Messages In This Thread

• Have players gone overboard...
  Chuck Bower -- Friday, 15 June 2007, at 2:06 p.m.
  • Have players gone overboard...
    Stick -- Friday, 15 June 2007, at 2:53 p.m.
    • Have players gone overboard...
      Marty Storer -- Tuesday, 19 June 2007, at 5:38 p.m.
  • Have players gone overboard...
    Daniel Murphy -- Tuesday, 19 June 2007, at 6:44 p.m.