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BGonline.org Forums
Headphones in Backgammon? $.02
Posted By: Stick In Response To: Headphones in Backgammon? (Stick)
Date: Thursday, 15 January 2015, at 9:04 a.m.
This is a next to me. Banning headphones is ridiculous.
Is it possible that someone sometime might try to cheat and headphones would help them in that regard? It's possible. It is a distant cry from probable for lots of reasons.
First, in these scenarios we need the situation where the risk is worth the reward. Most backgammon tournaments don't have a prize big enough to go after to make it worth it. Even the ones that do everyone knows this isn't chess. Cheating by using XG guarantees you of winning not a damn thing while risking being banned from the bg world permanently if caught, and you would likely be caught.
Essentially now any match that would be worth cheating in, later rounds, big money tournament, is likely to be recorded. If random Player X tosses out a sub 1 PR bells and whistles would be going on. Even if it's not recorded the player across from you could smell something fishy and as long as a Bulgarian isn't in the room they would know it was you. Try playing myself, Mochy, MCG, etc... and trying to fly under the radar by playing almost identical to XG. It would be picked up on esp. if you're being redonkulous and making every decision as XG says.
There's also the time problem. The cheat needs to find a way to have the match streamed or sent to someone who can then input it into XG and get back to them in a timely manner on what decision they should make. Not so likely. That brings up another issue, it takes more than 1 person for this scenario to take place. You need two crooks to pull it off.
Aside from all of that, I think tournament backgammon in the US has very few of these characters left.
I could go on for a while about why headphones are a must have option. (other than I've been secretly using them myself to cheat for years, along with bathroom breaks between games to check my MET on my iPhone) As Chuck mentioned in this thread, there are a few people out there who you must have headphones against or you will suffer the consequences of their incessant chatter. They can't help themselves even if you politely request they keep it shut it won't happen.
Headphones help drown out the noise of everything. It keeps people from randomly talking to you when you're trying to play. Most of all though for me, and I know some of you don't understand the impact this can have, it puts me in a comfortable place. The place I'm used to playing backgammon. You are forced to hear yet another tennis analogy.
Most professional tennis players have a routine. Whether it be an over the top OCD Rafael Nadal doing everything the same when changing between games or simply a serving routine. They do the same damn thing every time. This gives them something to focus on. It puts them in the right place, stops their thoughts from straying. When you play tennis you aren't supposed to be thinking how to get a forehand or picking apart your serve. That's what practice is for. When you're playing it's supposed to be to the point where you don't fuss with the details of the motion, you just play. Having this like a routine to concentrate on help this.
Now I may not get the pip count jumping out at me and I might have to put on proper attire to play in the tourney but there is hardly a reason to ban headphones. What is my recourse if my opponent keeps talking to me? I am put in the spot of trying to be polite and tell him to keep it shut and if he slips up and doesn't then I'm put in the spot of being an asshole instead of a 'nice guy' to socialize. You're also often at a table with two or three boards/matches going on. People behind you, you can't control the level of noise of all these people. Well, I take that back, you can, you only need some headphones.
You know the last thing I want to hear at whatever ungodly hour you've got me up to play backgammon? Your mouth. All praise to Nathaniel Baldwin.
Stick
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