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USBGF Rules Reboot - proposal - public comment welcome

Posted By: Jack Edelson
Date: Friday, 7 July 2017, at 4:22 a.m.

In Response To: USBGF Rules Reboot - proposal - public comment welcome (Rich Munitz)

It's better to head off an issue than to correct it after it occurs.

The problem of improper shaking, I believe, is more common than claimed here; I've run into players at all levels who either rarely shake properly, do so inconsistently, or -- perhaps most often -- stop shaking when the match has gone downhill, when the opponent is less likely to correct them. If a player didn't shake the dice properly and produced a non-random roll as a result, whether intentionally or not, that first unfair roll will likely wind up standing even if the opponent takes immediate action to prevent this from recurring in the future. Why not stop this from happening at all with a bafflebox?

And in practice, it's usually a lot more than one non-shaken roll that will stand. I find that when I respond to the first instance by asking the opponent to shake properly, this usually only works for a time before they revert. The only way to head this off would be to call the director on the first instance, and for the director to immediately impose a bafflebox or monitor to make sure it doesn't happen again. And that would be unnecessarily burdensome. Correction is just more complicated than is prevention.

Sure, the vast majority of matches don't have this problem, and the vast majority of improperly-shaken dice aren't unfair in the "manipulation" sense. But dice rolling is an integral part of backgammon, so even an occasional issue is enough for me to argue for baffle preferred. Certainly, I'd argue that this improves the game more than does using one set of dice, which is preferred under the proposed rules. Both rules have a similar effect of reducing disputes and speeding up the game.

I never realized I felt strongly about this until I wrote this post. Time for me to buy a bafflebox?

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