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Re: Re: Doubling help

Posted By: Stick
Date: Saturday, 11 November 2006, at 2:05 a.m.

In Response To: Re: Doubling help (DC-Ohio)

My personal opinion on how best to learn to improve your game in the beginning is play the bot on a strong setting. [GNU 2 ply, Snowie 3 ply] I'd suggest not using the *hint* feature though unless you're sure you're not using it as a crutch. A lot of people see a position, aren't sure what to do, so hit the old ctrl + h for the answer. That's fine and dandy if you take the time beforehand to work out your own play and the merits of it, not simply click for GNU to give you the play w/out reflection. I prefer to play out the games and analyze them immediately afterwards and then I'll see the play(s) I was interested in and can figure out why my own plays were good or bad compared to the bot's thoughts.

There's no easy answer on when to double or take. It has been said that at least two thirds of initial doubles are takes. This is true in my opinion, maybe even up to 3/4ths of them are. A few 'tips':

  • In a straight race [zero to very minimal contact left] use the 8-9-12 rule until you become more advanced. A very handy guide. It means you should double if your opponent's pip count exceeds yours by 8% or more and redouble if it exceeds it by 9% or more. The person being doubled should accept the double when he is trailing up to 12%
  • Almost all 'pure' high anchor games are takes when your opponent hasn't made any additional landing points (such as the bar). This means if you have the defensive 5 pt., 4 pt., or even 3 pt. anchor you should most likely take.
  • Pay attention to the gammons you will lose! This is one of the biggest mistakes I see, people taking cubes because they have 30% to win the game. If gammons didn't count it'd be a huge take, of course. They see the position and see opportunities to win ... that is, if they get off the bar lol. For every 2% worth of gammons lost you need to win 1% more games. The typical take point is 25% meaning if you think you can win 1 out of every 4 games you should take a double. Now toss in your opponent winning 20% gammons and your win % needs to be raised by 10%, or to 35%, to justify you taking the cube
  • If you aren't sure your opponent has a take or not, double! Let him worry about the details. The good things outway the bad by a mile with this idea. I always picture myself on the other side of the board and ask myself "Do I want to see my opponent cube me here? If he did would I have a take?"
This list was made on the fly and others should feel free to add to it. It's a general list so don't pick it apart, obviously if you have checkers on the bar and a 5 pt. anchor it may no longer be a take, etc... Kit Woolsey's excellent book Cube Reference Positions may also help you see a lot of standard doubling positions. The more and more reference material you have saved in your head the more you learn to evaluate positions based on their differences and will be whippin' & shippin' that cube around with confidence in no time.

Stick

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