Somebody asked recently about Nack's "Kangaroo Count." I found some notes I'd written a few years ago on it.
The kangaroo count is a variation of the half-crossover pip count devised by Nack Ballard and described in Issue #277 of Flint Area BackgammoNews (Dec. 2005). It works like this:
1. Count up the checkers on the far side of the board and double the total.
2. Add 1 for each checker on the major diagonal (see diagram) and double the resulting total.
3. Add 1 for each checker on the minor diagonals (see diagram).
4. Multiply by 3 and add 30.
You now have an approximate pip count. You may fine tune this count using the same method as in the half-crossover count.
