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Whats happening here?

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Friday, 20 July 2012, at 11:01 p.m.

In Response To: Whats happening here? (Pilgrim)

Pilgrim wrote:

This position also raises important theoretical questions - can I use both Woolsey's law and reverse Woolsey in the same problem? Does this mean that any position I am clueless in is a Double/Take?

I don't think of Woolsey's law as a "theoretical" law. It's a practical guide.

Woolsey's law is often phrased, "If you're not sure it's a take..." but I don't think this is intended to mean, "If you are completely clueless about the position..." I think it's supposed to mean, "If you think that it might be a drop or that your opponent might drop..."

Similarly, reverse Woolsey means something like, "If you think that it might not be good enough for a double..."

So yes, since it's possible that you can simultaneously think that a position might not be good enough for a double, and think that it looks bad enough that it might be a drop, then you can apply both rules to conclude D/T. But no, just because you have no clue doesn't allow you to invoke either law. The laws assume that you have at least some clue about what's going on. (To be fair, usually you do have some clue. For example, in this position, you can tell that the player on roll is not a huge underdog.)

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