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Backgammon and psychology

Posted By: Henrik Bukkjaer
Date: Monday, 24 September 2012, at 12:32 p.m.

In Response To: Backgammon and psychology (Bob Koca)

Even though it's a difficult read, the emphasis on certain of the aspects are exaggerated far too much, and some of the conclusions are dubious, you cannot disagree with the overall message in the text and the accompanying examples, can you?

1) Don't let perceived bad luck and lack of fairness in the results affect your game. Keep your eyes on the ball, and improve as much as you can - luck will even out in the long run. Instead, bring yourself to an even bigger advantage than you might already have, by playing your opponent and be alert to own errors. Basically >50% ME means that you are the favorite, but not that you should expect to win every time! Even more basic: 50% != 100%.

2) When playing an inferior opponent, double a little bit later and pass a little bit more in gammonish positions.

3) Let your opponent do the steaming, it will pay off in the long run (I guess it's dubious advice for shorter matches and certain opponent personalities, but fine advice for emotional opponents in long moneygame sessions).

4) Take a bit deep in the first games of a session (if the positions are non-gammonish), to state an example and affect opponents future doubling points. The opposite of this advice is that you should never drop a (too late) double instantly with an expression of ease on your face. Why let your opponent know that he just screwed up and played way to passively (the way you prefer to have him play)? For this advice, I would not suggest inducing errors myself, but I would adjust the message to say - If I'm in doubt of a take/drop decision early in the match, I will for sure take the cube with a confident expression!

5) If you can exploit some known intimidation - do so! By making the match longer and getting your opponent to drop more cubes. Really this is the same advice as in 2), just a particular case.

Calling it all "psychological tricks" maybe overdoing it. Some of it is playing off psychology, but most it is really basic "fish ME adjustment".

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