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BGonline.org Forums
another position from Vegas--still don't have a good reason for the right play
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: another position from Vegas (John Gamalielson)
Date: Friday, 27 November 2015, at 2:24 p.m.
In the old days I would have stripped the 6 and 5 immediately, but I have learned that the risk of leaving the double shot is too great and the modern approach is to avoid that 6-5 anti-joker, so I left a spare on the 5 point.
XG, and Neil (in this thread) say it is right to strip the top points...welcome back to the old days.
This brings up something I have struggled with a lot as a teacher. I teach beginners and intermediates a lot of "rules of thumb" that they can generally rely on, and they need these desperately, as those are tools they can remember and apply. Of course I caution them that there are almost always exceptions to rules of thumb (make the 5 point when you can, when up in the race, race, when outboarded, don't invite hitting, slot the back of your prime, come up to the edge of your opponent's prime, when in doubt bearing off, peel, etc. etc.).
Then as players progress to high intermediate and open, I teach them that they must now learn to rely less on rules of thumb and apply concepts of play based on the unique position. It's a difficult transition, and knowing that the student will have to let go of rules of thumb later, it's almost difficult for me to teach them...but there are important and do apply most of the time.
This position illustrate that very problem of trying to rely on a basic premise that we want to avoid leaving the double shot against the ace point, but at the same time we want to prepare to clear the top points sooner.
I do have a "stock answer" when students complain that the game is very hard and complicated: "That's a good thing, as all of your hard work and study will give you an edge over the many players who are not doing this work. If the game was easy, then anyone could play well."
I have to keep reminding this to myself, as it does get frustrating, after all these years of studying the game, that I still don't know the right play in positions like this one.
So, back to this position, Neil gave the short answer, that we need to get ready to clear the 6 and 5 points, but so many times this is not true. When to apply this thought and when not to is the problem. And that's the answer I am looking for.
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