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Pay now or later: Two progressive Variants

Posted By: MK
Date: Thursday, 6 November 2025, at 9:40 p.m.

In Response To: Pay now or later: Two progressive Variants (Nack Ballard)

..... initial interesting position

XGID=-BBBbBB-B----A-----bccBcb-:1:1:1:21:0:0:3:0:10

..... variant one White's anchor from 21pt to 20pt and move Blue's blot back 1

XGID=-BBBBbB-B-----A----bccBcb-:1:1:1:21:0:0:3:0:10

..... variant two White's anchor to the 19pt and move Blue's blot back another pip

XGID=-BBBBBb-B------A---bccBcb-:1:1:1:21:0:0:3:0:10

Instead of creating the two variant positions, if you ran into them during play instead, would you all recognize them as "pay now or pay later" also?

Searching this forum for the phrase "pay now or later" finds 615 threads.

There are hundreds if not thousands more found in rec.games.backgammon, other bg forums, facebook, youtube, etc...

First come the questions: Are all those positions "pay now or pay later"? Who decides so and based on what criteria?

It's inane to humanize the bots as though they are capable of tactical (i.e. "pr sacrificing") moves as part of alternative strategies in the true meaning of the word.

Since bots are capable of only a single strategy (i.e. "always make what they deem as the best move at any position"), logic dictates that they would always "pay now" or always "pay later".

What you guys need to do is look at all those thousands of positions that you thought were "pay now or pay later" and count how many times the bots paid now vs paid later.

If they didn't at least overhwelmingly (if not always) paid either now or later, then you must not even know what a "pay now or pay later" position is...

MK

Messages In This Thread

• Pay now or later ?
  pierrez -- Friday, 3 October 2025, at 6:39 p.m.
  • Pay now or later ?
    ah_clem -- Friday, 3 October 2025, at 9:59 p.m.
  • Pay now or later ?
    John O'Hagan -- Saturday, 4 October 2025, at 3:31 a.m.
  • Pay now or later ?
    Bob Koca -- Saturday, 4 October 2025, at 4:14 a.m.
  • Pay now or later ? Rollout
    pierrez -- Thursday, 9 October 2025, at 4:51 p.m.
    • Pay now or later: Two progressive Variants
      Nack Ballard -- Monday, 20 October 2025, at 4:48 p.m.
      • Pay now or later: Two progressive Variants
        MK -- Thursday, 6 November 2025, at 9:40 p.m.