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BGonline.org Forums
Position of the Day 09-11-25 - Rollout
Posted By: Michael Zakrajsek In Response To: Position of the Day 09-11-25 - Rollout (Stick)
Date: Tuesday, 6 January 2026, at 3:09 a.m.
Thanks for posting this one. I would've made the 5 point without thinking, but now I've had something to think about.
We can't attack with this roll, so we focus on priming. If white escapes, we're in bad shape. That seems like priority number one. Ordinarily, we'd like to build our board for an eventual hit, but here, our only shot on the horizon is against the checker we're trying to contain. So building the quickest prime trumps getting our board ready, all other things being equal (often these goals will align).
The slot leaves fewer shots. If we're not hit, the slot has more covers for our blot, with more ammo, thereby helping our prime. And if white jumps out on a non-hit, we have checkers on two points that can hit on our next roll. If we make the point, we have only the checkers on the mid (in addition to the indirects from our anchor).
If we're hit, the slot has more return shots. If we make the point outright now, white's 6s play pretty well, with all but 66 and 61 leaving just the returns from the midpoint (and 65 leaving no returns--even 64 with the slot gives us a 22 joker). And if white can't hit and jump out (41, 42, 43), then he'll have more work to do even if we don't roll a return shot.
In sum, we don't want to get hit, and we want to prime. The slot seems better for both. If we do get hit, we'd probably rather get hit having slotted for the additional returns. This second part is less clear, but I think probably right. On the one hand, we want a better board in a hitting battle, but on the other, we need to get in a hitting battle in the first place and that's more likely with more returns.
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