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Who you got #1

Posted By: Stick
Date: Friday, 13 November 2026, at 12:31 a.m.

In Response To: Who you got #1 (Bob Koca)

First we should agree on a couple of points.

  • Being spotted the opening roll without doubles counting in normal backgammon is worth about +.050
  • Being spotted the opening roll without doubles counting and the opponent having a man from his midpoint on his 9pt makes you a clear underdog. You have ten opening rolls that leave you positive equity and twenty where you're negative equity.
  • The best spot to put a sixteenth checker with the opponent on roll without doubles counting seems to be the nine point

Given the above it seems clear to me I'd rather be spotted the extra checker than to have my opponent have the extra checker and be on roll. To add to this I manually played out 36 games (which is obviously statistical significance at its finest) The player with 16 checkers won 19 of the 36 games, or 6 points on the chouette sheet. The player with 16 checkers managed to win one backgammon which I assume is even more a fluke than normal so factor that into your variance reduced results.

Of course those of you out there will have to rely on my playing skills in these rollouts so add as many grains of salt as you like to the results. While it does change play from the outset it's nothing that I felt uncomfortable with at all. Still seems like normal backgammon with a heightened sense of 'how many guys in the zone does the player with 16 checkers have' and 'keep track of the race at all times because one guy starts down 9 pips and not on roll'.

Playing 36 games out means nothing but at the same time means everything. I've always advocated for doing this. It gives you a much better sense of what's happening with any position you do it with. Along the way you can identify what issues you might have in the position being played out and hunt down answers to improve your own game. The downside of course is it's wildly time consuming. Still, if you enjoy it there's nothing better. I always think I'd have been a far better player compared to the field if I existed pre-bots than post bots because it's the exact kind of thing I enjoy.

Stick

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