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BGonline.org Forums
Cube error rates
Posted By: Keene In Response To: Cube error rates (Joe Russell)
Date: Tuesday, 21 July 2009, at 3:08 p.m.
There has been some discussion of this here in the past. But, I am of the firm opinion that fairness isnt a factor here. If you keep missing a double for a series of positions, then yes you have made the same mistake, and you deserve to be punished accordingly each time you make that same mistake. However, this does have a couple of things in its favor:
1. It is very easy to see your mistake in retrospect, and to remedy it for future games. 2. It does train you to cube earlier rather than later.
The other question it raises is: Is it better to double early for a small error, or to double late for frequent small errors? Obviously continually missing your doubles is not a good thing. But is the tradeoff fair?
How to answer that is somewhat tricky. Doubling too early is a one time mistake, but it does remove some of your play problems too - things like market retention, playing on GG situations, it suddenly becomes very easy to play without access to the cube (you just go for the jugular). So, is this a fair tradeoff? Yes, I think so. My plays become easier after sending an early cube than they are with a centered cube. Besides everything, we do have Kit to thank for Woolseys rule, that makes cube decisions quite a bit easier to process. Another way to think about this tradeoff is to just consider your checker play ER - thats certainly what I do, I always check the two ER's - and I am considerably more upset if my checkers is high than I am if my cubes are high.
You are also just playing for error rate too, is that your goal here? Or is your goal to win your match? I imagine with money on the line, or tournament advancement, then really do you care if you made the same repeating error and have a higher ER yet won your match, or if you had a lower ER and lost your match because of an early cube? My goal is to win (unless I am playing for ER), and I dont care how high my ER is either. A win is a win. Obviously, I would much prefer to win with a low ER than a high one. I am also fairly comfortable with that since I know that I can play well. Just not all the time is all :)
In my case, I practice (on GG mostly) for ER, and dont care about results, but tournament and money play is results based entirely, so I cater my game to my opponent a little at least. Does it matter if I deliberately hold a cube back because I know my opponent will take it too deep? Not to me! Just reduces my risk is all - something the bots dont measure.
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