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Crawford Rule and Life and Everything are Unfair

Posted By: Tom Keith
Date: Sunday, 4 April 2010, at 4:56 p.m.

In Response To: Crawford Rule and Life and Everything are Unfair (Daniel Murphy)

The late Walter Trice once wrote:

If the Crawford rule remained in effect for the rest of the match, this would make it too hard to catch up, which would give too large a reward for a lucky early win. E.g. in a 5 point match, one player could double and win a gammon to go up 4-0. With a permanent Crawford, the trailer would then have to win 5 in a row, or perhaps 3 in a row with 2 of them gammons. This is just much too difficult.

The real reason for the Crawford rule is not some abstract sense of 'fairness.' The rule is used because without it there would be some very strange cube action near the end of the match. For example, consider the score 2-3 in a 5 point match with no Crawford rule. If the trailing player doubles, the leading player can take ANYTHING AT ALL if there is no gammon threat. The worst that could happen is he loses, goes down 4-3, doubles immediately next game, and is 50-50 except for the small 'free drop' equity.

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