I'm looking for a board that can give a pip count as the game moves along. Not a fully electronic board, I still want to roll the die and move the checkers, just want a quick pip count.

I've searched around but haven't found anything like that, does anyone know of something like this?

I've never heard of anything like this. Learning to do a pip count quickly and accurately is one of the key skills of the game.

Does our moderator recommend any particular attack on pip-counting, or just grind it out?

When playing with clocks, do you attempt to keep a running count?

I am not the moderator, but I would say give the half crossover method a try. I find this to be one of the easier quick methods to use because you do not have to do a lot of mental rearranging of checkers to get to a count, and for some situations just know the half crossover count will give you the information you need without going the extra step for a full pip count.

+1
http://www.bkgm.com/articles/Zare/Ha...rPipCount.html

This article http://www.bkgm.com/articles/Townsen...nPipCount.html -- or at least part 2 of it, gives some nice tips to speed up the math with the half crossover counting. I am not sure it really justifies renaming it, but if you want to try that method I would recommend you read this article as well as the one posted previously. I find I make a lot less math errors starting with the know pip counts for 5, 15, and 25 pips than using the 3 X half cross overs + 75 method to get to the starting count. Also be sure to look for ways to cancel out the front/back of half crossover corrections rather than counting them all. If this is all as clear as mud go read the articles first, then it will all make sense to you.

For a pip count to be useful, you need an exact count. With pip counts around 100 pips each, the difference between not good enough to double and pass is only 4-5 pips, so approximations are pretty much useless.

I count pips in middle game situations by looking for first for all cases of two checkers on a point, counting one of the checkers on each of those points, and doubling that total, then adding in the odd checkers. This gets an exact count pretty quickly.

I don't do anything different when playing with clocks.

If I get to a racing-type position, do a count, and decide it's not a double, I'll keep a running count until a doubling decision happens. You don't need an exact count most of the time during a game, so keeping a complete running count is a waste of energy.

Players count in different ways, but as far as I know, all top players get an exact count when they need one.