First off, I am so pleased that there is now a backgammon forum on 2+2.

Secondly, at a couple of the local casinos I occasional frequent, there are backgammon tournis (ranging from £10-250) and cash games (depending on whose around but roughly £1-£10) going on. I don't really enjoy playing online but am strangely addicted to GNU.

I currently run at around 1710 Fibs per GNU over the last 200 or so 9-21point matches and am interested in playing some of these live matches. What sort of advice can people offer for the transition? What stakes can yield a profit for me (assuming an averagely fishy pool) or will I likely be far beow the general standard? Any other tips?

I never played much tourneys but from money game experience I can tell this: You better learn to compute the pip count pretty fast...

You need to learn the mechanics of live play in the same way an internet poker player needs to learn what a string bet is when playing live poker. Unfortunately, I don't know squat about live play except what I've seen of the 2005 championship on Youtube.

For what I can say (speaking about money games in Germany, as I never played live abroad) there are following aspects of etiquette, inter alia:

• Each player rolls his dice on the right hand side of the board. A roll is valid if both dice lie flat on the board. If a die lies on a checker, is tilted or has landed in the other half of the board, the roll must be repeated.
• A move is complete if the player to move has taken the dice off the board. Dice may be moved around on the board to make room for checkers. There is no "Berührt - Geführt" rule as in chess (I have no idea how this is called in English - it translated literally as "touched - moved"). That is, a player may move checkers around until he/she has finally picked up the dice.
• Once the player to move has picked up the dice, he/she is no longer allowed to alter the position. If he/she has made an invalid move, it is up to the opponent to either demand a correct move or accept the incorrect move (which could happen if the invalid move is actually to the opponents advantage).
• You are not necessarily required to say "double", "take" or "pass" when handling the cube. Putting the cube in the middle means offering a double, taking the cube to own's side of the board means "take" and shoving the cube back or setting up the starting position means "pass".

Pip count is essential in evaluating a lot of doubling and checker play decisions and you need to be able to do it quickly. Players who learn from Snowie or GNU don't develop the facility for doing a quick, accurate pip count, because it's available automatically on screen. So --

Set up a real board at home, play against yourself, and at different points in the game, stop and do a pip count for both sides. Keep practicing until you are quick (3-4 seconds per side) and accurate. It's like learning a musical instrument. Practice, practice, practice. You'll be glad you did. Don't play for serious stakes until you can at least do this!

Thx for the advice guys. What kind of standard relative to either the Snowie Error Rate or Gnubg Error rate does your average punter play at in a casino though?

In the top section of a major tournament, you would expect to see players with average Snowie error rates in the 3 to 7 range. (GNU might be the same, but I never use that program.)

I would guess in a casino for moderate stakes, like $10-$20 a point, the range would probably be 5 to 8. Definitely not beginners, but certainly people who could be beaten over time.