Money Game

Missing information:

Jakoby and Beaver activated?

Position of the Cube.

Sorry
Jacoby Beaver Center Cube

With 2 inside blots, Beige must be cautious about hitting a fly shot.

So let's leave him two. Only 33 allows him to hit and cover, and even that leaves the blot on his 1pt.

20/14, 2/1

White is outboarded 4:2 and two blots vs. 1. Black has an advanced anchor, white only the barpoint. The race is 105:131. White has three spares to play, before he must break a point in front of the anchor. The black front position is ready. Mostly anybody move here would be detoriation, if we consider breaking the 8 point as breaking a blocker.

The veteran once said: when behind, stay behind. Therefore: in the bucket with shifting to the golden point. That leaves one reasonable six: 20/14. Reinforcement for the outfield battle. The barpoint isn’t waiting for a friend. He just want to go home. That leads to our problem: the agony of choice.

Should we took a M21 making the fort on 14, or getting out of the hole yanking our peacemaker getting the bastard caught in the act with moving to 13, aiming for a shootout or bringing the fort in handgun range?

If you check the bible, everything counts for a bold play. Now is the hour. With a center cube, you have even a bazooka in your armoury.

20/14/13.

Pretty good problem imo. I'd be curious to read what Mr. Robertie has to say about it before posting the eval/rollout.

20/14 would probably be my 6, but I'm not sure at all about the 1.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I just make the 14 point. I don't see any reason to get overly clever here. In your next roll, you'll probably clear your 8 point, and that should give you at least one more roll before you crack. In the meantime, you force white to waste pips by dumping behind your anchor, or maybe he'll be forced to run, giving you the shot you need to hit to win. Also, if you roll bigger than 8, you can break the 14 point without leaving a direct shot.

I am just curious why nobody likes 21/15 21/20? Buttons up, keeps 2 spares on the 8, and keeps shooters ready if black tries to run with a back man. Why leave any blots at all? But Im pretty much a novice.

You are behind in the race. White has spares to play behind your anchor, waiting for a double to move the men from the barpoint. So plan B is, if white can run the back checkers to safety, to get a shot. The hole on the five point is therefore a liability for white, not an asset. If you are shifting to the golden point, you will do a job for your enemy, taking the hole away. Kit Woolsey once said:"when behind, stay behind".
Look at Magriels Safe play vs. bold play criteria. You will see, that here is a bold play indicated:

Do you have an anchor? Yes.
How strong is your opponent's inner board? Not so strong.
How strong is your inner board? Much stronger.
Does your opponent have blots in his inner board? Yes.

How many men do you have back? 4.
How many men does your opponent have back? 2.

After all plan A is to play against the bar point, then plan B falling back in a holding game. Simply waiting to win the race (A+) and therefore playing a little bit against the chances of the major game plans must be a loser.

This is actually a very tough problem. Over the board, I'm pretty sure I would have made the 14-point. However, the rollouts clearly show that 20/13 is somewhat (.045) better than 20/14 3/2, and significantly better (.08) than making the 14-point.

I would have rejected 20/13 OTB because White isn't forced to hit, since he has spares to move. He therefore has the option of hitting with a perfecta like 6-2, or just waiting and building his board.

After puzzling over this for awhile, I think the point behind 20/13 is that it threatens to make a new blocking point within direct range of White's two rear checkers. If Black does this, he frees his two checkers on the 8-point to build his board, which in turn gives him time to wait while White really does get squeezed. So, for instance, imagine a sequence like

Black 6-1, 20/13
White 4-2, 7/1
Black 3-1, 15/12 13/12
White -- trouble is coming.

I think these sequences are the ones where 20/13 really gains. If I'm right about where the gain is coming from, this is a very interesting problem with an important idea, beyond the obvious "White has blots so we can make a bold play". Thanks for posting it.

@ higonefive: i dont think its necessary to use words and terms like "m21...peacemaker...getting the bastard caught...aiming for a shootout...handgun range" to describe a position.its neither a western movie nor a virtual wargame.btw: i like your profound posts most of the times.

Necessary are only a few things.

Ammunition, Army, Attack Zone, Battle of Primes, Blitz, Bury a Checker, Sniper, Captain, **** Shot, Come Under the Gun, Fort, Hara-Kiri (Kamikaze) Play, Hustler, On Tilt, Pigeon, POH, Sucker, Wipeout. Even Mr. Robertie used shortly the naval gunnery term "bracketing". One of the veteran's used the war as a model. The wife of Gaby Horowitz described the early backgammon society as a society of cutthroats. So there is a little bit violence in this game, at least to describe something metaphorically.

What i want to show drastically, that a main issue in this problem is to establish play against the disconnected barpoint. A sniperkill (and the M21 is the classic sniperrifle) is more difficult as a kill in handgunrange. I used this picture to show the strength of establishing something in direct shot range against the lone fort.

It is funny. Showing violence in film and tv is okay. Making war against Saddam with a bunch of lies was okay. Having shotguns in every home is okay. But using violence to describe a point of view clearly will lead to a wimpy comment of political correctness. I don't understand.

lol.just another landser wannabe.

I refused to go to the army in my youth. I remember the pictures in the "Stern" from My Lai, when i was nine. My role model was Muhammad Ali, who said: "I ain't got no quarrel with the Viet Cong ... They never called me ******."

BtW. The terminus 'landser' is etymological the result of the term 'Landsknecht', german mercenaries of the 15. and 16. century. They were modern and punchy fighters, but also depredators and marauders. Isn't this a description of the bg pro players, who played for example in the Cavendish or with Harvey Huie?

what i really miss in your posts:lets just nuke them.