A lot of candidates, obviously. The first thing I'll do is eliminate all defensive plays. We're playing offense, here, and can put even more pressure on him, so we shouldn't need an anchor yet. I would rather play against 2 back men than 1, so I'll hit with the 3. For the 6, I'll play 11/5. Playiing to 15 looks tempting because it links with those outfield blots and prepares to escape, but putting a blot right in front of his stacked midpoint gives him a direct avenue back into this game. Hitting 2 is too much since we only have a 2pt board right now and the cube is centered. I think 10* and 5 gives you a lot of strong cubes next roll and minimizes his chances to get back into it quickly, so I'll try that.

This is a very tough decision. But my question is: why did you roll? You have a better board, 10 men in the zone, 20 numbers that hit the outfield blot and 4 numbers that point on the blot on the 2 point. This looks like a double to me.

Doubling before the roll is OK, but I don't think it's mandatory. If Black hits and White enters, White might still take, so the only way for Black to lose his market big is through a hit and a dance, or maybe big doubles followed by a bad roll by White. Not very common. And Black will be glad he waited if he misses or gets hit back or something.

With the 6-3, after hitting 13/10*, hitting on the deuce point with the 6 is too destructive/disjointed. So either 21/15 or 11/5. Not really sure, 11/5 is better for attacking, but 21/15 seems more connected/flexible. I'll go with 21/15 13/10*.

You could play 24/18 as well, which is also nicely connected in a way, but White is hitting back more often at a time when Black really wants to use his builders. So I still prefer 21/15.

a simpler version that came up for me recently -

This almost feels to me like it's only a question because 2* and 21 isn't right, so I have no idea what is.

8/2* 24/21 seems massively correct for money, and even more correct trailing 0-4 to 7. Making the 18-point is play B, but the 21-point is a better anchor (stopping White from using the stacks on his 6-point and 8-point. Why is this a problem?

Well my username should be a hint....but i thought it illustrated the general thinking which would help answer the original position with many fewer potential plays. You got it right Bill ;^)

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