I love this game, but it tilts me to no end. I play on play65. The rake is ridiculous though. They even rake the play money!

After reading the backgammon books I stated above and adapting my play style to be more attacking (before I was really conservative), I've noticed that I either win big or lose big. There's a lot fewer close games now.

I've also noticed that after getting hit a few times, I tend to think too defensively and plan to play a backgame too soon in the game (say, within the first 5-7 rolls). Is this the right thing to do in general or is every game sitautional and depends on a few things?

Hard to answer without seeing a particular position, but in general --

If you get a bunch of men sent back early but your opponent hasn't primed you, it's not a big deal. Make good points in his inner board (his 4-point and 5-point are best), then just move your other spares around the board and try to make good blocking points of your own. You're in what's called a "holding game", and you're really just waiting to see what develops. With a couple of good anchors, feel free to leave shots in an attempt to make good points.

If you get men hit and sent back and your opponent has built a prime at the same time, then you're in a real backgame. These positions are very difficult to play for both sides. Good luck.

Roberties' two volume Advanced Backgammon is very good although Snowie seems to think some of the problems contain errors.

Not a book but Jellyfish Light 3.5 plays pretty well and is free. It will run in Vista in Win/XP compatibility mode (if you have a problem PM me and I'll post or write back how).

You can get also get good pretty fast if you have Snowie.

~ Rick

Two quick questions:

How much better is a recent version of Snowie compared to Jellyfish Light 3.5 (available for free)?

What would be a good backgammon forum for someone who at one time played OK?

~ Rick

Mods delete this if inappropriate.

I'm selling most of my backgammon books on the 2+2 marketplace. Put up the ad today.

~ Rick

Quick point. Back around 1980 you would find opponents who would resort to a classic two point backgame as described in the older books. But a computer program such as Jellyfish or Snowie almost never resorts to a two point backgame and neither should you.

~ Rick

i took robertie's advice about the escaping-the-back-men-that-had-been-hit-early-on point and i managed to build REALLY strong midpoints in my recent string of games.

from the midpoints i was able to roll my prime in and bear off easily, ending a lot of games as gammon's.

woop! woop!

Snowie is considerably stronger than Jellyfish Light, especially in the area of primes and backgames. I've never actually tested the two against each other, but my guess would be that Snowie would be favored by something like 5 points in 100 games, or perhaps a little more.

There are no great backgammon forums that I know of. Rec.games.backgammon degenerated into a troll versus troll struggle some time ago. There are a bunch of others, each with scattered support. There is no 2+2 equivalent in the BG world.

Thanks Bill. I really appreciate your contributions to what other people call "The Harrington Books" but I call the "Harrington/Robertie" books. Your style from your extensive backgammon writings really comes through.

~ Rick

one popular bg forum is http://www.bgonline.org/forums/

many others tend to have little to no traffic.

although, if for some reason you can speak Danish: http://www.dbgf.dk/Debat/index.php/

i'm trying to find the most popular UK BG forum, if someone knows ...

Thanks for the info. I had searched for "backgammon forums" using Google and this was about the firth hit so I may have overlooked it. When I clicked on the link you provided I noticed "Neilkaz" had just started a thread. I assume this is Neil Kazaross.

Around 1978-1980 I had a chance to play Neil back in Rhode Island many times. Neil must have been about 21 or so then (I was a few years older). He was very intense and easily the best player in the area even at that age. I'm not surprised he is now rated near or at the top. Main point is if Neil posts there it must be a top forum.

~ Rick

PS After 1981 I lost touch with him and wonder if he ever took up poker. He'd crush it IMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4V6hsuJCno

Here's a basic intro to backgammon. Judging by the intensity, Gus is playing backgammon for lifestakes now.

Just downloaded gnubg from the instructions on this page. So far it's working great and I love the tutor mode. Do you know how this compares with the latest versions of the very expenive Snowie (assuming both are ramped up to play their best)?

I'f still recomend some of Bill Robertie's later books to get you started though.

~ Rick

PS Remember "Backgammon For Blood" from the old days. It was horrible (I think it was infamous for advising slotting the 7 and 9 points on an oppening roll of 6-4!).

PPS My machine runs under Vista so I set up the executables to run under Windows XP compatibility mode.

Opps. I think the answer to my own question can be found on the help screens from gnubg. I tried posting a link but it didn't work. If you cut and paste the following into your browser address field you should get there:

file://localhost/C:/Program%20Files/gnubg/doc/allabout.html

~ Rick

Yes, that's Neil Kazaross. While the forum is very basic, some of the best players in the world are regulars there. And Neil is by far the best live player in the US: http://www.chicagopoint.com/abtalltime.html

And he is currently rated as the #5 player in the world by his peers (down from #2 in 2005): http://www.flintbg.com/giants.html

nude backgammon with swimsuit models!

Paul Magriel's book on backgammon is excellent for anyone new to the game.

Here is his Wikipedia page. Note the line under "Chess" which is hilarious.

wow, so sick, a backgammon forum on 2p2!

Bill, any chance you could go through the Other Gambling Games forum and move any bg threads across to here?

That's the plan, although I'm not sure how far back I'll go. Probably I'll get the threads from 2008 and leave it at that.

The forums that kerr listed are excellent.

http://www.bgonline.org/forums/

Meow.

Darn, looks like they changed the reference...

Chip Reese and Puggy Pearson were playing heads-up cash games in the 70s at the World Amateur Championship tournaments at the Dunes;

Chip continued to play off and on, including fairly recently (no, not since he died). He was a frequenter of Gamesgrid, playing sessions with many of the toughest moneygame players. And he showed up at more at least a couple Monte Carlo world championships, but I don't think he actually played the tournament; it was for the high-stakes chouette at Hotel de Paris. Chip wasn't the sort to give up equity (poker terms: "leak -EV" or whatever) without a solid reason, so I think he used the online sessions as training (he did pretty well in MC). His playing Gus Hansen (which gives you a time-frame) could have been for every reason you can think of: fun, mental exercise, challenge, a way to help Gus out if Gus were having bankroll problems, a way to corner Gus's sports action (hey, I'm not necessarily reaching here), etc.

And then there was Stu Ungar, who definitely was captivated by backgammon...

Chip Reese was a very good and underestimated backgammon player. Here's a good story from the old days:

In 1992 or 93 my partner and I played in the Pro-Am tournament in the Bahamas (a doubles tournament with a big entry fee -- each team was supposed to consist of one 'pro' and one 'am', but the distinctions sometimes got blurred). In the second round we were paired against Chip and his 'pro' partner, who shall remain anonymous.

As the match went on, I realized that Chip was a very good player who kept making good suggestions, which were continually overuled by his partner, who kept insisting on aggressive but bad plays. Chip would almost always defer, and I kept my fingers crossed under the table that this would continue to the end. It did, and after the match Chip came up to me, congratulated us on our victory, and asked how I thought he played. I told him that I thought he played better than his partner, and he smiled and said "I thought so too, but he was supposed to be the pro, and I haven't played enough to really be sure, so I let him run the show. Oh well."

Bruce Becker huh?