Hi,
I'm playing a single game as white in extreme gammon.

Here is the board (from black's numbers perspective)

[IMG][/IMG]

I roll 6-3 and play 7/1*, 4/1 closing the board (but with black having only 2 checkers left in play).
extreme gammon thinks this is a blunder (and checked under all plys, engines + rollout).
And prefers to take the blot on 1 with xx/1* but then to move my single checker on 23

See below for the equity loss.

I don't follow the logic intuitively
in my view
- I close the board
- I give myself the max opportunity to roll a 1 and put his second man on bar
- since he has only 2 checkers to bear-off, any reasonable bear-off strategy i play could easily mean he gets back on board with 7-9 checkers left to bear off so i need to slow him down ..... a single checker will make it back into his home board in on average 2 turns (8.5 each average roll takes him from his 21 to 4), in which I will only bear off 4-5 (not sure probabilities etc but that feels about right)

What am I missing?
thx in advance

[IMG]

You may have a better chance to hit the second checker if you don't close your board. You'll be able to leave the blot on your ace point for many turns including as you are bearing in and bearing off, and eventually Black will very likely roll an ace. So this could be better than closing your board and guaranteeing one shot because getting hit may allow you to get multiple chances to hit. For instance, if you play 23/17 4/1*, Black rolls 5-1, you roll 6-1, you get to hang out on Black's ace point for a while. And you may be able to get another of your checkers hit as well.

Also, you'd like to use the checkers on your 3 point to close the ace point because you want your spare checkers on the high points when you start bearing off. That will allow you keep a strong board longer as you are bear off your checkers.

very interesting - thanks. I didn't think about the advantages of being hit and using the journey back to get better bear-off position and/or opportunity to hit the appointment too (on re-entry or bearing in).