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Backgammon Forum hosted by Bill Robertie. Discussion of anything related to backgammon: strategy, problems, books, clubs, and tournaments. |
10-20-2017, 07:29 AM
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#1
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stranger
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 12
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Holding cube while up 6-0 in match to 9. Roll 4-3. Easy decision, right?
White - Pips 183. Match Score 0/9

Black - Pips 60. Match Score 6/9
Black to Play 4-3
Created with www.BGdiagram.com
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10-20-2017, 11:55 AM
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#2
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grinder
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 550
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Re: Holding cube while up 6-0 in match to 9. Roll 4-3. Easy decision, right?
Over the board, I'm sure I would just bear the checker off.
One thing that could be going on though is if you are going to leave a shot, you'd rather leave it early while White still has a lot of checkers up on the bar. So if 7/4 6/2 is only a hair more likely to be hit long-term, it would be right to play that, because the shots tends to come earlier.
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10-20-2017, 07:46 PM
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#3
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stranger
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 12
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Re: Holding cube while up 6-0 in match to 9. Roll 4-3. Easy decision, right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by _Z_
One thing that could be going on though is if you are going to leave a shot, you'd rather leave it early while White still has a lot of checkers up on the bar.
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If you bear off on 4-3, what ensuing roll leaves a shot?
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10-20-2017, 08:23 PM
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#4
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journeyman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 380
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Re: Holding cube while up 6-0 in match to 9. Roll 4-3. Easy decision, right?
In poker, there´s a thing called Fancy Play Sindrome aks FPS. The only play here is to minimize our chances of leaving a shot. With this in mind, we bear a man off.
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10-21-2017, 07:30 AM
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#5
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old hand
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Levittown, PA
Posts: 1,614
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Re: Holding cube while up 6-0 in match to 9. Roll 4-3. Easy decision, right?
All you have to do is bear off safely. 7/off leaves no shots on your next roll, while leaving your spares on the highest points. Can't really do much better.
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10-24-2017, 03:03 AM
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#6
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stranger
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 12
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Re: Holding cube while up 6-0 in match to 9. Roll 4-3. Easy decision, right?
Yeah, bearing off appears obvious, doesn't it? That's what I thought. There is zero risk on the ensuing roll. However, 2-ply yields a 130-error for 7/off (it's "bad"), whereas the rolls with greater equity present some bad combos next time around. I don't understand.
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10-24-2017, 04:50 AM
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#7
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veteran
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Still bitter about '94
Posts: 3,494
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Re: Holding cube while up 6-0 in match to 9. Roll 4-3. Easy decision, right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by fullerene
Yeah, bearing off appears obvious, doesn't it? That's what I thought. There is zero risk on the ensuing roll. However, 2-ply yields a 130-error for 7/off (it's "bad"), whereas the rolls with greater equity present some bad combos next time around. I don't understand.

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When I put the position to GNUBG, the cubeful 2 ply result was clearly 7/off. I'm not sure why your result would be so different. Did you set the cube correctly? The opponent would have to drop pretty much any recube; whereas they might be able to take an occasional cube from center. That's the only thing I could think of.
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10-24-2017, 06:52 AM
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#8
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old hand
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Levittown, PA
Posts: 1,614
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Re: Holding cube while up 6-0 in match to 9. Roll 4-3. Easy decision, right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by fullerene
Yeah, bearing off appears obvious, doesn't it? That's what I thought. There is zero risk on the ensuing roll. However, 2-ply yields a 130-error for 7/off (it's "bad"), whereas the rolls with greater equity present some bad combos next time around. I don't understand.

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XG on ++ gives 7/off as the best play. (++ on XG is a mini-rollout) The issue is your program at 2 ply is just wrong. In fact XG gives 7/3 6/3 as 0.61 error.
Last edited by jjpregler; 10-24-2017 at 06:59 AM.
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10-24-2017, 08:56 AM
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#9
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stranger
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 12
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Re: Holding cube while up 6-0 in match to 9. Roll 4-3. Easy decision, right?
Thanks, guys. This is odd. I set the board just as it was before, and 7/off is now listed as the best play. I don't have a clue why GNUBG yielded the equities it did before. Because the analysis confused me so much, I checked, re-checked, and triple-checked to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Nothing on my end explains the error. I guess I'll just chalk it up to a computer glitch.
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