What is the preferred way to play 3-1 following an opponent running a back checker with 6-2? Hitting or making the 5 point nonetheless?

Sorry if this is trivial or easily solved with snowie which I am looking into getting.

I thought I was going to answer that I think making the five point is right. I knew you would hit with 42 instead of making the 4-point, but the 5-point is normally just too attractive to pass by.

Then I had second thoughts about it, set up the position in GNU and asked for a checker play tip (my analysis depth is set to 3 ply). GNU said making the 5-point is best. I patted my shoulder and said well done.

Then I had third thoughts. Didn't GNU answer rather quickly? And isn't Backgammon a racing game in the first place? And isn't priming one checker less effective than priming two checkers? And wouldn't I have a nice builder on the 9-point if I hit and therefore accomplish two or even three good things simultaneously (hitting and a bit of building - and turning the race around a bit, of course)?

OK, it turned out that the tip was given by a 1 ply evaluation. I set it to 3 ply and voilà, hitting (Equity 0.50) is better than making the 5-point (Equity 0.495).

PS: In my opinion this is NOT a trivial question, unless you've learned the opening theory completely and by heart.

GNU thinks they are basically equal. 13/9* better by 0.01 when I did a rollout.

Now it would be interesting what Snowie says. I don't have it anymore, so I can't check it myself.

If the two options are really that close, I would prefer to stick to making the 5-point as this is securing a long-term asset and there is still one checker that hasn't escaped yet.
As I had written in my previous post, making the 5-point is what my initial gut feeling told me.

No I'm confused and I don't have a clue what's correct. Maybe we'll have to wait for Mr Robertie to enlighten us.

It's kind of cool that I recommended the Backgammon Galore web site in the other thread...

I believe the opening article and the replies article have been improved a lot since I last visited the site like two years ago. In the replies article they give an answer to the OP question. The hit is recommended there.

EDIT: I haven't read correctly. They recommend a hit with 31 when the opponent slots his 5-point with 13/5 (having rolled 62).

No answer still to our question... )-: