I often make wrong cube decisions because of PRAT but I haven't found another method to make cube decisions yet.

White has a 4 board against a 3 board, leads in the pip count and hits with a 2 or a 6 (and has an anchor while Black hasn't). So I redoubled because of PRAT.
Not only it's completety wrong to redouble. Black is even the favourite.

How do I have to change my obviously bad PRAT usage? Any better methods to use here?

I think in this position you could make an argument that white does not have an advantage in either position or threats. There is more to position than just how many home board points are made. Sure white has one extra, but white has six checkers buried uselessly on his 1 and 2 points. Black has only two buried checkers and has the rest of his army ready to either prime white or pounce when white tries to escape.

Threats are also relative. Being hit is not that big a deal for black and might allow him to anchor in white’s five point. Black might very well have better threats when white hits than white does — again he had a ton of ammo ready to pounce when white breaks anchor. Since black will dance some of the time when hit, I would not say black has the advantage in threats, but white does not have a clear advantage in that regard. Black certainly is not being crushed if white hits him.

PRAT is a guideline, not a hard and fast rule. But in this case, I think it gets it right: position - favors black, race - favors white, threats - no clear advantage. Hence no double

PRAT (Position Race and Threats) can be useful as a way to start thinking about a position, but matters significantly how much the position is better, how much the race matters, and how big the threats are. So you can't really rely on the "2 out of 3: double/take, 3 out or 3: double/pass" thing.

Here, White's position is only better in some respects, it's hard to turn this into a position where the race lead is going to be decisive, and the threats are no big deal. I'd probably beaver this as Black in a money game.

The biggest issue I see in the position is that you have 2 buried checkers on the 2 point completely dead for the rest of the game. How did they get there? Having 1 dead checker seriously affects your chance to block your opponent in, 2 dead checkers and most of your prime value is gone. With a lot of contact remaining it is rarely correct to bury 2 checkers, and often not correct to bury 1.

Unless you were 100% forced to play like this with no legal alternative, there has likely been an evaluation mistake earlier - which is now compounded in the cube decision.

I recommend reading the premature burial section in "Backgammon Boot Camp".

Thank you all for some interesting new points of view.

For what it's worth, I would briefly consider doubling in this position, but I would picture a sequence like 6-3, dance -- great sequence for White, but then Black still going to be considering taking that owing to the dead White checkers on the 2 point. So it can't really be a cube if the take/pass is unclear after such a fantastic sequence.

You don't have threats here in the sense that you're not threatening to lose your market, or at least not often or by much

Another problem with PRAT:



Black has an enormous running advantage, threats to hit or improve board and additionally a white checker on the bar that will have to enter in a 3-board or even a 4-board. I would have thought PRAT says "double".

And I ask again "how are you losing your market"? I'll give you a great sequence - Let's say you hit and cover and he fans. Is that a pass?