Hey, backgammon beginner here trying to learn more and improve my game. I've seen many quality posts on these forums so I decided to come here for help! Today I was playing BG live and these two positions came up during the game, they confused me so I wanted to ask a few questions.
In this one I saw two options: 1) Come out with 21/16 and safety the two blots by playing 10/9 and creating a 9-point, or 2) Playing 8/3*/2* and putting two of my opponents checkers on the bar simultaneously.
Unfortunately, in game I made the blunder and picked the latter option as I have a silly tendency to always go for aggressive hits when presented with the opportunity. My reasoning was that if my opponent doesn't roll a 2 then he/she is in a bad spot and I can cover the blot on my 2-point with a 6, 4, or 3, so a lot of the time. Also I'll have plenty of flexibility with the 3 blots afterwards. Now I see that if I do get hit then I'm in quite a bit of trouble because it puts my opponent in a spot where they can hit me back a lot too.
So, anything else I should be thinking about here?
I can see that coming out is pretty nice as it escapes my final back checker and if my opponent wants to attack that final man back, he/she has to give up the mid-point to do so. Also 10/9 creates a broken 4-prime and makes for a solid structure overall (landing spots for my blot).
I'll post the other position once I get some opinions / info on this one!
Thank you so much for your help!