Hi.

If a strong player was playing against a much weaker player, what style of play should the stronger player adopt?

Between all these possible styles of play, which ones should the stronger player choose (against the much weaker player) ? :
- An aggressive attacking style
- A defensive style
- A risky style
- A safe style
- A fluid style
- Gammon-Go style
- Gammon-Save style
- A Running Game style
- A Back Game style
- A Blocking Game style

None of the above. He should just make the best moves he can without trying to force the game in any particular direction.

Mr Robertie over looked one thing, if your the stronger player, you should listen to Mr Robertie as he is correct-he over looked the amount your betting, if your stronger bet more!.

respectfully
eric

Rather than try to play a specific game type it's better to find glaring holes in opponent's game and taking advantage. Doubling is the most obvious adjustment. Some take way too late, some drop way too much. I've played plenty of players who hardly ever hit loose in their board so I will always split an opening roll. But for sure just playing the best move (easy, right) will never be wrong.

Sounds like 70's advice but if you really understand backgames and your opponent doesn't then your opponent will throw away a lot of equity playing both sides of a back game.
I played against 2 weak players in a chouette who became so scared of getting into a backgame with me that in the end I was playing an opening 21 : 6/5 6/4 and they would not hit for fear of me getting a backgame. So I quickly ended up with a strong board.

But you have to know your opponent. Use with care.

That much is obvious, but I don't think this was the real intent of a question.

I would say that when finding alternatives that seem close to equal, choose the one that leads to the more complex positions. This gives the weaker player more chances for errors. For example, slot with opening ones.

Also keep an eye out for trends in the opponents errors and prefer close alternatives that lead to such positions. (this applies to any opponent really)

This is pretty relevant to me right now as I seem to be on a losing streak against theoretically much weaker players.

I can only think that:

1) I am aware that the guy is significantly weaker than me and am over-thinking everything, trying to be too clever, getting too loose with the cube, etc. (in other words not using Robertie's very good advice above).

2) That over time the odds will come right and I will end up in a positive against the weaker player (please, please!!)

Really I think its a shift in my thinking that is hurting me. I go on "tilt" very easily after losing to a weaker player. When really i should be treating it exactly the same as any other game.

This sounds plausible but in reality it's very hard to do.

What you need to keep in mind is this: simply playing the best backgammon you can, i.e. technically correct moves, is both difficult to achieve and completely adequate for crushing a much weaker player. Trying to find moves that are 'close to optimal' but which also lead to very complex games is much harder. What you'll end up doing is making a lot of plays which look complex but which are in fact serious blunders. The net result is you'll eliminate most, if not all, of your edge, and then you'll scratch your head wondering why you have such trouble beating weak players.

By the way, I fell into this trap myself in for a couple of years in mid-career. When I returned to just trying to play well, my results got better again.

a couple weeks ago i played this lawyer at his house, no $, no cube, he just wanted to play-we were taking a break from biz.


he was horrible, perhaps the weakest player i ever saw-ever. i played him the same way i'd play Mr Robertie. clearly the result would come out differently, i won 9 of 10 games. the lawyer who is a smart guy thought i was crazy when i played 2 down on the opening roll 21. he kept telling me i was making big mistakes until about the 6th game.


i play everyone the same, seems to work best for me. finding the right play is hard enough as it is,

Great story! Sounds like your friend is pretty smart. There are a lot of fish who would never admit (even to themselves) they were being outplayed. He figured it out in just a few games.

Mike

I have a friend who loves to play with me, and he's clearly a weak player. I used to try and hit a little loose (kind of a "forced blitz" style) to create complex positions that I knew he would misplay. But as Bill pointed out, I was making more mistakes in these positions as well, and so the net outcome wasn't amazing. In fact, once in a while he'd get some lucky rolls and then I'd be completely out of my element with some weirdo positioning that I had no idea how to play right. Falling back on solid, correct, positional play got me back to crushing him.