Hi!

An interesting position surfaced the other day:



Where to hit? So many juicy options here:

Putting two on the bar with 15 and 10 point hit.
Hitting one on 15 or 10 point and then cover 2 point.

Does any other play have any merit and why?

Best regards,
TP

Ok, blunder time.

A rule of thumb I use for blitz is that if you put one guy up, then another homeboard point is more valuable than putting a second guy up. I don't see any strong reason not to follow it here. Especially when putting 2 up would leave a blot exposed inside our home board.

I will be certainly hitting with a 3, so I'll play 7/2 with the 5 for sure.

I prefer to hit from the mid, since it brings another builder down, stays spreaded in the outfield to maximize returns in case we're hit from the bar, and doesn't break our fall-back anchor just yet.

I wouldn't go with the greedy hit from the 18pt., since I don't need to close out 3 blots to win a gammon. 2 blots with that much White's material still deep in the outfield is pretty gin gammon already.

13/10* 7/2.

My favourite was 18/15* 7/2.

This is what GNU tells me:

I don't want to break the 18. That seems like way too much. What about just breaking the 7? It's the only one-blot play so it avoids any major accidents while slotting for a 5-point board. You can't make a prime so you will need your opponent on the bar while you scramble home, so quickly making the 5th point seems pretty effective.

My instinct is to cover the 2 point and hit on the 4 point.