• Position from the Campaign Against Backgammon Cliches

    From peps...@gmail.com@pepstein5@gmail.com to rec.games.backgammon on Wed Feb 7 06:41:56 2024
    From Newsgroup: rec.games.backgammon

    I knew I had a strong advantage here but was I good enough to double?
    I correctly thought not but I didn't really know.
    And with the hold being so close, I'd be somewhat sceptical of any
    player who claimed that the hold is clear.
    So how about the slogan: "If you're not sure if it's a double,
    double anyway because they might pass"?
    Well here I think that practical consideration swings the decision
    exactly the other way.
    Yes, a player _may_ pass but it really seems extremely unlikely.
    There is plenty of contact left and the opponent has a much stronger
    board.
    If you double, you help your opponent by giving them an easy cube
    action. So, even if you don't know if this is a double or not (and
    probably no one would know this) then hold because your opponent
    might wrongly take if you lose your market.
    Paul
    XGID=----bEB-E-a--BA--d-dbb----:0:0:1:00:0:1:3:0:10
    X:Daniel O:XG Roller+
    Score is X:0 O:1. Unlimited Game, Jacoby Beaver
    +13-14-15-16-17-18------19-20-21-22-23-24-+
    | X X O | | O O O |
    | X O | | O O O |
    | O | | O |
    | O | | O |
    | | | |
    | |BAR| |
    | X | | X |
    | X | | X |
    | X | | X |
    | X | | X X O |
    | O X | | X X O |
    +12-11-10--9--8--7-------6--5--4--3--2--1-+
    Pip count X: 117 O: 131 X-O: 0-1
    Cube: 1
    X on roll, cube action
    Analyzed in Rollout
    No double
    Player Winning Chances: 70.27% (G:4.34% B:0.10%)
    Opponent Winning Chances: 29.73% (G:2.75% B:0.08%)
    Double/Take
    Player Winning Chances: 70.43% (G:4.40% B:0.11%)
    Opponent Winning Chances: 29.57% (G:2.67% B:0.07%)
    Cubeless Equities: No Double=+0.421, Double=+0.852
    Cubeful Equities:
    No double: +0.699
    Double/Take: +0.672 (-0.027)
    Double/Pass: +1.000 (+0.301)
    Best Cube action: No double / Take
    Percentage of wrong pass needed to make the double decision right: 7.6% Rollout:
    1296 Games rolled with Variance Reduction.
    Moves: 3-ply, cube decisions: XG Roller
    Confidence No Double: -# 0.010 (+0.689..+0.709)
    Confidence Double: -# 0.012 (+0.660..+0.683)
    Double Decision confidence: 100.0%
    Take Decision confidence: 100.0%
    Duration: 3 minutes 40 seconds
    eXtreme Gammon Version: 2.10
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2