Video

Thank you for a great interview.

I got the first two right, and the second two wrong. I am not good at match cube play.

In position 4, if you change the score to 4a 5a it is a pass. You can double more aggressively in one way gammonish positions at 4a5a than at 4a7a. With only a one point lead you want to win the match in a single game but with a three point lead you can be a little more cautious.

In position 1, 66, 65, 63 play much better for the opponent when you don't point on head.

I was watching one of Marc Olsen's videos earlier today about the 1 man back and how slippery it can be with regards to escaping. The PIP count is even so we don't want that blot to escape so hitting is important. Prime an Anchor Attack a blot fits the first position in your video.

I got 3oo4. 8>)

Great Method! thx for sharing first hand!

lovely set but those dice towers are fucking hideous

So that's how you play out a position!

No transcription I know of.

Is there a match transcription of this anywhere?

10/13

See you in San Antonio. It will be my first tournament.

Nine: At 11 away, too good?

solution #14 is right there in the title! ;-) Great interesting content as always, thx

I got 2 and 4 wrong. Interesting problems, thanks!

I got 1 and 4 wrong. And I still believe the answer of problem 4 (2:37) is breaking the 6 point to make the 2 - 6/2. He will still have 11 combinations to hit you but if he doesn't, you will have 7 to cover the slot on 6 - 61, 16, 52, 25, 43, 34 and 44.

Hi Phil. I love your colorful match commentary and watching your jokes fly over peoples heads.

The last position seemed easy, attack a single checker, we have a better board.

I'd love to see more of those exercises! thx!

First- sounds good Phil. Not too loud of a baffle box Good work. Good dice to you. All the best from salsaguy from Los Ange)es / So Cal

one of the many outstanding things of Paul is, that he doesnt move the checkers forward and back, as nearly everybody does it, including players of world class.

... ik it's 6 years ago - but actually I'd like to learn: Why is #1 a Redouble/Take? I'd know about the Take - but why in terms of BG (not XG) is this a Redouble? Four pips down, 1,3 Epc down, even on bearing off (2,5 times prob), some more bad rolls for red (basically all 4's)... scarcely can find red advantage xcept being on roll... - On what reasons - xcept: "xg says so" - do you redouble?

Good stuff Phil. My saying is 1) HIT. 2) Build (a point) 3) Get Ready to Build or 4) RUN. Those are the 4 key strategies for each roll for your game plan choices Keep up the great work. salsaguy

Gammons after 32-dance is 11.8% according to a rollout.

You can always tell someone's level of computers by looking at their desktop.

How do you set XG to show the away score? I cant find a way to that in the settings. Thanks

Came here to tell you how much I enjoy your commentary on BGWC23 in Monte-Carlo. Man, you're Class! I mean, sure we all learn tremendously from supergreats as Wilcox, Sebastian, Marc or Michy commenting - but your wit, one-liners, tongue-in-cheek is only topped by your expertise and constant overview of the match developing. (I'm only joking...not) greetz from another dino in another field.

This is a great vid! Thanks for the tips. I *absolutely love* your commentary, BTW. I will be glued to youtube when they start posting matches from Monte Carlo. BTW the "123" tip was great. A vid of rules of thumb and where they apply in a game would be amazing.

Hi, regarding the symmetrical positions, I would rather suggest the formula (number of checkers x median point) : - At 15:00 of your video, instead of (12+7)x5, you can do 10 x 9.5. - At 16:00, instead of (6+1)x4=28, you can do 8 x 3.5. - At 17:10, instead of (7+13)x6=120, you can do 12x10. - At 18:00, instead of (9+12)x4 + half the previous result = 126, you can do 12x10.5. - At 19:10 (13+9)x3x2 = 132, you can do 12x11. - At 19:10, instead of (2+10)x5 (+ 10 + 10 +1) = 81, you can do 12x6 (+ 4x2 + 1). This formula works whatever the number of checkers and whatever the number of holes in the symmetrical position. It's one computation instead of two. If you count first the number of checkers, and then you multiply it by the median point, it's a single multiplication without any short memorisation. You don't compute while you memorize. The median point, which can be an integer or an "integer + 0,5" is visuable : for help, you can point your finger on it. If the median or symmetrical point is between 9 and 10, it's 9.5. M Simborg, if I have the chance that you read my comment, I want to thank you for what you teach us (the content of different aspects of the game), and how to teach us (the human qualities involved). I'm french, sorry for my poor english. Playing has no boundaries. Regards.

Hi Phil. Love this video. I know it has been 5 years now. Did you continue with the 3rd roll study? I'm trying to find someone who has compiled a list of all of the correct 3rd rolls and might have it available for public use or sale. I memorized the 2nd rolls and want to try my hand at 3rd rolls along with learning the correct reasoning (yes, I know there is a large number of rolls!)

Hello Phil, Greetings from Malta! Stumbled upon this while researching Backgammon variants. No disrespect here, as you are a very valuable asset for the BG community with all the excellent work you are doing, but this video is flawed insofar that you are not playing Hypergammon as it's supposed to be (with 3 checkers incl. Gs and BGs), but with 15 checkers, where both sides start having 12 checkers already borne off, hence no Gs/BGs, which makes cube actions and checker plays different from true Hypergammon. Isn't there any engine that knows the rules of HG? If my memory does not deceive me, Snowie had it, right? Regards, Henning P.S. There should be side events featuring this game!

Since these are money doubles, with Jacoby, is there not an extra incentive to double to activate gammons?

I got 6 right out of 9. I didn't count the two close decisions in this tally.

A few comments: #2: Standard action double where you blow through your market by a mile if you hit, still in with a decent chance if you miss. Not to mention you have non-hitters (big sets) working for you too AND you could get another look after missing this time. #6: Not a "normal" PvP? Not only is not "normal", it's not PvP. Red has a prime that is threatening to just blitz white off the board in a hurry. I think you realized this when you played with the position and made an anchor, as only then does it become PvP-ish. #11: Sort of hit the nail on the head when you said you don't lose your market enough, even on your nice hitting 2s.

Thank you , this was one of the best quizzes I have seen. excellent.

9 right. Although I thought last position might be a beaver.

My XG rollout gave a different result in 5a. Steve's play 13/9 24/23 came out clearly on top.

#1: I know this really great formula to figure out this problem.....but anyway let's move on. LOL.

I think Steve was right with take pt 33% given no gammons. After passing 3 away 3 away you have 50%, take and win 100%, take and lose 3 away 1 away crawford , 25%, so gaining 50% and risking 25%.

The XG rollout says you will win this DMP game about 2% more often -- one extra win in 50 games -- by not making the 2 pt.... provided you play your checkers as well as XG for the rest of the game -- a game that you have just voluntarily complicated for yourself. I would argue that the best DMP play for most (if not all) human players with the white checkers is to just make the 2 pt. (An aside: I get that this position was not from a UBC match, but it's worth noting that the 2 pt. would almost certainly be the correct play as well if this were a UBC match, where PR is significant. After making the 2 you will usually have a long series of easy decisions to pad your PR while your opponent is marooned on the bar with no decisions at all.)

👍

SPRAT!

Not intuitive at all...but explanation it makes total sense. I, and likely 99% out there ,would of made the knee-jerk obvious play and never looked back.

Nice tip

I played 8/7 22/17

Peanut Butter

Great video. Thank you.

challenge gammon??? i hope we will see a video about this variation