As this article is being written, I am in Las Vegas at the Nevada BackgammonTournament. It is a great tournament, and I recommend it to everybody.Howard Markowitz, the director, does a superb job, and the staff carriesout their work well. I'll be jotting down interesting situations as theyarise during the day, and then put them in this article at night while theyare fresh in my mind. Wednesday My opening event was the $750 jackpot tournament. The matches were 15points. In my first match, I reached the following unusual position: 51 155 White 6 15 point match Blue 1 Blue is on roll. What should the cube action be? This came out of a well-timed 1-2 backgame, after White rolled a coupleof horror shots to jar three checkers loose. What's going on? I polledseveral good players, presenting it as a money problem in order to avoidconfusing the issue even more than necessary. I got opinions ranging fromeasy take and no double, to double and pass. Of course at the match scoreWhite would be more inclined to pass, since his potentially juicy recubesto 8 lose a lot of their value at the match score. In practice, I was White. My opponent did redouble to 4, and I chose to pass.The score was a definite factor; had this been the start of the match Iwould have taken. It should be noted that the pass/take decision may dependon how well Blue is likely to play the position. Blue's main strategy is toavoid letting White get an anchor at all costs. For example, if Blue rolls5-2 I believe his correct play is not the seemingly obvious B/20, 24/22* butthe unusual looking B/23, 7/2*. Was my opponent up to this? Hard to say.The only clue I had was that on the previous play he unhesitatingly brokehis eight point to hit loose on the two point. This indicated to me thathe had some concept of how to play the position, and that influenced mydecision to pass the double. Eventually we got to double match point, where I faced a series of agonizingpay me now or pay me later decisions almost in succession. Here is thefirst one. Things were going along quite smoothly, when I faced: 100 72 White 13 15 point match Blue 13 Obviously my choices are to pay now with 8/3*, 8/4 or to pay later with6/1, 5/1. I felt that if I got hit and was hit back, I would still havea pretty good chance since he had only a four-point Board and severalcheckers to extricate over my still decent blockade. If I waited, my nextfive could present real problems. I played 8/3*, 8/4, and he hit back. I entered immediately, and on the rollafter that was faced with another problem: 90 77 White 13 15 point match Blue 13 Again I could play now with 17/11, or I could wait and pay later with 6/4, 5/1.I chose to pay later. I felt he could have a difficult play to make. I'mnot at all confident about my choice. The problem is that I lose myflexibility, and if he gets another checker into the outfield things couldget even worse. He did get another checker out, and I was forced to leave a double shot whenI rolled 6-1. He missed the double shot, and I was then faced with anothersimilar problem: 73 64 White 13 15 point match Blue 13 Will these nightmares never cease? Once again I could pay now with 10/5, 4/2*or pay later with 6/4, 6/1. At the table I chose to pay later and break mysix point. I am now convinced that this was wrong. It doesn't gain all thatmuch, since I am still leaving 5 shot numbers as opposed to the 11 shotnumbers the loose hit leaves. I will still have the problem of getting theblot home safely next turn, and White will have a chance to Move his menhome and possibly improve his board. Most important, which I failed to seeat the time, was that clearing the six point was very detrimental for myracing chances. Now every three I rolled would cause me to miss in thebearoff. He moved his outfield checkers along, and once again the dice were there totaunt me: 66 57 White 13 15 point match Blue 13 Once again I could pay now with 10/3, or pay later with 5/1, 4/1. Beingconsistent, I paid later. I believe this is correct. Paying now doesn'thave the big gains it had on the previous roll with the loose hit, whileit has all the same losses. White did nothing special, and I managed to get in safely. However he thenrolled boxes, and the misses from my following twos and threes caused me tolose the race breezing. Live and learn. Experts often challenge each other with interesting propositions. I sawthis one being played between Nack Ballard and Mike Svobodny. Which sidewould you like to have (Blue is on roll)? 213 63 White money game Blue My first impression was that Blue had the better of it. He might get luckyand scramble everybody home without getting hit and win a gammon, and ifhe got hit White still has a lot of work to do. However after watching theposition being played out for several games I changed my mind. Blue'snumbers continue to be awkward, and he just doesn't get home safely. Andonce White hits a shot, the position plays very well for him. In additionWhite owns the cube, and can often rewhip at an ideal moment. Thursday The open. 15 point match. I had a huge adverse swing on this position: 135 122 White 7 15 point match Blue 5 I had just rolled a 4-6 joker from the bar which hit two blots, and Whitewas only able to enter one of them. My gammon chances weren't large, butit looked like a reasonable shot to take a roll. If I picked up the secondblot or rolled some other crushing number, I would have good gammon chancesand could play on safely for quite a while. Otherwise, I could justcash on my next roll. What could possibly go wrong? What could go wrong? Well, I opened off with 3-3. Naturally I make my barpoint. He fired back 6-4, entering and hitting. So much for cashing. Aftermany flunks on my part a gammon was scored up, but unfortunately it wasn'tin my favor. Later on I cost myself the match in a very strange way, by blowing abearoff play: 39 41 White 13 15 point match Blue 9 It is virtually always right to take two checkers off when you can, but thereare exceptions. This position happens to be one of them. The problem withplaying 6/0, 3/0 is if I then roll exactly two more threes in the bearoffthat will cause me to miss twice, costing me a roll. If I correctly play6/3, 5/0 I only take one checker off, but I will have 12 men left and twocheckers on the three point so I won't miss at all if I roll two threes.You can work out for yourself how many threes I rolled in the laterbearoff, and how many rolls I lost the race by. Enter the consolation. My first match had this dynamic position: 89 91 White 6 11 point match Blue 5 I was Blue, on roll. Is it a rewhip? I have 22 rolls which cover thebloton the three point, and a few other good possibilities. If I do anythingdecent and he flunks, it looks like I will lose my market. The matchscore argues for relatively aggressive cubes, since he won't get muchvalue out of holding a four-cube -- my take-point will be 10% if he rewhipsto eight. Also since I am behind I can use the four points more than he can.So I sent it to four. He took, of course. I started with 6-5 making myfive point, but he entered immediately. A few rolls later I was forced todrop the redouble, and he went on to win the match. In the evening I tried another jackpot tournament. I've written a lotabout match play strategy, so let's see some of it in practice: 8 6 White 10 15 point match Blue 8 White was on roll, and redoubled to four. Should I take? The first question to answer is, if I take and White doesn't roll doublesshould I rewhip to 8? My gain-loss looks as follows: Don't redouble and lose: Behind 14-8, 9% equity. Redouble and lose: Lose match, 0% equity. Don't redouble and win: Ahead 12-10, 66% equity. Redouble and win: Win match, 100% equity. Therefore, I would be risking 9% to gain 34%. A simple calculation showsthat if he doesn't roll doubles I will win just over 1/4 of the time, soit is definitely correct for me to redouble if I choose to take and hedoesn't roll doubles. With this knowledge, we can calculate the equities: Pass: Behind 12-8, 24% equity. Take and win: Win match, 100% equity. Take and lose: Either lose match for 0% equity (when he doesn't rolldoubles immediately), or be behind 14-8 for 9% equity (when he doesroll doubles immediately). This averages out to 1 1/2% equity. Therefore, I am risking 22 1/2% in order to gain 76%. My mental estimatesfrom this said I would have to win about 22 1/2% of the time to justifytaking. I thought I remembered this position as having only about 21 1/2%winning chances, so I passed the double. Right or wrong, this is anillustration of how the calculations are done in the heat of battle. Friday I'm out of the main stuff, so not much to do but play in the blitz, doubles, andmini-matches. The blitz is all 5-point matches, played in brackets of 8.If you win 3 matches you qualify for the finals, which will be a bracket ofperhaps 64 or less to be played tomorrow. If you lose, you can of coursereenter. The mini-matches are quickies -- two point matches. Will probablybe a bracket of over 256. The doubles are consultation with a partner, andis a bracket of 32. My partner Herb Avram and I have won two doubles matches so far. In additionI have won three mini-matches, but of course there is a long way (and a lotof luck) to go there. In the blitz, after more failures than I care toadmit to I finally managed to win my bracket. Here was a crucial positionin my final match: 131 96 White 2 5 point match Blue 3 This weird position came when I was running a blitz for the match andmy opponent rolled a crucial 6-6. Now he doubled to two, a cube which washeavily based on the match score of course. What should I do? I reallydon't want to lose a gammon here. Yet can I pass this? I have the strongerboard, and I am ahead in the race. I could get blitzed, but it isn't allthat likely. All his numbers are duplicated, so he has to roll perfectlyto do real damage. In addition, if he rolls a combination of 1, 5, and 6it is a complete air ball. I finally chose to take. I lost the game, butfortunately didn't get gammoned, and managed to win a lucky gammon the nextgame to win the match. So I'm alive in the minor events, and maybe I'll get lucky in one of them.If so, there should be more interesting stuff tomorrow. Saturday There was no good news for me, as I bowed out of everything quickly.Here is a deceptive position from our doubles match: 115 166 White 2 7 point match Blue 2 White is on roll. What should the cube action be? Our opponents doubled, and I had to twist my partner's arm to get him to take.Actually I think it is pretty easy take. Once Blue enters White's five-primedoesn't figure to be much of a problem, since Blue has plenty of checkersto play with. Even if White escapes a couple of checkers, Blue will haveexcellent chances in a priming battle. If Blue doesn't enter, White willhave to overcome a couple of roadblocks before he can extricate his backmen, and if he fails to do so and his board starts to crunch Blue willbecome the favorite. Even if everything goes White's way, Blue willalmost certainly have a very well-timed ace point game. Actually I think thedouble is marginal in theory. However when I presented this position toseveral good players, many of them initially thought the question was whetherWhite should be playing for a gammon! In practice our opponents were forcedto break their six point, and we wound up winning the game but losing thematch. Here is an interesting game from one of the jackpots between Paul Magrieland Rick Barabino. Magriel is ahead 6 to 1 in a 15 point match. Magriel Barabino 1. 6-5 24/13 3-1 8/5 6/5 2. 5-3 8/3 6/3 4-2 8/4 6/4 3. 5-4 13/8 13/9 6-1 13/7 8/7 4. 6-4 8/2 6/2 4-3 13/9 13/10 Certainly correct to try to extend the prime rather than put a back checkerwhere it can be attacked. 5. 4-3 9/5 8/5 1-1 10/8 9/8 6/5 139 122 Barabino 1 15 point match Magriel 6 7. 4-3 13/9 8/5 This is a nice well-controlled play. Magriel doesn't want to have toomany blots exposed because his back checker may come under attack. Thebuilder on the five point is just where he wants it to be -- safe, yetaiming at the critical four point. 7. 13/9 13/10 132 115 Barabino 1 15 point match Magriel 6 8. 3-2 24/22 13/10 Magriel is counting on his stronger inner board to see him through a blot-hittingcontest. I do not agree with this approach. Moving up to the 22 point justasks to be attacked, and he still has those blots in his outer board toworry about. I think Magriel should be concentrating all his efforts onmaking the four point or the bar point, and keep his back checker out ofharms way. Even if Barabino completes his prime, Magriel won't necessarilybe lost. Magriel has the better timing, and if he can make another blockingpoint he can win the priming battle by forcing Barabino's prime to crack.But Magriel can't improve his board if he gets stuck on the bar. In addition,there is another reason why Magriel should play more passively: 132 110 Barabino 1 15 point match Magriel 6 I think Barabino missed a nice double here. Behind 6-1 in the match, thisis just the type of cube you should love to send over. A clear advantage,volatility in the sky, and gammon potential looming for both sides. A greatchance to put a bunch of points on the plus side of the card. In additionMagriel would have to be very cautious about redoubling, since things couldget out of hand if the cube came flying back to 8. Of course had Magrielmade my more conservative play, Barabino would have much less incentive todouble. 8. 1-1 10/9 5/3* 3/29. 5-4 -- Double 128 113 Barabino 1 15 point match Magriel 6 Now the double is clear. If Barabino springs a back checker, he will losehis market by a mile. It looks like Magriel has to take it. From his pointof view, if Barabino doesn't spring that back checker the prime willbreak, and Magriel will be right back in the game. Even if Barabino doesescape, Magriel may have time to enter, construct a prime, and win the primingbattle by containing the remaining back checker. There is some gammon dangerif Barabino picks up one of the outfield blots, but that has to be risked.As usual, both the doubler and the taker properly look at the cup as halffull rather than half empty, and envision the good things which might happenrather than the bad things. 10. Take 5-1 8/211. 2-1 B/24 10/8 Magriel properly stays back. He doesn't make the same mistake twice. 11. 5-4 9/4 9/5 113 110 Barabino 1 15 point match Magriel 6 12. 5-3 13/8 9/6 Magriel properly safties a blot rather than playing 13/8, 13/10, even thoughthe latter play would leave him more builders. His back checker is likelyto be attacked, and he won't be able to use those builders if he is on thebar. Instead of being builders, they will become targets. 12. 5-1 8/3 4/313. 2-1 6/4 5/4 5-5 87 100 Barabino 1 15 point match Magriel 6 Magriel has a very clear redouble, even at the match score. He has firstcrack at rolling a six, and if he does roll the first six he will have ahuge advantage. If he stays on the bar, Barabino may fail to roll a sixand be forced to crunch his board. In addition maybe the double should bepassed, or maybe Barabino will pass. It looks like a clear pass for money. At this score, however, it might beanother matter. Barabino can use a big game very much, and if he takeshe will be potentially weilding a powerful 8-cube. If he wins the six-rollingbattle he won't have to escape his second back checker. Magriel simply won'tbe able to take the recube. If both sides roll a six and Barabino windsup with a direct shot he can redouble on the come, and if he hits the shothe might even win it all by gammoning Magriel with the cube on 8. Thatoutfield blot of Magriel's is a crucial factor. Even if Magriel wins thesix-rolling contest the bar point remains open, which means that Barabinowill have chances to roll boxes or hit a fly shot, and if he does eitherof these over comes the 8-cube. In practice Barabino did pass, but Ithing he should have shot it out. Sunday No good news for yours truly in the last chance. Here are the winnersof the major events: Open MainWinner: Rick Barabino Finalist: Mika LidovSemi-finalist: Dirk SchiemannSemi-finalist: Leo Fernandez Open ConsolationWinner: Johannes Levermann Finalist: Dennis Culpepper Semi-finalist: Tom Zarrinam Semi-finalist: Harry Cohn Open Last ChanceWinner: John O'Hagan Finalist: Bob Glass Super JackpotWinner: Paul Magriel Finalist: Ray Fogerland Semi-finalist: Rick Barabino Semi-finalist: Mike Senkiewicz Intermediate MainWinner: Sho Sengoku Finalist: Lise Howard Semi-finalist: Joe Moore Semi-finalist: Guy Thurber Intermediate ConsolationWinner: Ted Bougton Finalist: Mark Damish Semi-finalist: David Orandle Semi-finalist: Hugo Spagenburg

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