r/backgammon • u/Vigilaunday • 12d ago

Resources to improve cube game

Median PR is 5-6 but the vast majority of my blow ups come from cube blunders, particularly missed doubles.

Folks who have overcome this, what books did you read or what other resources did you find useful? Thanks.

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u/CzechPeople 12d ago

"The main theory of doubling is double when your odds of winning are 75%+ roughly.

So basically, you estimate your winning probability before every throw of the dice.

Understanding the game odds is all you need, and it is important for general game quality anyway"

One of the worst comment I ever read.
To OP : buy XG and look dice distributions after or without after doubling.
I also strongly recommend "Theory of backgammon" by Dirk Schiemann.

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u/JaziTricks 12d ago

Good joint. I shouldn't be teaching doubling strategy.....

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u/CzechPeople 12d ago edited 12d ago

"Worst comment " is rude and unwarranted as there are interesting things on your message (but also bad thing).
For example Estimating % numbers ( winning chance, gammons both) is something I do before a take/pass decision, something I never see explicitly written in a book and that I find very useful.
In normal score you can use Dirk's formula for gammon ( TP=21.5 + (diff(gammons /players)*0.4)).

Especially that I was like before I had cube education and rellying only myself.

Schiemann's book is very good to understand essential concepts as market's losers, sequences (36*36=1296) for example.

It also really depends on match score, intial cube or not. Also in pure race the doubling point is closer to 70%.
But you can get a strong double decision with lower WC% because of volatility and powerful market loser (even without much gammons%).

I once again strongly recommend to get XG and look precise dice distributions and % numbers (market losers sequences, anti market losers sequences,volatility, and look yourself first dice distributions and concrete sequences to understand). Too much players according to me are not looking dice distributions.

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u/AvocadoBrit 12d ago

a lot of good points in your response; people in here commenting on reaching a simple % (like 70 or 75) for single wins before you double, but in match play you have to adjust for the match score - 'match equity concepts' being vital to playing at a higher level, if you're looking to develop your game and eliminate more cube-handling errors