Backgammon: The game of constant action

[DamianDunlap]

Backgammon: The game of constant action


This article is designed for all poker players who would like to learn about the exciting game of Backgammon. I have been playing backgammon for more than 30 years and I can tell you that it is a game of excitement and drama just as much as poker.

Some of our greatest poker players are also great backgammon players. Gus Hansen is likely one of the five best players in the world and could be the best. Other poker luminaries that are backgammon stars include Erik Seidel, Dan Harrington, and “X-22” Paul Magriel.

Stu Ungar made the finals of the Las Vegas tournament in 1984 losing to Leslie Stone who had knocked me out in the round of 8 two matches earlier, and 1983 WSOP Champion Tom McEvoy still plays competitive backgammon to this day.

There was even one World Poker Tour final table that included Gus Hansen, Abe Mosseri and Tino Lechich all backgammon players.

Even poker’s infamous hooded wonder Phil “The Unabomber” Laak has been known to partake in a game of backgammon or two.

I am a backgammon player but I also play poker and I can tell you that I enjoy both games for some different and some similar reasons. Before we get into the comparisons between backgammon and poker I would like to introduce backgammon to our poker- playing readership. For those of you who already play backgammon this will be an opportunity to re-introduce yourself with the basics of a game that has its roots steeped in 5000 years of history.

Backgammon is a game, which uses checkers, dice and dice cup along with a doubling cube on a board of 24 triangles (points) as instruments in a small battle on the playing field.

Each player has fifteen checkers, which he sets up in the following fashion (insert starting position [position one] here) as his opponent sets up his checkers of a different color in a mirror position.

The objective of the game is to move all of your fifteen pieces into your home quadrant of six points and then take them all off the board before your opponent achieves that same goal.

The movement of the pieces is dictated by the number of spots on each of the two dice rolled. As in chess or checkers only one player can move his pieces at a time and to determine who moves first each player takes one die and rolls it onto the right side of his board on the playing surface.