Acey Deucey Variations

Acey Deucey is a popular backgammon variation in which a player who rolls Acey-Deucey (1-2) is allowed to re-roll. Acey Deucey games are played without the doubling cube and they involve smaller amount of strategy than standard backgammon games. There are at least 3 common variations of Acey Deucey: American Acey Deucey, European and the Greek variation of the game.

American Acey Deucey

American Acey Deucey is played very similar to backgammon. The main differences between the two games take place when a player rolls 1-2, known as Acey Deucey. After playing the 1 and 2 regularly, the player has to choose a desired double, play it and then to re-roll and play the second roll as usual. 

European Acey Deucey

Similar to American Acey Deucey, the checkers are placed on each player's opponent's home board and they strive to move around the board to their own home boards. The game begins as in backgammon, except the player who'd rolled the higher die gets to roll again. The movement of checkers is also identical to backgammon. 

European Acey Deucey and backgammon differentiate in the way doubles and 1-2 rolls are played. When a player rolls a double in European Acey Deuecey, he can play the rolled number twice (like in backgammon) then to play the difference between the number and 7 (3 if you rolled double 4, etc) and finally to re-roll. 

When a player rolls an Acey-Deucey in this backgammon variant, he gets to re-roll, choose a double and then to play the complement number of the chosen double twice and then to roll again. 

Greek Acey Deucey 

Known in Greece as Ace-Deo (1-2), this variation of Acey Deucey begins with each player's checkers placed on the opponent's 1-point. The players have to move their checkers around the board to their home board and then to bear them off. After the first roll, the player can re-roll both dice to start off the game. 

In Ace-Deo, the player who rolls 1 and two can chose any double and then to play it. That's all – no re-rolling is allowed. At the end of a player's turn, he can indicate a certain blot and request his partner to hit it. The opponent then must complete the player's request.