Backgammon Blog and Mathematics

After reviewing backgammon blogs of all sorts of viewpoints, it is almost surprising to run into a blog written from the backgammon player point of view. Aaron W who writes the blog Backgammon Blunders, plays regularly at a backgammon club, attends backgammon tournaments (currently reports from ABT Las Vegas Open) and writes about it. So, you can read his backgammon game analyses; follow his wins, and (mainly) his losses. 

From Aaron's other blogs, I conclude that he is a mathematics professor, what might explain his rational, analytic point of view toward the backgammon game. I had expected from a post titled "Why is it so hard to win?" to feature some bitching and whining, but end up finding a calculational description of the entire match. The literal meaning of backgammon blunder is, by the way, a mistake whether in checkers play, cube decision, etc. 

Backgammon & Math

For example, when trying to estimate pip count (i.e. the number of pips left for each of the players, when counting shots and when calculating cube decisions. Backgammon players whose mathematics skills are beyond the average, will be less terrified, or not at all, when meeting match equity, gain/loss table and other calculations, while most of us will try hard to memorize these tables and learn from our mistakes. Yet since backgammon has a random aspect, they will not necessarily win all the time.

More on backgammon and math you can find inPhil Simborg's position analysis, where math helps both White and Black to figure out whether to double or take.