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Backgammon in the Fabulous 1980sOr why chess experts should play backgammon for money instead of poker
When someone is a talented chess player, but lacks the concentration ability or aspiration to become a chess pro, and still wish to monetize these skills, he usually heads to poker, sometimes with a backgammon stop in between. Many poker pro started out this way: Ylon Schwarts, who recently won $112,967 at the 2009 WSOP No Limit Hold'em; Paul Magriel, who for a long while was the world's most famous backgammon player, but now is more active around poker tables, and others.
Leaving potential profits aside, there is at least one reason to play backgammon rather than poker: the doubling cube. "…the complicated-to-use-properly backgammon doubling cube, rewards more immediately the better analyst." Says international master Mark Ginsburg in a 21 months old post, recalling a 1980s New York City chess club ran FIDE (world chess association) tournaments in the front and seedy backgammon and poker games in the backroom.
At the same opportunity, he remembers a spontaneous visit to Lugano, Switzerland (where he got to play against former world chess champion Boris Spassky!) on the expense of what he calls a deluded backgammon opponent. Fabulous! Playing cubeless backgammon, i.e. any of the Eastern backgammon variations (Turkish Tavla, Greek Tavli, etc), he says, conceals the backgammon advantage over poker, allowing analytic minded hustlers to enjoy "the vast pool of weaker players", not to mention the significantly higher stakes.
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