Understanding Money Cubes

Playing in a money game is very exciting…it is even more exciting if you are playing with several people at once.  We call this a “chouette.”  In a chouette, generally one player plays against everyone else. 

In the position below, I was black, playing against several players.  White was on roll and was holding a 2 cube, and all 4 players redoubled me.  What should I do?

As you can see from the Snowie evaluation below, it is a Beaver! 

A beaver means that when they gave me the cube at 4, I was actually so much of a favorite to win, I should immediately turn the cube to 8 and keep the cube. 

Evaluation

Now, it was late in the day, several people were losing quite a bit and were “steemed”…that’s our term for “hot” or very upset to be losing.  They got all excited when they saw the double shot and doubled. 

In backgammon, particularly when you are playing for a lot of money, you have to keep your cool.  Just because they have double shots doesn’t mean they are favored to win.  They are favored to hit…. In fact, 24 out of 36 rolls do hit me.  The problem is, on the 12 rolls that don’t hit me they lose immediately if they give me the cube, because I redouble and they can’t take the cube.  And the other problem is that often when they hit one checker, black comes in immediately, clears up the other checker, and goes on to win the game.  In fact, if black gets hit and comes in immediately, he is about a 60 percent favorite to win. 

In the actual game, I did not beaver, but I took all the cubes…they missed, I redoubled, and they all told me how lucky I was to win.  I told them they were crazy to double, and some arguing started, ending with some bets as to whether or not it was a double, and I picked up a little more money for my trouble.

Snowie

Note:  Phil Simborg is a teaching professional and can be reached at psimborg@sbcglobal.net.