Customer Reviews

Winning Backgammon

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The problem with the other customer reviews here are that they are all by beginners who don't know any better. I ordered this book as a beginner and started to believe what the book was saying. Later, I searched for info about the book on the backgammon newsgroup. The overwhelming response from experts was that it is a horrible book for learning backgammon. Much of the info in the book SOUNDS like good advice, but is simply wrong. He makes the "rollover" rule that he introduces sound like a very common and accepted rule. That is just not the case. He also over-simplifies things and makes blanket statements that are only true some of the time. I would suggest finding a copy of Magirel's "Backgammon" instead.

I found this book to be very interesting and easy to understand. It explicitly states and explains 130 strategy principles, with sub-principles, which are illustrated by about 100 figures and tables. The backgammon rules are included along with an explanation of how to play the game. The strategy covers all phases of the game and match. As a novice backgammon player, this book has helped me to improve my game considerably.

This is a good all-purpose introduction to Backgammon strategy. Previous reviewer is confusing craps and backgammon when he criticizes the math. If you reread section 3-19 of this book, the author is calculating the average number of "pips" you move on any given roll. He didn't accidentally count the double rolls twice; he counted the number of pips you move on a double roll twice, which is correct. 4-4 may be "eight the hard way" in craps, but in backgammon, you get to move 16 pips. The odds of rolling a 16 in craps is 0/36, while it's 1/36 in backgammon. If you count up the number of pips you move on each of the 36 rolls instead of just the craps-style dice total for all 36 rolls, you will find out that the average in this book is correct: 294/36 = 8.1666...

This book is one of the main reasons of me being hooked on backgammon. It states the principles and strategies of the game in a well-mannered way. After reading this book, I found myself thinking every move calculating the odds of the plays. Excellent book.

I recalculated the result of the expected number of pips you move on a throw of the dice, and my apologies, John Leet is 100% correct. It is 8 + 1/6. I was in gross error. I stopped reading the book because I disagreed with the calculation, and didn't want to read the rest of it. But it turns out to be quite a decent book. I like it as a high level introduction to Backgammon, it is for a slightly advanced audience.

Juraj

Before reading this book I considered myself an intermediate backgammon player. After reading this book I realized I was only a beginning backgammon player. Having learned many of the moves and strategies found in this book, I now consider myself an intermediate player and improving with each game. You won't win every game but you'll win many more than what you did before.

The expected value of the outcome of the sum of two dice is 7.0. Anybody that plays craps knows this. If you roll one die, you expect 3.5 (if you average the outcomes in the long run). To illustrate, in the long run you expect one of each kind of outcome: 1+2+3+4+5+6 / 6 = 3.5.

He derives the expected value of the sum of two dice to be just over 8.0. He does this by counting the odds of rolling a 5-5 to be 1/18 and not 1/36. Since all the doubles were by accident counted twice, it throws his calculation off.

Then he bases his strategy on this phony result. What do you think about the quality of the book?