Backgammon is a great game to play when getting together with friends and easy enough to learn so you often see kids playing it as well. Its low learning curve, fast pace and good balance between luck and strategy have made backgammon an incredibly popular game worldwide.

However, backgammon is at its best when played for money. It brings out the true nature of backgammon just as it did nearly 5,000 years ago! Establishing your game by taking calculated risks, the unforeseen (and often dramatic) developments that leave your opponent scratching his head, increasing the stakes with the doubling cube - they all contribute to a greatly exciting experience when money is at stake.

When to start playing for money?

When should a backgammon player start playing for real money? Sounds like a difficult question, but is anything but. The simple answer is: as soon as possible. The problem with playing “just for fun” is that it doesn’t turn anyone into a good real money player. Sounds surprising? Well, consider these two facts:

When played just for fun, your opponents don’t play as they would play for real money.
When played just for fun, you don’t play as you would play for real money.

So what does playing for fun really teach? Not much - you don’t play as you would for real money and neither do your opponents. Playing for fun can be fun, but it should only be used for learning the rules. Playing for real from early on is the way to go, if you aim to turn a nice profit by playing backgammon (like most of us do).

Differences between fun and real money games

Playing backgammon for real money differs from playing just for fun in many ways, which severely limits the ability of the “fun” games to be valuable when aiming to become a good real money gamer.

No stupid risks
Players playing for fun often take wild risks. It is easy to do so, because when there is nothing at stake, losing isn’t a big deal. When you play for real, you don’t take silly risks simply because you’ll notice the effect they have on your wallet. Should you first spend too much time playing for fun you are running the risk of developing a bad habit of taking too many risks, which will end up hurting you.

Gammons and backgammons matter
When played for fun, gammons and backgammons spice the game up a little. When played for money, gammons and backgammons became a vital part of the game. Going for gammons and backgammons becomes much more intensive, as you know you are going to win big if you are successful.

Doubling cube
When played for fun, it is easy to double and accept doubles. Actually, it is so easy to accept them that most fun players don’t bother to double at all. When played for real money the doubling cube is one of the most important and interesting parts of the game - and why shouldn’t it be? Handling the doubling cube well increases profits by a sizeable percentage.

Psychology
Playing Backgammon for fun isn’t nerve-wrecking. Playing for money is very much so. Many players have failed at critical stages of their real money matches, just because they collapse under the pressure. The best way of learning to handle things when they get rough is to play for real and slowly increase the stakes from pennies to bucks.

Profit
Playing winning backgammon for fun is, well, fun. Playing winning real money backgammon is profitable. Sometimes even very much so. Also notice how now it is an especially lucrative time to start playing for real money; online backgammon is growing quickly in popularity and it is considered “the next big thing”. Play a while for money and you can start pocketing cash from the newbies that fill the sites.

Final words

Despite all this talk how you should talk about money, keep it cool - newcomers should not start playing for big money straight away! It can wait. Just playing for the minimum stakes teaches a lot about the psychology and tactics of real money backgammon. Only after the small stake games become too easy is it time to increase the stakes and really start winning!

Sit & Go
The most commonly played type of online Backgammon tournaments is sit & go tournaments. Just like the name suggests, these tournaments begin as soon as a predefined number of players has registered for the tournament. Usually sit & gos are for four players, but tournaments of 8, 16, 32 and even 64 players are available.

Buy-in prices for the sit’n'gos vary from as little $5 to $200. As always, the bigger the buy-in, the bigger the pot.

Rating Limited Tournaments
Most Backgammon sites keep track of players performances. Play65 for example gives player a score of 0-2000 depending on how well or badly one does against other players. Rating limited tournaments take advantage of these rankings. Like the name suggests, they are only open to players with skill rating lower than a set limit. This means that players in these tournaments get to play against other players of equal skill level.

Swing Tournaments
In the beginning of a swing tournament each player receive equal amount of chips. Each player in the tournament is randomly matched against one other player for a single game. Player who wins a single game receives an amount of chips from the losing player equal to the tournaments CPP, Chips Per Point. This continues, until until one of the players has accumulated all the chips. To keep the pace up, CPP is raised every few minutes.

Satellites
Satellites are normal tournaments with a scheduled starting time, but they don’t have cash prizes. Instead the winners - usually a certain percentage of the players - win a free entry to a tournament with an expensive buy-in. There is usually several satellites available for bigger tournaments.

It is easy to understand why satellites are popular. $50.000 tournament may have a buy-in price of $175, but satellite to the same tournament may have buy-in of 11$.

Normal tournaments aka Events
Normal tournaments, or “events” as they are called at some sites, have a scheduled starting time and a set buy-in price. Some may have a “guaranteed” price pot, which means that at least the guaranteed sum is divided among the winners. Otherwise the collective buy-in sum of all players minus the sites rake is divided among the winners.

Star tournaments
When you play for real money at Gammon Empire, you receive stars for each dollar you played with (it doesn’t matter if you lost or won). Every now and then there are star tournaments available. These tournaments are free - only buy-in is a certain amount of your stars.

Backgammon, like most games that are played for money, has its own notation. Backgammon notation describes complex situations in a concise way, which is much quicker to read than just describing what happened with normal language.

Learning Backgammon notation is beneficial, because many backgammon books, articles and other important information sources use it. To put it simply: by learning backgammon notation you can concentrate on what is said, not how it is said. And it really is very simple and easy to learn.

Notation Basics

Backgammon boards - both real ones and online virtual ones - have numbers from 1 to 24 on them, one number on each point. Black player moves from higher numbered points to lower numbered ones and white from lower numbered to higher numbered ones.

When a checker is moved, both its starting and finishing points are marked down divided by a slash. For example black checker moving from point 24 to point 20 would me marked “24/20″. Two checkers moving on one turn might be something like “24/20 13/8″. One checker using both dice to move is also notated by only writing up its starting and finishing points, for example: “24/14″

Bearing off checkers is marked with “off”. A checker escaping from the five point would therefore go down to history like this: “5/off”.

Returning to game from the bar is notated by only writing down the point which the checker entered the board on.
Checkers coming off the bar entering the board on two point and four point would be notated as: “2 4″

Notation needs more than just movement in backgammon - it needs to show the die rolls too. Die rolls are notated by writing down the result of the both dice with no space in between. So if one die shows six and the other one two, backgammon notation would show it like this: “62″.

If we add player color to show whose turn it was, we have a complete notation system. White player throwing three and a one and moving from six point to five point and from eight point to five point would be:
White 31: 6/5 8/5

Advanced notation

One could notate a whole game using the method described above, but couple of small additions make the notation system even clearer.

Hitting could be tracked with the system above, but it is such a crucial part of the game,that it is marked with a “*”.
Checker moving from six point to five point and hitting opponents blot there would be notated like this: “6/5*”.

Moving with doubles would take a lot of space if each move was notated separately, so a shorter version is used: the number of moving checkers is written down in parenthesis.
Three checkers moving from 13 point to 8 point and one from 11 point to six point: “13/8(3) 11/6″.

Examples

With this notation system it is easy to describe complex movements that would require a long explanation in regular writing. A whole game can easily be notated move by move for later analysis.

Couple of examples
Black 55: 13/8*(2) 9/4 18/13
Black rolls double-5 and moves four checkers. He moves two from 13 point to hit white’s blot at eight point, one from nine point to four point and one from 18 point to 13 point.

White 66: 6*/24
White throws a lucky double, enters from the bar, hits a blot and races around the board.

Black 51: 6/1*/off
Black throws five and a one. He moves his checker from six point to the five point, where he hits a blot and then bears the same checker off. Notice that normally the landing on one point wouldn’t be notated, but because the checker hit a blot there, it is written down.

Conclusion

All hobbies or fields of expertise use their own jargon and notation systems and backgammon is no different. Once you get hold of it the backgammon notation will enable you to enjoy the world of backgammon even more. It’ll be also much easier to chat online with your friends about the developments of backgammon battles you have fought not having to waste your time describing the eventes word by word.

In backgammon primes are consecutive points made by the same player, i.e. points next to each other with two or more checkers on a point. Six point prime, or full prime is the most effective weapon known in backgammon as any opponent’s checkers are trapped behind your full prime until it is is broke. So once you’ve managed to build one, you know you are the clear favorite to win the game. Actually the question is not any more whether you aregoing to win the game, but whether you’ll be winning with a gammon.

Priming game is explained in a separate article, this article is focusing on the strategical elements of the full prime.

Attacking with a full prime

To secure the gammon, you need to move the full prime safely. To do so, you want to get as many extra checkers as possible near the prime. Usually this is not a difficult task, since having a six point prime seriously messes up your opponents game. You can just bring your back checkers forward, as it really doesn’t matter if they get hit or not - your opponent is not going to be any closer to victory as he’ll be stuck behind your prime!
When you have the extra checkers at hand and you are ready to attack, move the prime by rolling it forward. Move the checkers from back of the prime to right in front of it. This way the prime moves slowly but steadily and your opponent has very little he can do about it. Once all your checkers are on your home board, bear them off the board as usual.
Always be aggressive when you have a six point prime. As explained above, being hit is not a real concern as the opponents checkers will remain stuck behind your prime. Sometimes it even is optimal to get hit and spend a few turns on the bar watching how your opponent’s game breaks down as he can’t move his back checkers. The only way your prime can break down is when you can’t move your extra checkers and you are forced to break the prime. The key to limit the chances of having to break your full prime is to always move your back checkers forward towards the prime when ever you can.

Note on doubling

If you have a good game going on and it looks as if you can build a six point prime in a few turns, double! If you double once you have created your full prime you are too late - your opponent will just resign. And of course that’s something you don’t want because a full prime gives you a great chance to win with a gammon.

If you failed to double before you made a full prime, don’t double any more but just keep on playing. You are likely going to win the game so go for the points you can get. And who knows, perhaps you’ll even be able to score a backgammon!

Defending against a six point prime

Be sure you know what to do if your opponent builds a six point prime, because that’s pretty much the worst that can happen to you. You must concentrate on building your back game and making points on your home board. This way you are ready to make the most of it when to opportunity arises to hit a blot.Back game is explained in a separate article, we’ll just have a look at a few important elements.
You don’t want to hit if you will be still behind the six-point prime after hitting! See, if you go an hit your opponent’s checker and your opponent will spend a couple of turns on the bar, you will very likely be forced to move your checkers on your homeboard and as a result nicely break your homeboard setup. However, if hitting breaks your opponent’s six point prime and you’ll have only a 5-point prime to tackle, go for it! That could be your last chance to win the game.

You can also consider hitting, if you have a strong home board. By strong I mean that you have something like points 2-5 secured. This way there is always a small chance that after your opponent’s checker enters from the bar once you have hit it, he’ll roll small numbers and he will be the one who will eventually have to break his prime. This situation is quite rare and you really need to be careful to decide whether hitting is worth the risk.

Finally, unlike in a case of a smaller blockade, you don’t want to leave your checker right in front of the prime! Leaving a blot in front of a six point prime is a great way of getting steamrolled. If the checker right in front of the prime gets hit, you could be witnessing the the following scenario: your blot in front of the prime gets hit, you spend a turn on the bar, your opponent makes the point, you spend a turn on the bar, your opponent makes another point etc. So take my word for it and avoid leaving a blot in front of your opponent’s six point prime and focus on getting your back game together.

In short: if you have been caught behind a full prime, the best thing you can do is to make a point right in fron of it and slowly build your home board and to hope that luck is on your side. Thats really all there is to it - the best way of defending against a six point prime is to never allow your opponent to build one!

Conclusions

If you have even the slightest chance of building a six point prime, take it! It will not only win the game for you, but it will also drive your opponent mad at the same time. Playing behind a prime is the most frustrating situation possible in backgammon. And that’s why you should attack with full force if you notice your opponent slowly getting his six point prime together! If you can muster up any kind of an offensive maneuver, do so. You want to fight the prime before it is build, not after.

In order to be able to make the right moves at the right time you need to know how your backgammon game is going. Sounds obvious, but at times it can be quite hard to determine in Backgammon who is actually leading the game. Pip count is just the tool for this job. It can be used to determine which of the players is ahead and therefore helps to decide wheter an aggressive or safe maneuver is required in a given situation. When used correctly, pip count can be the single most effective tool in the backgammon player’s toolbelt.

What is pip count?

Pip count is a simple concept. In short, it is the number of “steps” your checkers need to take before they are off the board. Backgammon is a racing game and pip count shows who is ahead in the race.

Offline Backgammon players need to calculate the pip count themselves, which can be quite a task, but when played online the pip count for both players is shown automatically.

Using the pip count

Knowing the current pip count is so important, because it can help decide your next move. Being ten percent ahead in the pip count tells you that you are currently the favorite to win, if your checkers don’t get hit. The opposite is true also: being ten percent or more behind tells that you are currently loosing, so taking risks and being aggressive is the way to go.

In the lead

Being ahead in the pip count dictates safe, risk free playing. Since you are already ahead in the race, try not to leave any blots for your opponent to hit. Be conservative on your decisions on when to hit and leave a blot and when to play safe. Hitting isn’t of course forbidden, but being ahead in the race (especially in the mid-late game) is not the time to be overly agressive. Leave as few blots as possible and let your opponent be agressive and make mistakes. Playing this way helps you keep your lead and makes you the big favorite to win the game.

Turning the game around

When you are behind in the pip count, you are free to take chances. There is no reason to hold back, as playing safe is only going to cost you the game. The bigger the difference in pip count, the greater the risks you can and must take to turn the game around. Hitting blots even when it leaves your own blots on the board is the way to go!

Being behind in the pip count also tells you that you need to maintain contact with your opponent. Even if a tempting opportunity rises to jump your checkers over your opponent’s blockade, don’t do it. He is not holding you back - you are holding him back!

Things to consider besides the pip count

Pip count is of course not the only measure of how well you are doing. Other things worth considering is the situations of the home boards: if you get hit, can you enter? If you hit, can your opponent enter? And what about back checkers? Has one or both of them escaped? Even the distribution of the checkers is important. Having ones checkers in a few big stacks severely limits mobility.

These other factors can sometimes outweigh the importance of pip count. For example even though you are behind, it may not be wise to hit and leave a blot, if your opponent has his home board covered and is highly likely to both enter and hit your blot on the same turn.

To sum it all up

When you you find yourself contemplating between different moves and don’t know which one is the correct one to make, take a look at the current pip count. It just may be the factor that helps you decide the correct move to make - and making correct moves often results in a positive cash flow to your bank account…