In the first part of this aricle, Holding game basic strategy, we explained how to recognize a holding game and went through the basic plays of a holding game. In this article we analyze various holding game situations and explain the applicable strategies. Special attention is paid to doubling action as normally in holding games one player is a clear underdog. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the race trailer should immediately pass on the cube, though.

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Diversification is the opposite of duplication; while in duplication you are trying to minimize the your opponent’s good rolls the next turn, diversification aims at maximising your own good rolls on your next turn. For a deeper explanation of duplication, read our duplication article.

Next, take a good look at the picture below and try to figure out what is the correct play for white after having rolled 5-4, keeping diversification in mind.

When you are ready, read on.

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Although luck is an essential element in backgammon, making the game varying, interesting and quite dramatic at times, backgammon is essentially a skill game. The best players never rely on luck and although there is no such thing as always winning in backgammon, they do win most of their games. Learning about backgammon tactics will help you succeed and make your way in online backgammon tournaments.

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One of the most typical backgammon situations is when one ore both players enter a holding game. It is a situation where a player has one ore two anchors or outer field points on the opposing half of the board and the rest of their checkers is on their own half of the board. There are several holding game strategies for various types of holding games, but in it’s simplest form a holding game is only about two things: waiting to hit a shot or waiting to run with a double.

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In Part 1 of this article we established and explained the importance of tournament play for a beginner backgammon player. In this second part we’ll evaluate the various tournament options and look at their value both to your skill and earnings progression. Finally, we lay down a tournament roadmap for a beginner backgammon player that has helped many beginners quickly to become good players.

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The world of online backgammon offers a lot of options for a beginner. You can play matches, small tournaments, big tournaments and much, much more. This raises the question what should backgammon beginner play? The short answer: tournaments.

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To a large extent Hypergammon is about luck. You are trying to run your tree men to your home board to bear them off while trying to avoid getting hit by your opponent. It might sound easy but it in reality it can be anything but. There are, however, a few working hypergammon strategies out there and we present one that might just give you the edge at the hypergammon table.

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Backgammon is essentially a game of mathematics, more precisely probabilities. Your success in backgammon therefore relies primarily on how well you can judge the chances of something happening in a given situation - the probability of X. From that we can conclude that in backgammon your decisions are only as good as your judgement of the situation.

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Last night Play65 offered again real entertainment with a $50,000 tournament. It was all very exciting down to the last minute where a player with low rating took it all away in the final - not quite what most people were expecting.

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