Backgammon for money

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!