Crash course in backgammon - Playing for Real

So you have made your first deposit, participated in your first real money games and possibly even in a smaller tournament. You now know how it feels to play for real money and to make decisions under pressure. However, in order to ensure your progression as a player and to get the best return for your money, it is good to follow a short “training program” to make it all happen.

Backgammon bootcamp

You have a whole lot of different game types to choose from from single match live tables all the way to special events. So which ones to choose? Where can you learn most in the least amount of time? Which bring you the most money?

Step 1

In the beginning the single most important rule is not to play against players that are much stronger than you are. If you do that, you run the danger of getting severily beaten by your opponents and loosing motivation for the game. Surely that’s not what we want so stick to opponents of your rating. In Gammon Empire this is very handy as in the settings you can choose the software to show only players close to your rating. In addition, Tournaments have been divided into rating limited and high rating tournaments. Make sure you stay with the “rating limited” tournaments.First you should play predominantly cheap Sit and Go tournaments and mostly Swings if you can. Daily tournaments are also good opportunities to learn but you are likely to see more experienced players in those so prepare for slightly tougher going. There is nothing wrong with regular live tables but you don’t learn very much from 1-point matches.

Step 2

Stay with Sit and Go and regular Daily tournaments but increase the stakes. If you want, try out a couple of satellite tournaments and of course don’t forget to you use your stars and participate in freeroll tournaments.

Step 3

Move on to regular Daily tournaments, satellites with reasonable buy-ins and Series at the Live regular tables. If you play series, play 5-point matches or more.

Step 4

Stay with Regular daily tournaments, satellites and Series matches, but increase the stakes.

Step 5

When you feel confident enough, feel free to join Special events. Those are the most interesting tournaments with the greatest prize pools so keep those as your ultimate goal in online backgammon.

Things that will help you along the way

There are certain things you should keep in mind during your “bootcamp”.

Concentrate
If you don’t concentrate on what you are doing you won’t be learning as fast as you could otherwise.

Play often
Keeping up the routine is very important for beginners. You shouldn’t let too much time pass between your backgammon sessions because that will make the learning process longer.

Read about backgammon tactics and strategies
You can learn a lot only by playing but just as in most things theoretical knowledge and the ability in putting it into practice plays a major role in your development as a player. Many players forget about this and eventually their game will never develop beyond a certain poin. Winning Backgammon info offers many good articles but you can also look up backgammon literature e.g. from Bill Robertie, Paul Magriel and Paul Lamford.

Don’t give up
Let’s face it: you will end up loosing money in the beginning. But if you keep on working towards your goal, play often and learn about backgammon, you will be winning more often than loosing. Why? Because essentially backgammon is not a game of luck but a game of SKILL. Become good and you will keep on winning.