Backgammon vs. Poker

Raise vs. Doubling Cube

A powerful weapon

Raising is the most powerful weapon when you're playing poker. Basically, by raising, you tell the other guy: "put up or shut up". Your opponent is forced to either give up the hand or throw in more money when he would rather not do so. Skilled poker players raise a lot and they do it aggressively. It keeps the other players off balance, and forces them to make bad decisions.

How to use the doubling cube

In backgammon, the doubling cube is a very crucial factor in the game. It is a 6-sided object, numbered from 2 to 64. The mechanics are as follows: At first the cube is placed between the players so the 64 is showing (the cube is really on 1). Let's say that two players are playing for $200 per point. Whenever a player is on roll, he has the possibility of doubling (or turning the cube). If he uses this option, his rival may now either pass the double and pay the $200 or accept the double and continue to play for $400. If the rival takes the double, he now owns the cube. The original doubler is not allowed to double again as long as the other player owns the cube. However, if the game turns around the owner of the cube may, at his turn to roll, re-double to 4. The initial doubler now has the possibility of passing, and paying $400 or accepting, and continuing the game for $800. If the initial doubler accepts the re-double he now owns the cube. Whenever he is on roll he may re-double to 8. And so it continues. Consequently, a relatively cheap game can quickly turn into a really expensive one if both players are gamblers. While there is no theoretical limit to how high the cube may escalate, in practice cubes higher than 8 are very uncommon since limitations on bankroll start to become a factor.

Poker and backgammon - similarities

Doubling is a very effective strategy in backgammon. Just like a raise in poker, the double forces the other player to either give up and concede the game or put more money in the pot (increase the stakes) in order to see who will win. The best cube handlers are aggressive doublers. They always put pressure on their rivals to make a decision which might prove very costly in the end.

Poker and backgammon are similar in a lot of ways. Many of the skills that are useful in poker are valuable in backgammon as well. This is especially so when it comes to the cube. Back in the 1980's, poker legends Stu Ungar and Puggy Pearson tried their hand at backgammon. Their checker play and position evaluation may not have been of top class, but their cube handling was terrific! They realized that doubling in backgammon was very much like raising in poker, and adapted their strategy accordingly. Their doubling was actually often better than that of the top backgammon players at the time.

Pot odds in backgammon

In poker, the pot odds depend on the size of the bet/raise relative to the money in already the pot. In limit games the bet size is fixed, and it may be rather small compared to the size of the pot if there was a lot of early action. In these cases the caller gets very good pot odds to call. In a no-limit game the bet size might be anything (over the minimum bet of course). The caller may be getting anywhere from really good pot odds to poor pot odds. In backgammon things are different. The pot odds for a player considering whether or not to accept a double are always the same, 3 to 1. It is as if the player doubling has made a bet or raise which is half the pot size. In a $100 a point game, it is as though the players have each anted $200 into the pot, making the pot size $400. When a player turns the cube, he is raising the stakes to $400, so he is raising by $200 - half the size of the pot. This is true no matter the level of the cube; the raise will always be half the pot size.

When a poker player is facing a bet in the last round, his decision to call, fold or raise is solely based on the strength of his own hand and what he thinks his the other player is holding. This is analogous in backgammon to a player doubling on what will be the deciding roll - he either wins or loses the game right there. If there are more cards to come, the poker player has the possibility to see whether or not his hand improves and act accordingly. Consequently, his pot odds are potentially better than they would be if the bet were in the last round. In backgammon, when a player gets doubled in the middle of a game, he will get to see the dice rolls for the rest of the game if he accepts. If things turn out well, he will have the possibility to re-double later in the game. He doesn't have to worry about his rival betting more the next round, since he will own the doubling cube. His factual pot odds will consequently be better than 3 to 1 when taking the implied odds into account. It is like being on a straight or flush draw in a poker game with one more card to come. If you miss you know you are beaten and can fold without thinking twice about it. If you hit, on the other hand, you might very well win more money than what is in the pot now from the bets to come.

Bluffing in backgammon

Is bluffing a part of backgammon? Since everything is in the open, there are no hidden cards like in poker, it might not seem so. However, there is an unknown factor in backgammon - the real strength of the position. A player may turn the cube with only a slight edge, but his rival may misevaluate the situation and pass the double when the 3 to 1 pot odds he was getting for taking were well enough to justify taking the double. Just as a skilled and experienced poker player will sense weakness in a rival, a good backgammon player will sense that his rival isn't pleased with the way the game is going. He will take advantage of this and turn the cube even if it isn't a proper double because he knows that his opponent might give up the game. That is just the same as when a player is bluffed out of a poker hand.

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