Backgammon Doubling Cube, explained by Grandmaster Marc Olsen 

Agreed! I learned the game from Persian and Greek in-laws, and they don't use the cube at all. I spent the pandemic learning the game so I could keep my elderly Persian father in law occupied. He still beats me regularly (at 94 years old), bur I have come to love it. Perhaps someday I can move up to using the cube, but I'm simply not at that level yet.

I’ve never used the doubling cube in the 20 years I’ve been playing. Guess I’ll try but we don’t even play with points.

Get your abacus out of moth balls. ‘I was told there would be no math!’ 🤓✨

If you are playing $100 a point it makes a lot of sense. 100 x64x3. You get a whole new perspective. Even $1 a point can hurt your wallet severely.

Can you suggest a good channel on other backgammon board games?

@@debnlinda I couldn't find a lot of videos here on RU-vid but you can find a lot of variations over at: bkgm com / variants

@@debnlinda ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MfO74qhH6rk.html

The best-seller book: Cube Like a Boss will do miracles on your game Justin!

for beginners its best to ignore the cube and just play 1 point single games until they know more then play match play with the cube once they get better and more advanced (1+ years of play)

@@sjsphotog That’s one way of looking at it, Stephen. I think it really depends on whether an improving player has an interest in tournament play, match play, or money games. If ‘yes,’ then I think there’s no reason to avoid playing with the cube immediately. No harm in learning the hard way!

The problem if you're playing "just for fun" - nothing wrong with that! - is that the cube has no value. You could double on every turn - it makes no difference. It's only in a competition setting - or playing for money - that it has real value.

@@agerray when I said "playing for fun" is that you wont be using the cube just playing without it for 1 point games and no matches :)

yw Willie!

Hi John, thanks a lot! For historical reasons the jacoby rule isn't used in match play, i don't know if there is another answer to that...

The cube is reset for each game.

Wait until you see the 2021 Galaxy board! It will be released during the UBC final in 1.5 weeks from now!

I never use the cube, but i read an article that concluded it simply from the pipcount difference. Don't know exactly it was something like 1.1 x pipcount + 4 is take 1.1 x pipcount +12 is double.

@@jackcarpenters3759 No, it's much more complicated than that.

What if you had two or three checkers on the bar, and your opponent is threatening to close out his home board? That’s actually a position ‘too good’ to offer a cube, but if your opponent did offer the cube, would you take it, knowing your opponent is likely to win a gammon and four (4) points, instead of just one point if you drop the cube?

@@jjmckenna No I guess there are some positions like which you described which are overwhelmingly in your opponent's favour and at that point it's just damage control to mitigate points being lost. I suppose I was imagining more nuanced scenarios where the outcome is less clear in which case you would probably need a good head for probability or intuition from experience to make a logical judgement.

@@lukeanatr Yes, and this is why a grandmaster like Mr. Olsen can write a book on the subject of almost 400 pages (‘Cube Like a Boss’). It’s an incredibly math-intensive subject that mollifies me, and many other players. The hypothetical ‘window’ for offering or taking a cube changes with each roll of the dice, which makes it very challenging to figure out how to handle this little square-shaped riddle.

There is a big risk of taking!.. You might lose two points, rather than 1! Or even 4 points if you lose a gammon! That is why you need to win around 1 in 4 games for taking the cube to be better than dropping. If you do not win 1 in 4 games, you are better off dropping.

Hi Shane! We're so happy that you like our content and that it is inspiring you to dive more into this beautiful game

@@BackgammonGalaxy I had the exact same question. Thank you for the answer!

We have a wide variety of large boards on our webshop: shop.backgammongalaxy.com

Thanks! Check out the shop.backgammongalaxy.com the new Galaxy 2021 board will be released in one week, and it will be quite similar to this board and more travel friendly, with the same sized checkers and same luxury feel.

Hi :) It's FM Gammon. We also have our own official Galaxy board in the shop :-) Only 12 left.

Flavio - These FM boards are awesome. Very different style from the Neptune board. I did an unboxing video of my FM board, here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FHwJiE16kPU.html

@@jjmckenna I already checked their website and they are beautiful! 😀 I'm going to watch your RU-vid video. Thanks for your reply.

@@flaviopinhota If you have any interest in buying an FM board, hit them up and work out a deal! I have another, lower priced board from them literally on the way from Istanbul, and will likely be putting up another video within a week. It’s a board that retails for around $400US. Tell them I sent you, if interested. ✌🏼

@@jjmckenna I will definitely get one in a near future. I already subscribed to your channel, so I will wait for your next unboxing. A $400 board it's more affordable to me ☺.

You haven't played in the crazy chouettes that I have :)

Somewhere in another video, I heard that, theoretically, 64 is not even the maximum times the stakes, and that players can double to 128 times the stakes as well. There would be no doubling limit, according to the guy explaining this, but 64 times the stakes is rarely doubled to, if it even ever happens. Is that correct? A cube was the easiest way to implement the doubling system, because 'cubes' are produced more often in the form of dice. However, I also understand the confusion new players would have with there not being a 1 on the cube, allthough they should know that the position of the cube is important when showing the 64. 64 on the center of the bar or in the middle between players aside the board means no double has been made yet, while a 64 on one player's side means that the double to 64 times the stakes has been made and accepted. I think that a doubling method similar to the bidding tray method from bridge would he been more practical, because in that case a 1 isn't even needed. Let's say a tray with these cards is put aside from the board, and when a player wants to double, they deal the 2-card on the table, revealing the 4-card in the tray. If the opponent accepts, they put the 2-card in front of them, and if they decline, they put the 2-card back in the tray. With such a tray of cards, they could include cards beyond 64, like 128 and 256, if players would even wish to go that far when playing epic high point matches. An alternative of dealing the card could also be to slide the tray to the opponent to make a double. If the opponent accepts, they take the 2-card (cards on the table always count as accepted doubles), and otherwise the double is declined and the tray is simply put back where it was. They could use numbered tokens instead, but looking for the right one might be frustrating to some people.

Large stakes money games or large stakes tournament play?..the doubling cube plays a different role in each.

I should say, the cube has different stakes for both, the role/rule is the same.

Either player can double at anytime they want during the game. But once you have doubled your opponent only they can re-double (and vice versa). There's. nothing wrong with doubling just to get a pass and finish the game. But you don't want to double if you have a chance of winning a gammon.

@@BackgammonGalaxy Why are you saying that 'you don't want to double if you have a chance of winning a gammon?' This does not make sense, since the stronger the chance of winning, the more one should consider doubling, even more so if it is a gammon or a back gammon. Can you please explain why not to double in that specific situation when one is about to win with a gammon? Thank you

​@@jacques42 Because IF you have a good chance of winning a gammon or even a backgammon, your opponent will be very happy to pass the cube giving you only 1 point in stead of 2, 4 or even more points. You never want to double when it's too good (meaning you have high chances of gammon/backgammon) because if your opponent knows what they're doing, they will just pass it and you just missed out on the possibility of winning more points.

@@BackgammonGalaxy oh wait, so if the opponent passes, the value resets to 1 point that I would get, regardless of what is was before the last double? Didn't realise it resets and thought it stays on the last double value. So this is a risk for the person with the good position not to offer a double when his position is too good. Gotcha.

@@jacques42 : No. It only resets at the start of the next game. The risk of doubling when you can gammon, is that whatever the double, you could lose the gammon double, because if you were to offer it (and double) to your opponent, your opponent can concede the game, and you collect whatever the double was that you had. Say, it's on 4, and you offer at 8, your opponent can concede and you get 4x only. If you keep it, and gammon your opponent, you get a double for the gammon, and the 4 becomes 8x. See? It's a strategy.

Hmm not sure I understand. You mean what other game apart from backgammon?

@@BackgammonGalaxy like you said: the swing in equity must be rare.

Chess?

Any, that cube is for any game, as you can use it to double the points/bet....

@@ACBeats09 We just wonder what other games can use a cube as beautiful (tactically) and useful (speeding up no contact games) as the backgammon does.

Look up ‘Crawford Rule.’ When one player gets to within one point of a winning score, the cube is unavailable for the next game (Crawford game). If the player behind in points wins the Crawford game, the cube is reactivated and the match is ‘post-Crawford’ (cube in play) until there is a winner.

Thanks!

@@jjmckenna and when that player who is behind wins the crawford game, they should immediately double on their first turn of the next game so that they have an easier chance to come back to win the match.

@@sjsphotog i hate when an Opponent does that

odds 1-to-3 is equivalent of 25%... It is one part out of a total of four parts. One part for and three parts against.

@@BackgammonGalaxy lol

It adds so much thrill to the game

The players roll dice after each game to determine who plays first in each subsequent game.

@@jjmckenna Thank you, believe me or not my wife and I couldn't find the answer.

@@chein33 each start of a game both players roll 1 dice, untill there are two different dices on the table. Then the person who rolled the high dice, has to play those rolled dices as first move.

That is a very interesting strategy Kate. Did you have a lot of success with it?

If you are the better player you want to roll the dice and make as many moves as possible also make the games as complicated as you can I will give you an example you start the game you roll 6-3 or 6-4 the best way to move is 6 out and 3 down the reason being is their is a good chance the game will proceed into a blot hitting game I know I will be making the best moves almost every time and get an advantage if you watch such a game you will see players thinking should I hit should I play this move it was agony for me at times because I knew the correct move. I will give you another tip for playing tournaments another time if you like.

You sound like someone who over estimates their own ability and underestimates that ability of the opponent . Probably not nearly as strong as you think you are .

The doubling cube is somewhat complicated. We wanted to make sure to explain it properly and not just superficially. There are entire book dedicated to teaching proper cube strategy ;-)

it is not 1/3, it is 1:3 ;)

Odds 1-to-3 is 1 unit out of 4 units or 25%.

It's 33,33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333%, as a close rate. 10 is not dividable by 3

divide 75 by 25