As the opening thrower then you often get away to a quick advantage. You already have the opening throw which is a tiny advantage but not so much that you can immediately double. Let us say that your opening roll is 3/1 and you correctly decide to make your five point. Let us also say that black makes his four point with 4/2. This is a good strategic move also but you have slightly improved your position. However this is where you really need to force your advantage home but many players go wrong here and play too defensive. If your next throw is say 4/1 then a lot of players here will make their move by taking a man from their twelve point and building their five point trying to then maybe open up combinations to make their seven or four points.
But a better move with 4/1 would be to move one man to your nine point and maybe spilt your two back men or perhaps move one man to your nine point and also one man from your six point to your five point trying to make your four point. In order to force home your advantage in backgammon then you must be prepared to take risks. This is akin to poker when you raise with the best hand but have a chance of being beaten. In poker then if you had A-A then you would ideally want your opponent all-in before the flop for all their money and yours as well.
However if they have say Q-Q then they could easily hit a queen and beat you or make some flush or straight that beat you. However if you played the hand more defensively then you would have lost less money but lost more money in the long term if you were playing cash games and lost equity during tournament play.
