When I first started playing backgammon then the similarities between chess and poker were striking as I have mentioned several times in this section. But for me the best use of the game was as a training tool to see the effects of variance that can happen in any gambling game. I have seen players on backgammon forums go on about how certain software is biased and that they always seem to throw what they need.
Without looking at each piece of software then I cannot possibly comment on that. But in my experience, when you see something like this then it is based on two key factors and neither one is anything to do with the program throwing dice that it needs. The first factor is variance and I would hazard a guess that a minimum of 99% of people who play luck based games like backgammon and poker either do not accept variance mentally or do not understand how severe and long lasting it is.
The concept of an opponent throwing the exact double six it needs to remove all of their checkers is alien to them but yet it is only 35/1 against. They can accept this if a human does it but somehow cry foul if a computer program does it. The second factor is to do with the player manufacturing their own downfall. It is exactly the same in poker and most of the time; misfortune is based on bad play and not bad luck. A player didn’t raise or re-raise when they should have and they lose a hand because of it.
In backgammon then it is usually poor play that is to blame or the defeat and not bad luck. Playing the game back from the start usually reveals playing errors that were compounded by a fortunate throw. In actual fact what they thought was a lucky throw wouldn’t have even been lucky at all because the position should have either been crushing or won if they had played correctly.
