I had played backgammon for some considerable length of time before I started using the doubling cube. I used to play for money with work mates but the games were always decided by match points and not by doubling. When you play match points then games always or nearly always reach a conclusion. But with a doubling cube that goes from 2-4-8-16-32-64 then the stakes of the game can get very high and the game can end immediately after someone doubles.
Playing for game points always keeps the maximum loss under control. Say for example that you played first to 10pts for $10. Here you either win or lose $10. But let us say that you played for only $1 per point. If you used the doubling cube and the cube ended all the way to 64 and you lost a triple game on 64 then you would owe your opponent not $1 but $192.
You would have lost $1 x 64 which is $64 but a triple game is where you have taken off all of your pieces before your opponent has taken off any or has checkers in your home board (depending on the rules being played). To lose a treble game which is called a “backgammon” while the cube is on 64 is the greatest loss that you can incur and so the potential loss is far greater.
This makes the game akin to poker and many of the world’s top players are very aggressive with the doubling cube. You have to be on throw to be able to double but doubling is akin to raising in poker and a failure to double is akin to pot control. Backgammon is a truly fascinating game and one that I am looking forward to talking more about.
