Cube action during a bearoff

Shaker · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 20

In a game I played the other day my opponent doubled at the last minute—we both had all of our checkers on the 1, 2, 3, and 4 points. My opponent had borne off one checker and I hadn’t borne off any. We were both pretty evenly distributed across the checkers. My pip count was thirty-eight and my opponent’s was thirty-seven. I gave up and forfeited the game for one point. My reasoning was that my opponent was already leading me by one in the pip count and that the game was so close it was likely I would lose. However, I have been thinking about it for the last couple of days and more and more I am thinking that it was a bad move to forfeit. Maybe I could have had a chance of winning the game for two points. Did I make the right move? Should I have accepted the double?

Maverick · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 15

You did make the right decision if you didn’t want to gamble for losing two points instead of one. With your opponent ahead in the race with a lower pip count and one less checker to bear off than you AND control of the dice it is highly, highly unlikely that you would have won the game. Maybe if you had rolled doubles the entire time you could have done it, but it isn’t likely.

joliver · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 32

Yes, good move not accepting the double. It’s much better to lose one point than the two that you would have undoubtedly lost if you had accepted.