"skillful player can achieve a statistically significant lead much more quickly in hypergammon than in backgammon. The best moves in hypergammon (especially doubling decisions) are often subtle and less easily conceptualized than those of backgammon. Hypergammon has been 'solved', in the sense that computers can now play perfect hypergammon. Nevertheless, it is still a very challenging game for human players. The development of heuristics for expert play is very much an open topic. Hypergammon Hypergammon is a variant of backgammon. Each player begins with three pieces, rather than fifteen. At the start of the game, each player begins with one"
"the board, and you enter by rolling either doubles or acey-deucey.<br> These games are played one after another, in matches of three, five, or seven points. Before starting a match, each player rolls 1 die, and the player with the highest roll picks up both dice and re-rolls (i.e. it is possible to roll doubles for the opening move). Players use the same pair of dice in turns. After the first game, the winner of the previous game starts first. Each game counts as 1 point, if the opponent has borne off at least 1 stone, otherwise 2 points (gammon/backgammon)."
"are included in the count. Each player takes five dominoes, when playing with four players or more, or seven when playing with two or three. The remaining dominoes are placed to one side forming the ""boneyard"". The starting play is determined either by who holds the highest double or the highest-value domino; in either case, that domino is played first. If that domino is a 6–4, 5–5, 5–0, 4–1, or 3–2, the initial count is evenly divisible by five and so the player scores. Players in turn then lay a matching domino on one of the endpoints (if the initial"
"Backgammon notation Backgammon notation is a means for recording backgammon games, developed by Paul Magriel in the 1970s. The common way of describing the movement of checkers involves numbering the points around the board from 24 to 1 as depicted in Figure 1. The image shows the board from black's perspective, with the numbers diminishing as her checkers move counterclockwise toward her own home board at the bottom right-hand side. The reverse numbering of the points applies when white is on roll, with the 24-point referred to as the 1-point, and so forth. Dice rolls are shown either as ""4-2"""
"of doubles. Hypergammon is a variant of backgammon in which players have only three checkers on the board, starting with one each on the 24-, 23- and 22-points. The game has been strongly solved, meaning that exact equities are available for all 32 million possible positions. Nərd is a traditional variant from Azerbaijan in which basic rules are almost the same except that even a single piece is 'safe'. There are also different starting positions. Nackgammon is a variant of backgammon invented by Nick ""Nack"" Ballard in which players start with one less checker on the six point and midpoint"
"Backgammon match strategy In backgammon, there are a number of strategies that are distinct to match play as opposed to money play. These differences are most apparent when a player is within a few points of winning the match. Backgammon matches are played to a set number of points, ranging from 3 for informal matches to 25 or more for high level tournaments. Traditionally matches are played to an odd number of points, however there is no theoretical reason why a match should not be played to an even number of points. As with money play, the doubling cube is"
"an eight-pointed star with endpoints, called ""kewai"", connected to the center point, or ""pūtahi"". The lines connecting the ""kewai"" to the ""pūtahi"" are oriented at 45 degrees. Each player controls four counters, or ""perepere"", which are initially placed on the board at the ""kewai"". At the beginning of the game the ""pūtahi"" is empty. (See illustration.) Players move one of their counters per turn to an empty point. Players can move only to an adjacent ""kewai"", and can move to the ""pūtahi"" only when the moved counter is adjacent to an opponent's counter. The player who blocks all the opponent's"
"around and off the board is called the ""pip count"". The difference between the two players' pip counts is frequently used as a measure of the leader's racing advantage. Players often use mental calculation techniques to determine pip counts in live play. Backgammon is played in two principal variations, ""Money"" and ""Match"" play. Money play means that every point counts evenly and every game stands alone, whether money is actually being wagered or not. ""Match"" play means that the players play until one side scores (or exceeds) a certain number of points. The format has a significant effect on strategy."
"be traced to Medieval and Renaissance sources. Backgammon has been studied considerably by computer scientists, who have developed software that plays at the level of top human players. Tric-trac is a French variant of Backgammon. There are two main forms of the game, ""le Grand Tric-trac"" and ""le Petit Tric-trac."" In Tric-trac, the starting point is called a ""talon"", the points, or ""fleches"", are numbered to 12 on both sides of the board, with the 12th point on either side called the ""coin de repos"", or, simply, ""coin"". The 11th point (on either side) is often called ""le case d'écolier"","
"to the number of points won or lost in each game, adjusted for gammons, backgammons, and the value of the doubling cube. Backgammon chouette The backgammon chouette is a variant of backgammon for three or more players. Traditionally played in person, today, the internet allows this form of backgammon to be played across different countries and various platforms. The chouette is a fast-paced game, featuring frequent use of the doubling cube, discussion and dispute of possible moves, and shifting rivalries among players. One player—the box—plays against a team consisting of all other participants. One member of the team is designated"
"backgammon are a mixture of chance and skill. Even though luck (usually the throw of dice) plays a part, choices made by the players in the course of the game also help to decide the winner. Backgammon is one of the oldest board games that people still play. Its name comes from the Saxon (it means ‘back game’ because sometimes pieces have to go back to the beginning), but the Romans played this game too. Luck plays little or no part in games of skill – the outcome is decided by the players’ ability to make the most advantageous moves"
"irrelevant. Each player has an equal number of counters placed in front of them—usually from 2 to 4—to mark his or her ""lives"". (Alternatively, a dollar bill or other note may be used, and players use the corners to mark their lives, folding a corner in when a life is lost.) Cards are dealt, one card to each, face down. Starting to the left of the dealer - each in turn examines their card. If they are satisfied with their card they may keep it, usually simply by announcing, ""I'm good."" or similar. However, if they are unsatisfied they may"
"game value from the normal two points to three points. Other increments such as ""four"" or ""five"" may be announced alternately (until the number of points need for a win is reached, i.e. in the first game at a theoretical 15). However, the game value is not doubled each time. The concept of ""Kontra"" is found in the sense of doubling in Backgammon: if a player believes during the course of a game, that his opponent can no longer win. he can bid a ""double"". The opponent can either accept it or resign and take the points gained so far."
"and two checkers on the 23 point. Russian backgammon is a variant described in 1895 as: ""...much in vogue in Russia, Germany, and other parts of the Continent..."". Players start with no checkers on the board, and both players move in the same direction to bear off in a common home board. In this variant, doubles are more powerful: four moves are played as in standard backgammon, followed by four moves according to the difference of the dice value from 7, and then the player has another turn (with the caveat that the turn ends if any portion of it"
"Backgammon chouette The backgammon chouette is a variant of backgammon for three or more players. Traditionally played in person, today, the internet allows this form of backgammon to be played across different countries and various platforms. The chouette is a fast-paced game, featuring frequent use of the doubling cube, discussion and dispute of possible moves, and shifting rivalries among players. One player—the box—plays against a team consisting of all other participants. One member of the team is designated as the captain. The box and the rotation order are generally determined by the roll of dice. The game is played on"
"11 decks are used, and often one set of spades is removed. Each player pays an ante of one chip, called the ""top"". The value of the top sets the value of all pays in the game. Some high-stakes games are played with a two-chip ante, which is called ""double tops"". The rotation of dealing and playing is to the right, not to the left as in most card games. Each player receives 10 cards. Beginning with the eldest hand, each player either folds their hand (""going out on top"") or agrees to play. The player who folds loses their"
"and 12). The 6s or 9s are kept out to avoid confusion. The first edition of the game had 44 cards (four of each) and the extra 1 card was soon introduced as an option for quicker play. A 1996 board from Waddingtons had 5 of each card. Cards are annotated with the following actions: Players who have a pawn that has not moved too far away from its start area, and draw a card that allows them to move a pawn backward, can (and should) elect to move this pawn backward. Move a pawn in such a situation backward"
"when eight play, in four. When five or six play it makes a very interesting game. A full pack of 52 cards is used and each player receives five cards, dealt in pairs and triplets, being the next card on the top of the pack turned up for trumps. Each player starts with a pre-arranged amount, which may be of 20 chips or counters, and puts up one chip upon the table to form a pool. The pool is usually limited to a certain maximum, which once reached there is no further subscription, though each dealer is required to ""tit-up"""
"occur in practical play. These endgame studies apply to both Gliński's and McCooey's variants: Starchess is a hexagonal variant invented by Hungarian chess teacher László Polgár. The board is a horizontally oriented regular hexagram, consisting of 37 numbered cells. Due to the small board, games typically finish quicker than in standard chess. Each player has five pawns, a king, knight, bishop, rook, and queen. The white pawns start at cells 5, 12, 18, 23, and 29; the black pawns at 9, 15, 20, 26, and 33. At the beginning of the game, the players place their other pieces alternately on"
"entered the game. Some players will stay at the table until the game is shuffled, or they may ""Wong out"" or leave when the count reaches a level at which they no longer have an advantage. Back-counting is generally done on shoe games, of 4, 6, or 8 decks, although it can be done on pitch games of 1 or 2 decks. The reason for this is that the count is more stable in a shoe game, so a player will be less likely to sit down for one or two hands and then have to get up. In addition,"
"1, 5, 9, Zero Cash, Half Cash, Hundred Myriad, Thousand Myriad, or Myriad Myriad, the banker's opposite gets dealt first. Each player is dealt 8 cards counter-clockwise, first as a batch of four cards then singles. The remaining eight cards form the stock which is flipped to reveal the bottom card. A player that has at least five cards from any suit can force a redeal. If a player has the four lowest cards of each suit (20 Myriad, 1 Myriad, 1 String, 9 Cash), he will automatically win 1 stake each from the other 3 players and cards are"
"card deck. Each player starts with some number of tokens, generally 3, and the last person to lose his token wins. Each round everybody is dealt 3 cards face down, with 3 dealt into the middle face up. Starting with the player on the dealer's left and working clockwise each player must take either 1 or 3 of the centre cards and replace it with an equal number from his own hand. After playing, he may elect to ""Stop the Bus"", in which case everybody else gets one turn only. After somebody has ""Stopped the Bus"" and everybody else has"
"rearhand (the player on his left). Rearhand shoves any 2 cards to middlehand, who shoves one card in turn to forehand on the dealer's right. Thus everyone ends up with 8 cards. Forehand now leads to the first trick and the remaining players, in clockwise order, aim to follow suit. If they are unable to, they may discard any card. The player who plays the highest card of the led suit wins the trick and leads to the next. The first 7 tricks do not count as far as the result is concerned, but the winner of the last trick,"
"use of an extra die (three rather than two) and the starting of all pieces off the board (with them entering in the same way that pieces on the bar enter in modern backgammon). In the epigram Zeno, who was white (red in illustration), had a stack of seven checkers, three stacks of two checkers and two blots, checkers that stand alone on a point and are therefore in danger of being put outside the board by an incoming opponent checker. Zeno threw the three dice with which the game was played and obtained 2, 5 and 6. As in"
"cards again. Play proceeds as in six-card golf, but a player may knock (instead of drawing) at any time – even before all of the players cards have been swapped for face-up cards – and then all other players have one chance to improve their hands before scores are tallied. Pairs are counted vertically, with diagonal pairs being an optional rule. Each card from 2 to 10 represents its own points (i.e. any 3 card is worth three points, any 10 card is worth ten points, and so on). Aces are one point, jacks are eleven, queens are twelve and"
"or ""surrender"" (give up a half-bet and retire from the game). Number cards count as their natural value; the jack, queen, and king (also known as ""face cards"" or ""pictures"") count as 10; aces are valued as either 1 or 11 according to the player's choice. If the hand value exceeds 21 points, it busts, and all bets on it are immediately forfeit. After all boxes have finished playing, the dealer's hand is resolved by drawing cards until the hand busts or achieves a value of 17 or higher (a dealer total of 17 including an ace, or ""soft 17"","
"exist. Back-counting, also known as ""Wonging,"" consists of standing behind a blackjack table that other players are playing on, and counting the cards as they are dealt. Stanford Wong first proposed the idea of back-counting, and the term ""Wong"" comes from his name. The player will enter or ""Wong in"" to the game when the count reaches a point at which the player has an advantage. The player may then raise his/her bets as their advantage increases, or lower their bets as their advantage goes down. Some back-counters prefer to flat-bet, and only bet the same amount once they have"
"plays that are on average as effective, because the character of the move (passive or aggressive) better suits his or her playing style. Backgammon opening theory The first moves of a backgammon game are the opening moves, collectively referred to as the opening, and studied in the backgammon opening theory. Backgammon opening theory is not developed in as much detail as opening theory in chess, which has been widely studied. The reason for this is that following the first move in backgammon, there are 21 dice roll outcomes on each subsequent move, and many alternative plays for each outcome, making"
"and then deals one card at a time either clockwise or counter-clockwise until each player has 13 cards (52 cards / 4 players = 13 cards per player). In games with three people, either 39 or 51 cards can be dealt (13 or 17 cards per player). In some variations, the deck must be reshuffled if any player is dealt all four twos. The game begins when the player holding the lowest card, which is the 3 depending upon the suit order being played, plays that card or a valid card combination including that card. The card combination should be"
"Backgammon opening theory The first moves of a backgammon game are the opening moves, collectively referred to as the opening, and studied in the backgammon opening theory. Backgammon opening theory is not developed in as much detail as opening theory in chess, which has been widely studied. The reason for this is that following the first move in backgammon, there are 21 dice roll outcomes on each subsequent move, and many alternative plays for each outcome, making the tree of possible positions in backgammon expand much more rapidly than in chess. Despite the complications posed by this rapid branching of"
"to his right. The cards are then dealt in packets of 2 and then 3 to each player. After picking up his cards, forehand (on the dealer's left) calls trumps. Once all players have picked up their cards, forehand leads to the first trick. When the game is finished, forehand then becomes the next dealer. Each player must play to the trick in accordance with the following rules: Game is 31 points. If a player reaches 31, the opposing side is given a """"knoddel"""". If the opponents get 2 ""knoddels"", the team wins a ""stein"", which used to mean that"
"cards from each player's discard pile are included in totals for a total of 240 counters per round, plus one counter for winning the final trick. One variation to make it more difficult for the bid-winning player, the discard pile created by drawing cards is used by the non-bidding player to score towards tricks. In Three-handed pinochle each player plays for him or herself. The dealer deals 15 cards to each player and three cards to the kitty—a separate pile in the middle. All players review their cards and silently determine their bids. The player to the dealer's left initiates"
"in exchange for having every remaining rank with four tiles. Older sets may have more ranks taken from the Ashtamangala such as the endless knot, fish, and conch. Tuvans play the game with the Chinese zodiac tiles replaced with dominoes. It can be played with or without partnerships. In four player games, tiles are shuffled face down and evenly distributed to all players. With 15 tiles in hand, the eldest can lead with the trick with one, two, three, or four identical tiles. In a clockwise fashion, the following players must put down an identical number of tiles but only"