Backgammon Secrets

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

As we dicussed in the previous article, Backgammon is a casino game of ability and pure luck. The goal is to shift your pieces carefully around the game board to your inner board and at the same time your opposition shifts their pieces toward their home board in the opposite direction. With competing player checkers shifting in opposite directions there is bound to be conflict and the need for particular strategies at particular times. Here are the two final Backgammon strategies to round out your game.

The Priming Game Tactic

If the purpose of the blocking strategy is to slow down the opponent to shift their chips, the Priming Game plan is to completely block any activity of the opponent by assembling a prime – ideally 6 points in a row. The competitor’s checkers will either get bumped, or result a damaged position if he ever attempts to leave the wall. The ambush of the prime can be established anywhere between point 2 and point 11 in your game board. After you have successfully assembled the prime to block the movement of the opponent, your opponent does not even get a chance to toss the dice, and you move your chips and toss the dice again. You’ll be a winner for sure.

The Back Game Plan

The goals of the Back Game tactic and the Blocking Game strategy are very similar – to harm your opponent’s positions hoping to better your chances of succeeding, however the Back Game plan uses alternate tactics to achieve that. The Back Game tactic is generally used when you’re far behind your competitor. To play Backgammon with this strategy, you need to control two or more points in table, and to hit a blot (a single piece) late in the game. This technique is more difficult than others to use in Backgammon because it needs careful movement of your chips and how the checkers are moved is partly the result of the dice toss.