Doubling for beginners
Adapted from Backgammon 101, by Orad Reshef · https://backgammon101.com/doubling-for-beginners/
Doubling is an intricate topic, and there’s no end to how much one can learn. But it’s hard to know where to start. In this module, we will present a series of rules of thumb for different game plans and different situations. All discussions will be for unlimited games — adjustments for match scores will come in a later module. As always, there will be tons of exceptions to these rules, but this module will provide a good foundation upon which to build these exceptions.
Before going into detail on how to play the cube while following the various game plans, we will first go over some common language and general principles related to doubling.
- The doubling window
- Cubeful and cubeless equity
- Market losers
- Recube vig
- Doubling in racing positions
- Doubling in N-roll positions
- Doubling in holding games
- Doubling in bear-off racing conditions (intro to iSight)
- Opening blitz doubles
- Doubling in priming games
- Doubling in backgames
- Doubling in closeout positions
- Reference positions
- Doubling in… everything else (O’Hagan’s Rule)
- Score-based cube actions