Rolling a Double in Backgammon

Part of the Video Series Backgammon Rules & Instructions

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Double rolls mean backgammon success. Learn how to play the game of backgammon in this free online video clip, including what to do when you roll a double.

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Video Transcript

Rolling a Double in Backgammon
My name is Malcolm Davis, I’m a professional Backgammon player. I’m here for expertvillage.com to hopefully teach you basically how to play. Let’s play another roll or two and maybe something will happen that I’d like to illustrate. That is perfect, that’s what I wanted to illustrate. This is what we call a double. Notice that the dice are equal, they’re the same. In backgammon when you roll a double, you get to play the number twice. Meaning you get to play a four and a four and a four and a four. This is a very, very good roll for my opponent. Notice this is his twenty-four point, twenty-three, twenty-two, twenty-one, twenty, same that’s two fours now he has two more fours to play. I’m pretty sure that it’s not always clear what the right play is, but I’m pretty sure in this case that this is the best play. An alternant play would be to what we call pick this checker up to safety and then play behind this point so he can’t hit anything and send it back. However, we’ll go back to this position, now if I roll a five, it’s very dangerous to hit this checker because all of these points are made and I don’t have any defense really so I would be afraid to hit this checker, I might have to but I would still be afraid.

About the Expert

Expert: Malcolm Davis has been a professional backgammon player for more than 30 years. Read More