Money Play. How should Red play 31?
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Over the board Red played 5/4, 5/2 but that was a mistake.
Red must take advantage of the weakness in White’s home board while it exists. He should note that the race is close, although White has some home board wastage. By next turn White may have tidied up his home board and Red may have to break from his midpoint as he has no safe sixes to play elsewhere. He should not be breaking up his perfect home board, rather he should be using it as a weapon.
The correct play is 13/12, 13/10. Now Red has not wasted any pips in the race and if White hits he risks losing a gammon to any return hit. In fact, most of the plays that break the home board win the same or slightly more single games than 13/12, 13/10 but that play wins 10% more gammons – a huge difference.
Players tend to look at the downsides of any potentially risky play and lose sight of the upsides. Remember that gammons do count double!
Rollout Information from Extreme Gammon
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