Backgammon Online

07-Feb-2014
15:33 PST

I'd like to know whether you guys think it is disrespectful when an opponent offers the doubling cube at the very beginning of a game, before any moves? This has happened to me a couple of times, on both occasions we'd never played before, so not done from any informed tactics. It really annoyed me! Am I being over sensitive?

Anna

07-Feb-2014
17:03 PST

Technically it's against the rules of backgammon, but the software here on Zooescape allows it. For the unofficial tourneys, they are adding it as a rule that you can't double until at least one roll has happened.

I actually did it once before I knew that it was possible on Zooescape, just to see if it was possible. I was expecting I would get an error message but it worked, and I felt silly.

Why would somebody do it? I could see how someone might think that they are orders of magnitude better at the game than their opponent, and come to the conclusion that they might as well play the game at 2 from jump street.

I think a more likely reason is that they just want to increase the number of ratings points at stake, gunning for a high rating. When I played on Yahoo, and I'm sure anyone else who played there can confirm, a lot of people would play 101 point matches and just immediately double back and forth until the cube got to 128. The way the ratings system works on Yahoo, you can jack your rating up really fast by winning games like this. Of course, this is not the case on zooescape, where it's capped at 10 regardless of the cube value.

If somebody did it to me, I would be pretty happy, because now I have sole possession of the cube and can jack it up to 4 instead of just 2 when I feel it's time.

I wouldn't take it personally. They're probably just "sick gamblers".

07-Feb-2014
19:12 PST

I'm a bit dubious about the true value of cube games on ZE. In live play doubling the cube in money games doubles the stake each time, but here as soon as the cube's been turned once or maybe twice you lose very little more at each subsequent turn and might just as well be playing for 10 points as 9.35 or something. I have done it myself when say I have a 5% chance and less than 1 more point to lose (the other thing you lose then is your opponent's forced moves, which can be irritating), and so basically I don't see the point in playing standalone cube games.

In the match play tournaments of course the cube assumes its real value.

But as for the initial question, no it's not allowed in the real game so counts as a bug or a 'feature' on this site.

07-Feb-2014
19:15 PST

I don't particularly see it as disrespectful, maybe the person didn't know the rule and just did what the software allowed. If they do it a second time, the jury's out.

07-Feb-2014
23:11 PST

Very helpful comments.

11-Feb-2014
04:31 PST

I may have offered cube at my start of BG

I even did not know then what cube means  

as i was unaware of all BG rules before joining ZE  


Personally in Champions Tourney when i am up 4 points usually opponent offered the cube in the very beginning and I use to accept it
As after Crawford I can't double so only my opponent has the right, so it never irritated me

But as rules have been defined its prohibited in CTs also  


I am sorry if i hv ever (highly unlikely) offered cube in my career start..

Thanks to "winleover" who explained it to me and also reffered me to some BG moves which really helped me to improve my game