Backgammon isn´t commonly considered a casino game, but it is becoming popular as an online game to be played for money. Like poker, backgammon combines a little luck with a lot of skill. Backgammon is an extremely complex game, and has tournaments and championships just like poker.
Backgammon is very easy to play, but quite difficult to master. If you’re playing backgammon online, you don’t need to worry about how to set up the board. Your pieces will be automatically placed correctly in the beginning of the game.
Each player has two dice and fifteen pieces which are shaped as small disks similar to checkers. To begin, each player rolls one die. If there is a tie, they roll again. If there is not a tie, the player who rolled the higher number goes first. For each die the player may move a different piece. That is, if the dice say 3-2, then the player may move one piece 3 spaces and the other piece 2 spaces. They may also move one piece 5 spaces. Movement is all in one direction moving from the “home†board of the opponent to one’s own home board.
After the first player has made a move, the next player rolls both of his or her dice. If they roll doubles, the play is treated as if they rolled FOUR of the same number. They may move one, two, three, or four pieces. Movement is limited by the location of the opponent’s pieces. If your opponent has two or more pieces on a space, you may not land there, even as part of a move. For example, if the space two spaces away and the space three spaces away are both occupied by two of your opponent’s pieces, you cannot move a piece five spaces if your five is 2-3. This is despite the fact that the space five away may be free.
If a player has a single piece on a space, it is called a blot. If you land on your opponent’s blot, the piece is placed on the bar and must re-enter the board from the opponent’s home board. A player with a piece on the bar must enter the piece onto the board before making any other move. This applies even if the roll doesn’t allow the piece off of the bar. The player simply loses his turn.
When all of a player’s pieces have been brought into the player’s home board, he may begin “bearing off.†When a player bears off, the pieces go off of the board into a special place designated for them. Players may bear off pieces if their roll is higher than necessary only if they do not have any pieces farther back on the board. Players who have begun bearing off must immediately stop bearing off if a blot is hit. They may only continue bearing off when all pieces are in the home board again. The first player to complete the process of bearing off is the winner.
