Backgammon Strategy: 8 Tips to Win More Games and Use the Cube

Backgammon looks like a game of luck, and any single roll is. Over a match, though, the player who makes better choices with the same dice wins far more often. Most of those choices fall into a few habits: build points, take risks when they’re cheap, race when you’re ahead, and use the cube.

The tips below fit standard backgammon: 15 checkers each, two dice, the doubling cube and the Crawford game in matches. You can try every one in Backgammon on HulaGames, free in your browser, against Sandy, Marlin and Reef.

1. Learn the best opening rolls

Three opening rolls make a new point straight away: 3-1 makes your 5-point, 4-2 your 4-point, and 6-1 your bar point (the 7-point). Play those every time. The 5-point is the most valuable point on the board, for you and for your opponent.

With other rolls, bring a checker down from your midpoint as a builder, or split your two back checkers so they have more ways to get out.

2. Make points, not single checkers

A point with two or more of your checkers is safe: your opponent can’t land there. A lone checker is a blot, and a blot can be hit and sent to the bar. When a roll lets you make a new point, that’s usually the best move on the board, most of all in your home board, where each made point makes it harder for a hit checker to come back in.

3. Hit when it costs you little

Hitting sends your opponent’s checker to the bar. It costs them the pips that checker had traveled, and they must bring it back in before moving anything else. Hit freely early in the game, and especially in your home board. Think twice when the hit leaves several of your own blots where a return hit would cost you a lot.

4. Count pips before you race

Your pip count is the total number of pips your checkers still have to travel. Once both sides have moved past each other, the game is a race, and the lower pip count is ahead. If you lead the race, stop taking risks: bring everything home safely. If you’re well behind, keep a back point, or blots your opponent may have to leave, so you still have a chance to hit.

5. Don’t stack one point

Piling five checkers on one point wastes them. Spread them so they can make new points and cover blots. On HulaGames a point holds at most five checkers, so a stack can’t grow past that anyway.

6. Bear off safely when contact remains

If your opponent still holds a checker in your home board, bear off carefully. Clear your highest points first, avoid leaving blots, and prefer an even number of checkers on each point. One hit at this stage can turn a sure gammon into a loss.

7. Double at the right moment

The cube doubles the match points on the game. Offer it when you’re clearly ahead but your opponent can still take. In a race, a common guide is to double when you lead by about 8 to 10 percent of your pip count. Wait too long and your opponent simply drops, so you win only what’s on the cube now.

8. Take more often than feels right

When your opponent doubles, take if you expect to win at least about 1 game in 4. Dropping loses the game at the current value. Taking risks double that, but you win double too, and you own the cube, so only you can double next. New players drop too often. The Cube Daily on HulaGames is built to practice exactly this call: one position a day, take or drop, with the answer checked in 1,000 test games.

Try it against three opponents

Backgammon on HulaGames plays single games or matches to 3, 5 or 7 against Sandy (Casual), Marlin (Sharp) and Reef (Shark). Blitz Board gives you 30 seconds a move, and every roll shows in the dice log, so you can see the dice are fair. Play Backgammon free.

More strategy for two-player classics: our Hearts strategy tips and Spades strategy tips cover the card table, and daily quests award Hula Points for every game you finish.