Game 2, move 0: herd 4-3

[diane]

Position ID: 4HPwATDgc/ABMA
Match ID: cImxAAAACAAA


So game two gets under way...which opening - my standard 4-3 opening, or everyone else's  

[ah_clem]

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Opening rolls are very well analyzed with lots of rollouts to peruse. so you might as well just remember them. In particular, the 4-3 opening has two candidates that are worth considering: D (bring down two from the midpoint) and Z (reverse split - 24/21 13/9).  They are very close, and either is playable, but D wins more gammons, so I'll go for that here.

S (the normal split 24/20 13/10) lags behind D and Z; it's not a blunder, but it gives up ~.02 equity, and since this is a well known fact there's no good reason to  play it. The main problem with it is that your opponent will attack the split checker and the attack is stronger on the 20 than on the 21.  Better to play the thematically similar Z if that's the sort of game you want.

The remaining move, U (move both back checkers up),  is very close at  at DMP and  worth considering, but not here at quasi-gammon-go.

[Krazula]

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I always do 24/20  13/10 with this opening roll. I remember reading that this is superior to 24/21  13/9, but now that I look again I see what ah_clem says is true, that the rollouts now preffer the reverse split over my regular split. 24/20 13/10, 24/21 13/9, and 13/10 13/9 all are about equal though. I still voted for 24/20 13/10 because it is  the play I'm most familiar with.

[diane]

Oh gosh...Z isnt just my fav opening with this roll then