Cube 102 - Foolish?

[sixty_something]

in round 1 of a Bago tourney, rollingfool (RED) is trailing 0-1 .. on his second turn, he throws the cube drawing immediate comments from me and chuckles from vegas_vic and teyakis who were watching

You kibitz: that musta been a "feels good" cube
rollingfool kibitzes: it was a go #### yourslef cube
vegas_vic kibitzes: lol
vegas_vic kibitzes: damn fool you suck
You kibitz: lol
teyakis kibitzes: lol
rollingfool kibitzes: yeh

one vote per user .. results of the poll are shown only after you have voted

you may enter the ID's below into GNU or Snowie to evaluate your answer after you've voted or open the text file for a copy of the GNU analysis .. unless you'd like to pretend you have a 2000+ rating, don't until after you've voted

Position ID: 4HPkASGYc8wBMA    Match ID: MBlgAAAACAAA


America is a large friendly dog in a small room. Every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair.
-- Arnold Toynbee English historian & historical philosopher (1889 - 1975)

[Tomawaky]

Is it white or red to toka or frop the cube ?

[sixty_something]

RED is offering the cube, WHITE to take in the situation described .. i clarified that in the question

but that very thought occurred to me during the game, it almost looked like a better cube for me (WHITE) than for rollingfool (RED) .. had it been my turn and the match score different, it looked as if a cube by me was a valid play

[Tomawaky]

Easy take 

[sixty_something]

yes, but that is only part of the question .. also, let's not give away too much of the answer with replies .. remember, voters can see this before they vote

btw, Tomawaky, thanks for the idea of how to include an image of the board in the question  .. see Cube 103 for an example .. i haven't been able to upload an image of the board yet, but i used your banner

from another post to test the idea .. it's looking as if it may work .. i'll change the link to the board image as soon as i can find a place to put it


The perfect love affair is one which is conducted entirely by post.
-- George Bernard Shaw Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)

[blitzxz]

Spoiler

You should double if there is even slight possibility to lose markets when your opponent is 2-away. This is a good rule of thumb. Like in this position very good rolls (61, 31, 11, 44, 33, 66, 55, 64) could lead to double, pass. But... i made a bad double in this score also. So you could add to rule: that you shouldn't double if you're not favorite to win (exceptions to that propably too when very likely to gammon). And also which I often forgot is that there are no market losers if opponent has solid high anchor (unless behind huge prime or big race lead).

[close]

[dorbel]

Spoiler

Well this problem has been up long enough I think. This position, which is an excellent double by rollingfool and a clear take, belongs to a class of positions under the heading of "One way gammon threat, dead cube". After doubling, only Red benefits from a gammon and the cube is of no value to White. 3-away, 2-away and 4-away, 2-away are the scores at which you need to be alert to these. This cube would be even more potent at 4-away, 2-away, so much so that White should pass! That is because at 3-away, 2-away, Red has some wastage if he wins a doubled gammon; he can only use three of the four points for that. However, there is an upside too, which is that Red doesn't need to go crazy to win a gammon here, because a doubled plain game gets him to Crawford, where his winning chances are about 70%.
Instructive position. Learn and copy.

[close]

[sixty_something]

thanks for the very instructive comments, dorbel .. i took the liberty to go in and put your and blitzxz's comments below behind a spoiler button because our intent (well my intent) is to leave them avaialbe as questions ad infinitum for new readers to enjoy as well .. i said i wasn't going to do this (edit other posts), but no changes other than adding the spolier button have been made

the spoiler feature is new and described at problem spoilers

your comments and others are always most welcomed as are problems anyone may like to contribute 

Be a fountain, not a drain.
-- Rex Hudler , quoted in 'Sports Illustrated'