Game 7, move 14: Roderick 5-2

[diane]

move?

[Roderick]

No 1, 6 or 8.  Can't hit.

Can't run - too dangerous.

2 choices - 16/11, 8/6 or 10/8, 10/5

Ideally I'd like to make it tougher for you to escape by blocking your 6's.  However the race is fairly close after my play.  Giving 15 hitting numbers shouldn't be better than just keeping the 4-prime in front of you and safe tying (relatively) the blot.  If you hit that blot you're just very favored to get a 5 in the next several rolls (about how long it will likely take me to be able to effectively attack you on my deuce).

16/11, 8/6.

[Zorba]

Catching up here... but why not 16/11 10/8? Blocking sixes with only 4 indirect shots?

[Roderick]

Ummmmmmmm........

Because I wanted to make a massive blunder?


I have no idea.  All I can say is that 95+% of the time I use my phone to make these plays.  I might have thought it was a simple play - so simple that I didn't bother expanding my screen to see the image magnified and somehow thought that my checkers were 3 away from the 8 and couldn't cover.  It sounds lame but it's such a massively clear play for really anyone that I just can't think of what else it could have been.

Sometimes I've also made these plays before going to sleep after playing for 12+ hours and being up for over 24 hours.

Perhaps it was some combination of the 2 things happening at once.  Dunno.

I'll chalk this one up to iphone use and haste, possibly with exhaustion sprinkled in.


I'm surprised no one else called me out on this.  It's so so very wrong.

[NIHILIST]

Roderick writes...

I'm surprised no one else called me out on this.  It's so so very wrong.

We were all probably laughing too hard.

Bob

[Zorba]

Okay, yeah I guess we all miss a play every now and then. Even on DailyGammon, where there's ample time to consider your cube/move, I still suffer from oversights like these occasionally. Sometimes it's just the mouse click reflex kicking in, it seems. Can be especially bad if you click to roll the dice (curiousity!) and realize right as you click, you should have doubled first.

[NIHILIST]

Roderick wrote ...

No 1, 6 or 8.  Can't hit.

Can't run - too dangerous.

2 choices - 16/11, 8/6 or 10/8, 10/5

Ideally I'd like to make it tougher for you to escape by blocking your 6's.  However the race is fairly close after my play.  Giving 15 hitting numbers shouldn't be better than just keeping the 4-prime in front of you and safe tying (relatively) the blot.  If you hit that blot you're just very favored to get a 5 in the next several rolls (about how long it will likely take me to be able to effectively attack you on my deuce).

16/11, 8/6.

Gosh, he reasoned it all out so carefully then blamed his error on his phone. Still, it was painful to see him in the sackcloth and ashes so I tried to lighten the mood a bit. If it's any consolation to him I'm sure Stevie Wonder and Jose Feliciano would have made the same play he did.

You were quite compassionate in your post and I'm sure Rod appreciates your sensitivity.

Bob

[Zorba]

Did you know, Stevie Wonder was an avid backgammon player?'He had this special backgammon board designed for himself, that made different clavinet tones for all the points and dice.

[stiefnu]

There's a blind backgammon player on the scene in England. It's fascinating to watch him. He uses touch and memory to figure out his moves and he plays very well. He doesn't use a specially textured board or chequers. Sometimes he uses a dice rolling app on his iphone. He shakes it, it makes a dice rolling sound, then displays and 'speaks' the rolls. Usually though there'll be a neutral observer on hand to call out the rolls in tournament play.

Steve

[NIHILIST]

At an office Christmas party back in the day, I was given a subscription to the Braille edition of PLAYBOY. Somehow it just wasn't the same experience.

Bob

[Zorba]

Stevie Wonder has different ways to reach a climax:


Stevie Wonder Live in Brazil '71 - Stevie Wonder tearing up his clavinet and electric piano on a live TV broadcast.

[NIHILIST]

He shoulda performed  at the first Monterey Pop Festival where Pete Townshend destroyed his guitar and Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire.

Bob

[stog]

were you getting down at Monterey Nihole?