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Blunders galore...

bg1.jpg
Here I roll the perfect roll and was playing for the match score 3-4 i was trailing. Cube is at 4. Perfect roll to win the match. I move both checkers out like I was supposed to them suddenly realized I can make a home point with 66 so what do I do.. Yep.. i undid the move and hit with one checker and made the home point. Gnubg rated it as a -16.20% blunder which is about as big a blunder one can make. It reduced my chances from 77 down to 61%, And yes, i did get punished for the mistake and lost the match

I would normally not make such a mistake but I was playing carelessly this day and I had something of a flaw in the way I percieved the position. I somehow mistakenly imagined that the second play would result in both back checkers coming out to the bar point while making the home board point. Ofcourse one checker is still buried behind that huge prime in the bad play by the time i hit and made the home point i forgot about the back checker still left behind, and finished the move. A double roll can lure us into erros because we dont take time to consider all the increased possible moves.

This is where you will notice the diff between top players and amateurs. The top players always pause and think before they make a play on a double roll.
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Re: Blunders galore...

bg.jpg
(click the image to see larger picture)

Not much to say here other than huh? did I really do that? What was I thinking?

-10% blunder almost as bad as ourtight resigning. ;)
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Re: Blunders galore...

bg2.jpg
(click the image to see a full size view)

A few rolls later in the same game above this 5-2 roll arrived and I am happy to say that I did get it right, the bot missed and I went on to win the match with a gammon. :D This is one of those plays where you have to be on the receiving end of the stick to know such a play even exists. But once it has been used against you successfully, you will be eager to try it out ourself once you get into a similar position.

It should be pointed out that the main reason this kamikazi play is correct is because the gammon wins are doubled. Otherwise, if you dont need to win a gammon, you are better off with the safe play as the analysis shows it wins more games. But since a gammon here wins the match outright, it is worth the chance.
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Re: Blunders galore...

bg.jpg
(click image to see full size picture)

Here is another terrible blunder that cost me the match. I battled to post crawford 6-6 in a 7 pt match and well on the way to victory when this 33 roll shows up and I could not see the correct play which was to take one checker all the way to the back. I could only see either move 2 to the bar point leaving a blot back or move the blot to the bar and move 2 checkers down. The overall match rated my game as advanced so I am not too disappointed but still was a lousy blunder which I hope never to repeat in the future.
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Re: Blunders galore...

Here is a position that could be a massive blunder if you aren't paying attention. I almost made the wrong play not realizing how terrible a move it would have been. Only upon the analysis did I see how close I came to making a colossal mistake but in this case I did make the right play, and got lucky and went on to win the match, even after getting hit on that bar point blot. One major point to understand about this situation is the match score. You don't want to get gammoned here with the cube on 2. Also notice how aggressively the bot doubled right after his first move.

(click the picture to see a full size image)
blumder.jpg
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triple bunder ~-300

Here is a triple blunder with a move that I simply did not see. Playing Red, it was a doubles roll 2-2. I was in a vulnerable position with several blots laying about with weak home board blot on 5 pt. When I rolled the 22 my first thought was to cover my blot on the 5 pt and once I saw that was possible I simply did not consider any other move and I got dinged with a -286 blunder. Doubles are tricky as there are so many ways to play them. If you don't pause and look closely you may miss the best play.

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1.jpg
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Re: Blunders galore...

Here is a blunder I have made several times. Maybe I will learn not to repeat it one of these days.
blunder.jpg
1. Cubeful 3-ply 16/8 13/9 7/3 Eq.: +0.290
0.675 0.036 0.002 - 0.325 0.076 0.002
3-ply cubeful
2. Cubeful 3-ply 16/8 13/9(2) Eq.: +0.284 ( -0.006)
0.677 0.035 0.002 - 0.323 0.183 0.003
3-ply cubeful
3. Cubeful 3-ply 16/8 6/2*(2) Eq.: +0.127 ( -0.163)
0.603 0.035 0.001 - 0.397 0.098 0.002
3-ply cubeful
================================================================

so basically we don't need to be breaking our prime as it makes it very easy for opponent to escape.
We can give em one chance to roll a 5 if not they will be primed in. With my stupid play putting on the bar accomplish nothing breaks my prime and lost any chance to contain that back checker. its a coin flip between the first 2 moves.
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Orloff
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Re: Blunders galore...

My blunder's 18% lol. I feel like such a newb.

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Re: Blunders galore...

Orloff wrote:My blunder's 18% lol. I feel like such a newb.
as a beginner you will make many blunders.
If you analyze your games and become aware of your mistakes, you will improve much faster
Backgammon is tricky. It lulls you into believing that you lost because of bad luck.
Sometimes that is the case but often we lose because we kill our winning chances by making bad moves.

It is generally accepted that the eq option (vs MWC) is better.
gnubg has a button to toggle it.
1.png
1.png (14.83 KiB) Viewed 27027 times
You can read up on it by google (eq vs mwc)
.100 or higher is considered a blunder.
If you get too many, you can bump it up to 120 or higher and lower it as you improve.
.200 is a double blunder and .300 is triple ie huge mistake.
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TracyPorter

Re: Blunders galore...

greedyG wrote:
Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:22 am
bg2.jpg
(click the image to see a full size view)

A few rolls later in the same game above this 5-2 roll arrived and I am happy to say that I did get it right, the bot missed and I went on to win the match with a gammon. :D This is one of those plays where you have to be on the receiving end of the stick to know such a play even exists. But once it has been used against you successfully, you will be eager to try it out ourself once you get into a similar position.

It should be pointed out that the main reason this kamikazi play is correct is because the gammon wins are doubled. Otherwise, if you dont need to win a gammon, you are better off with the safe play as the analysis shows it wins more games. But since a gammon here wins the match outright, it is worth the chance.
Hey, I also love this game and I have won a lot of matches here. I am very excited about this game that I will be downloading the new version of it. Play it well. Thank you

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Re: Blunders galore...

.
.
Here is a triple blunder I made because I wasn't paying attention to my opponent position I was only focused on my own checkers.

Image
3pt match score 0-0 pip count 128-141 I am 13 pips behind. Playing red.

I rolled a 33 and moved the checker off the bar and made my 3 pt.
My thinking was "hey, I got a nice 4 pt prime going with my 3 pt made, looks nice and it might help trap that back checker.
WRONG :roll:
If i had took a moment to consider my opponent position, I would have noticed I was about to get slammed with just about any roll.
Giving my opponent a free chance to improve was a triple blunder. I should absolutely have hit on the ace pt and that would have
put a pause on my opponent if they did happen to stay on the bar, I could then proceed to pick off those 3 blots and escape. Giving
opponent a free roll was far too passive when I was about to be in dire straits in a couple of rolls.

1. Cubeful 2-ply bar/22 24/21 4/1*(2) Eq.: +0.671
0.615 0.307 0.017 - 0.385 0.099 0.005
2-ply cubeful prune [world class]
2. Cubeful 2-ply bar/22 8/5 4/1*(2) Eq.: +0.663 ( -0.008)
0.608 0.326 0.019 - 0.392 0.098 0.006
2-ply cubeful prune [world class]
3. Cubeful 2-ply bar/22 13/10 4/1*(2) Eq.: +0.537 ( -0.134)
0.584 0.303 0.017 - 0.416 0.108 0.009
2-ply cubeful prune [world class]
4. Cubeful 2-ply bar/22 8/5 6/3(2) Eq.: +0.360 ( -0.311)
0.572 0.209 0.010 - 0.428 0.119 0.006
2-ply cubeful prune [world class]
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