Re: Why????
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I don't understand where the math is in backgammon?
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I assume by "math" you mean skill. The skill in backgammon is in placing your pieces so that less of your opponents rolls do good for him and more of your future rolls do good for you. Sometimes, such moves are obvious. Very often they are not. The best players know how to do it with most of their moves.
Every time you don't play the best move, you are giving your opponent some chunk of the equity (portions of a point).
Backgammon, like poker, is a game of mixed skill and chance. In fact, the relative balance of skill and chance are very similar in these two games when comparing similar length events timewise. This may have something to do with why good BG players have what it takes to be good at poker and vice versa. They have the mental toughness to handle the swings but also the knowledge that if they keep playing nearly optimally that they are going to be long term winners.
As a side note, there are games that are way more skill than chance, for instance, Go or Chess. There are also games that are way more chance than skill.
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