Why????
 

Why are good backgammon players good at poker as well?
I don't understand where the math is in backgammon? Isn't it just rolling the dice and moving your pieces?
Like I know Dan Harrington, among others, used to be professional backgammon player, but then why does that impact his poker skills?

Re: Why????
 

There's a lot of luck involved in backgammon, but not nearly as much as it would appear. I have to believe there is an "optimum" strategy to the game, and a powerful computer could be almost unbeatable in the long run.

Any game where there are a number of different decisions you can make on every "turn" has a strategy. Using your argument...chess is just sliding pieces all over the board until someone wins.

Re: Why????
 

[ QUOTE ]

Using your argument...chess is just sliding pieces all over the board until someone wins.

[/ QUOTE ]

not really. u have many many options in chess while in backgammon ur options are restricted by the roll of the dice.

Re: Why????
 

The number of possible moves in backgammon on an individual roll can be much higher than the number of possible moves in chess on a particular board. Obviously the reverse is also true. The average isn't *that* far off.

Re: Why????
 

whatever
i just want someone to answer my question

Re: Why????
 

What kind of answer are you looking for? His backgammon skills don't directly affect his poker skills at all. They're both games of strategy, that involve multiple levels of thinking. He excels in that genre. Is there some underlying question that I'm missing? There's more to backgammon than rolling two dice and moving pieces wherever you please.

Re: Why????
 

[ QUOTE ]
I don't understand where the math is in backgammon?

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

Re: Why????
 

Ask Gus Hansen.

Re: Why????
 

Gentlemen, if you have not played backgammon with the doubling cube, you would not understand. [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Re: Why????
 

[ QUOTE ]
I don't understand where the math is in backgammon? Isn't it just rolling the dice and moving your pieces?

[/ QUOTE ]
Backgammon involves skill and chance, just like poker. The main difference is that poker involves hidden information, but there is still a lot of depth to games with no hidden information.

Because of the doubling cube, modern backgammon players are used to judging objective probabilities in complicated situations. The idea of pot odds arises in match play, too. It is easier for decent backgammon players to ignore bad beats, to accept the idea that the right play may be punished by the dice. Players concentrate on making the right plays. Players believe there are right plays.

In poker, many people think the game is mostly psychology. Some don't believe there are correct plays, or that you can quantify the strength of a strategy. They ignore that there is a real game to learn. In addition to psychology, it is important to evaluate hands accurately, to interpret betting patterns, and to figure out the best way to make use of the possible actions.

Good habits of backgammon players carry over to poker.