How To Play Backgammon Online – www.playdouble.com


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FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction to Backgammon FAQ: What is Backgammon?; How is Backgammon played?; What is the object of the game?; What are pips?; What does "doublets" mean?; What are "blots" ?; What is a "closed board" ?; What is "bare off" ?; Why do people "resign" ?; What is "Crawford Rule" ?; My opponent knocked me off the board, but he says I can't re-enter. Why is that?
PlayDouble Backgammon FAQ: How Do I log into the Playdouble site?; I got a message wrong username or password, what should I do?; Can I chat with my opponent?; What different ways can I play?; How do ratings work?; How does "Auto Bear Off" work, and how accurate are the decisions it makes?; How do I change my Avatar?; How do I create a Single Game?; How do I create a Match Game?; How do I know I am not playing a robot on your site?; How do I move my checkers and how do I move the lower dice value first?; Why do the dice roll automatically, although I have unticked the Auto-Roll function?; How come my opponent managed to resign automatically for a single point, while he was about to lose by gammon?; The dice don't seem fair.; Is it possible for any player to hack the game and control the dice or moves?; Will the outcome of the dice be different if I use "auto roll" from the options menu?; What happens if I get disconnected from my game?; I have experienced a malfunction when playing at Playdouble. How should I address the technical staff in regards to this matter?; How do you control players that cheat, curse and/or cause general dismay to others?
Casher FAQ: How do I make a deposit to my account?; How long does it take to process my deposit?; How do I withdraw my winnings?; How can I view my financial transaction?

Introduction to Backgammon and Rules

What is Backgammon?

Backgammon is a game played by two players, each with fifteen checkers, on a board consisting of 24 narrow triangles called point. The players move their checkers around the board according to rolls of the dice and the first player to get all their checkers off is the winner. The fun comes from hitting and blocking your opponent's checkers to impede their progress.

Backgammon is a game of odds and calculation, but it's also a game of patterns and vision. Because it is played with dice, many people think of backgammon as a gambling game. Backgammon is often played for money, but it is certainly not a game of luck. There is a surprising amount of skill in the game.

Backgammon is an easy game to learn. It’s fast-action and fun to play either face-to-face on a real board or over the Internet. You will spend many enjoyable years learning and improving at this game.

How is Backgammon played?

The game starts by each player throwing a single die, highest goes first. Checkers are moved around the board in a U-shape to your home board. The numbers on each die represents the number of moves you can make, rolling a double allows to you to make double the amount of moves. You must always move in a forward direction and checkers may only be moved to an open point.

When on the bar you must enter your checker(s) back to the board before making any moves (this includes bearing off). If there are no open points, you forfeit your turn. When all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board you commence bearing off. You bear off your checkers by rolling a number that corresponds to the point that the checker is sitting on. Bearing off is only permitted when you have all of your checkers in your home board. The first player to bear off all fifteen checkers wins the game.

What is the object of the game?

The object of Backgammon is for each player to bring all his men into his home board, and then to bear them off the board. The first player to get all his men off the board is the winner.

What are pips?

During a game, a countdown is maintained of both players' total number of pips needed to travel by all their checkers in order to reach the home table. At the start, both players need to travel an identical 167 pips to win. As players move their checkers, these numbers are counted down, until the winner finally has a pip count of zero.

What does "doublets" mean?

If the same number appears on both dice for example, 2-2 or 3-3 (known as doublets), the caster is entitled to four moves instead of two. Thus, if he rolls 3-3, he can move up to four men, but each move must consist of three spaces.

What are "blots" ?

A single man on a point is called a blot. If you move a man onto an opponent's blot, or touch down on it in the process of moving the combined total of your cast, the blot is hit, removed from the board and placed on the bar.

A man that has been hit must re-enter in the opposing home table. A player may not make any move until such time as he has brought the man on the bar back into play. Re-entry is made on a point equivalent to the number of one of the dice cast, providing that point is not owned by the opponent.

What is a "closed board" ?

A Player who has made all six points in his home board is said to have a closed board. If the opponent has any men on the bar, he will not be able to re-enter it since there is no vacant point in his adversary’s home board. Therefore, he forfeits his rolls, and continues to do so until such time as the player has to open up a point in his home board, thus providing a point of reentry. It should be noted, the he doesn't loses his turn, as he still retains the ability to double his opponent before any of his opponents rolls, assuming the cube is centered or on his side.

What is "bare off" ?

When you have moved all of your checkers into your home table, you may begin "bearing off", or moving them off the board. To bear off a checker, click on it. A page will load showing an outline around its point. Then click on the trough in the lower right corner of the board.

If possible, you must bear off according to the exact numbers rolled on the dice. However, if you are in the process of bearing off, you are not being blocked by your opponent, and no checkers are available to move by the exact numbers on the dice, you can bear off the checkers farthest from the end of the board.

Why do people "resign" ?

In a match, if your situation is hopeless and your opponent is definitely going to win, you can choose to resign that game without resigning the match. You and your opponent will then continue with the next game.

What is "Crawford Rule" ?

Crawford rule means that in a series of matches (a.k.a. match play), if one player is one point below the goal, on the next game the doubling cube is unavailable only for that game.

Example: suppose, two players play a match up to 7. If the score is 6-2, then for the next game the doubling cube will not be available.

However, if the game is won by the player, who is behind, the score would be 6-3 and on the next game the doubling cube would be available.

My opponent knocked me off the board, but he says I can't re-enter. Why is that?

A player, who has at least 2 pieces on all six points of his home board, is said to have a "closed board". That means if you have a man on the bar, you can't even roll the dice because you have nowhere to land. Since bringing a man back into the game is a priority, you basically have nothing to do but sit back and watch your opponent play until his home table opens up.

Skilled players, who succeed in maneuvering their opponent into this kind of situation, can literally finish off a game with a "gammon" or "backgammon" wins.

PlayDouble Backgammon

How Do I log into the Playdouble site?

Once you are a member of Playdouble, you just enter your username and password by using the login button.

I got a message wrong username or password, what should I do?

This means either your username or password could have been entered incorrectly. Please note your password is case-sensitive; i.e. there is an upper-case /lower-case distinction between the letters therein, therefore you must enter it exactly the way it was first entered.

Can I chat with my opponent?

You can use the chat entry window and chat back and forth with your opponent or anyone watching your match.

What different ways can I play?

You can play single player and multiplayer games. Single player games allow you to play in your own time. Each player’s score or time will then be recorded and weighed against other player’s scores and the winners will be determined accordingly.

Multiplayer games are generally one on one play where you play against another player in real time until the game is finished and a winner is chosen.

How do ratings work?

Ratings are adjusted after every game, based on the ratings of your opponent. Your ratings will go up depending on how good the person you beat was--the better they are, the more it'll go up. If you lose, your rating will go down, also dependent upon how well matched the game was.

How does "Auto Bear Off" work, and how accurate are the decisions it makes?

There is a feature to automatically bear off your checkers once they have reached your home board. Should you choose to use this feature, please bear in mind that this feature is not designed to make strategic decisions for you and should therefore be used with caution if your checkers are not completely separated from those of your opponent? The game is optimized to remove the checkers from the board in the fastest way possible, however this will not take care to protect your positions or avoid leaving new blots. If you wish to use a different strategy when bearing off, you should make decisions and moves for yourself.

How do I change my Avatar?

In the lobby you will see a list of eight buttons located beneath your account balance, appearing on the left hand side of the lobby. Click on the 'Change Avatar' button. A popup menu will appear with a selection of avatars. When you have selected an avatar, finish by clicking on the 'Save' button.

How do I create a Single Game?

First you must decide whether you wish to play for cash or for free. To do this you need to click on either tab towards the top of the lobby. Underneath the "Play for Cash" tab are four more tabs: "Single Games", "Match Games", "Tournament (sit'n go)", and "Tournament (Scheduled)". Click on the "Single Games" tab. In the middle, towards the bottom of the lobby, you must click on the red Create New Game button. The game options popup will appear, and a single game will automatically be selected.

How do I create a Match Game?

First you must decide on playing for fun or for cash. To do this you must click on the appropriate tab towards the top of the lobby. Click on the "Match Games" tab. In the middle, towards the bottom of the lobby, you then need to click on the red "Create New Game" button. The game options popup will appear, and you will have to select the number of matches you want to play. The default match number is 2, and can be set as high as nine.

How do I know I am not playing a robot on your site?

Please note that you can chat with your opponents and viewers while playing. You can also set up a match against a friend: we never force you to play against anyone. In any case, the site is always impartial as a rake is always collected from each game.

How do I move my checkers and how do I move the lower dice value first?

To move your checkers either drag & drop the checker in place or click on the checker. Left clicking a checker attempts to play the high dice roll first and plays the low dice roll only if the high dice roll was already made or if playing the low dice roll results in an illegal move. Alternatively, right clicking a checker attempts to play the low dice roll first.

Why do the dice roll automatically, although I have unticked the Auto-Roll function?

When roll is the only possible option, as when the doubling cube is not available, then the dice are automatically rolled for you.

The Auto-Roll function, if marked as active, rolls the dice even if the doubling cube is available.

How come my opponent managed to resign automatically for a single point, while he was about to lose by gammon?

In single games, when the stake limit is equal to the original stake (or current doubling state), the game will end automatically without asking your opponent's permission.

Example: suppose, the game has a stake of $2 per point with a limit of $2. In this case, resignations will be automatically approved. If the limit was set at either $3 or $4, and the game was doubled, resignations would also be immediately approved.

In a series (a.k.a. match play), it will be possible only when the resigning player has no more points to lose. Example: suppose, you are leading 4-2 in a series up to 5. If your opponent then resigns, his or her resignation is automatically approved.

The dice don't seem fair.

No computer random number generator is perfect.

The dice do not favor anyone on our site. No player gets better rolls than any other player. It is impossible for a player to manipulate the dice.

Die rolls are completely independent of the position of pieces on the backgammon board, or even which game it's rolling for. The random number generator does not “know” if you are on the bar, for instance, and it can not adjust the dice to fit your situation. Remember, the rolls are determined by the millisecond that the server receives your request, regardless of which game it's rolling for.
People often remember bad rolls and forget the lucky rolls. This can lead to the impression that the dice are rigged “against” them, and this is not true.
You will see strange events on our site, like a streak of doubles, or just the right roll that allows your opponent to escape from the bar. These events do not prove that our random number generator is faulty. The same things happen with real dice.

Is it possible for any player to hack the game and control the dice or moves?

Will the outcome of the dice be different if I use "auto roll" from the options menu?

Manually rolling and using the auto roll feature produce the same random results.

What happens if I get disconnected from my game?

The Internet sometimes experiences heavy traffic and game disconnections may occur. In this case, the game state will be saved for Five minutes.

To reconnect to your game, simply log back onto the site and re-enter the same lobby or single-player tournament that you were disconnected from. If a player doesn't log back into the game within the five minutes, then his or her opponent will be declared the winner by default.

I have experienced a malfunction when playing at Playdouble. How should I address the technical staff in regards to this matter?

This might happen when your computer system clashes with our software. Should you experience a technical problem of any kind, please contact our customer support team at support@playdouble.com right away and provide them with a short description of the problem, along with answers to the following questions:

What computer system do you use (CPU, memory etc.)?
Are you using a desktop or a laptop computer?
Which operating system do you use (Windows 98, NT, 2000, XP etc.)?
What kind of an internet connection do you have (modem, cable etc.)?
Who is your ISP (Internet service provider)?
Do you run our software at home or work?
Is your computer behind a firewall or any anti-virus program?
Is your internet connection wired or wireless?
Which web browser do you use (such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox etc.) and which version is it?
Is your computer behind a proxy server?
Is there a P2P program (such as eMule, KaZaA etc.) running in the background?
Is there an instant messenger (such as MSN/Windows Live, Yahoo!, Skype etc.) running in the background as well?

How do you control players that cheat, curse and/or cause general dismay to others?

Playdouble does everything in its power to prevent any kind of abusive behavior. Most of the time, we do locate and punish players, who are using foul tactics in order to gain unlawful advantage or for any other purpose.

However, every day, an increasing number of new players is joining the site, and along with them, some "rotten apples" as well. Therefore, our work to prevent and eradicate this behavior is an ongoing, 24/7/365 struggle (you should note that most of this behavior is to be found on our "fun" mode, for obvious reasons).

Casher FAQ

How do I make a deposit to my account?

In Order to make a deposit you must first open a real account. After you have registered for a real-money account you can make a deposit into your backgammon account.

Select "Cashier" from the lower-left corner of the lobby followed by pressing the "buy chips" button.
Select you desired deposit method.

How long does it take to process my deposit?

(Paypal takes a few minutes, presently we have to check it on the backend and manually credit to the account. When it has been integrated in the cashier it would be instant).

How do I withdraw my winnings?

To withdraw your winnings you Select "Cashier" from the lower-left corner of the lobby followed by pressing the "cash out" button. You then select the desired amount you wish to withdraw.

How can I view my financial transaction?

In the Cashier’s section, there is a ‘Transaction History' button which gives you a history of your financial actions, such as withdraws and deposit requests.