Improve your Backgammon Game
By: GENE MARSHALL

Are you familiar with the rules on how to play backgammon but lack confidence to really improve your backgammon game? Online backgammon is as much about attitude as it is about skill. You may be an experienced player or a skillful novice, but if you don't take chances you're unlikely to reach your full potential. The following tips and pointers are designed with you in mind. Maybe you're new to the world of internet backgammon or you've just finished playing your first backgammon board game. Or perhaps you're a seasoned backgammon fan but a little out of practice? Regardless of your circumstances, you can substantially increase your success at the game by using some of the following strategies in your game.

One of the best pieces of advice any backgammon professional can give you is to study your opponent's game plan. Try and learn as much information as you can on his strengths and weaknesses. Keeping note of how he performs can help you to recognize his habits. Does he have an aggressive or defensive backgammon strategy? Is he confident to bet large sums of money on his game? How does he use the backgammon board to his advantage and which common escape routes does he use to deflect your game plan? The answers to these questions can help you pre-empt your opponent's next move and will reduce his chances of winning.

Now we'll take a look at some specific backgammon strategies to help you improve your game. If you want to prevent your opponent from transporting his checkers safely to his home board, you can adopt the “Priming” strategy. To do this, you erect a wall of checkers covering at least six points on the board. If you want to be extra aggressive, try blocking your home board as soon as you can which will prevent your opponent from reintroducing checkers to the board.

If your opponent is in a more favorable position than you are, you may be able to distract him from his game plan by applying the “Backgame” and “Holding” strategies. The first relates to the construction of two or more anchors in your opponent's home board. The latter involves attempting to hit your opponent's checkers as he brings them toward his home board. This strategy can often force a confident player into defensive mode and give you valuable time to catch up to him.

Lastly, if it appears that you are in the strongest position to win the backgammon game, why not try the “Running” strategy? This is simply moving your checkers as fast as you can around the board while keeping a wary eye out for your opponent's traps. A useful tip if you are “Running” is to keep your checkers in pairs to avoid hits.

If you follow this advice, you can increase the enjoyment you get when you play backgammon, as well as increase your success at backgammon gambling.

Extra commentaries that were written by Gene Marshall on the subject of backgammon can be obtained online. The author writes editorials about free backgammon. Gene Marshall is a backgammon professional who writes for several renowned internet backgammon sites.

Enjoying Caribbean Stud Poker - Part 4 of 4

It's time to close out our series on Caribbean Stud Poker. We've looked at layout issues, hand play, the basics of the game and payouts. In this final installment, I'll go over hand rankings and briefly touch on strategy. It's not wise to play the game without knowing how it works, so let's go over hand rankings. If you've played poker of any kind, you probably know this already. It's fairly simple. Here is the Caribbean Stud Poker hand-ranking list. I'm starting with the lowest han. . .

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