Backgammon: Your Game of Chance and Skill

There are lots of cards and board games played in casinos, with one objective, to win the pot money. Most of these games rely on the player's chance and skills to take the pot. Backgammon is a board game played for leisure but is frequently played as a gambling game. It is played by two persons on a specially marked board with chance and skills of players as factors affecting the outcome of the game.

A backgammon board is divided into two sections, called the inner table and the outer table, separated by a bar. Each side of the board is marked with 12 elongated triangles or points. Each player has 15 checker-like pieces, called men or stones. One player's men are white; while the other's black. The men are placed on the points.

The object of the game is to advance all of one's men into the inner table and then to bear them off or remove them from the board. The number of points that a player can advance with each turn is determined by throwing dice.

A player can have any number of men on any one point. With one exception, one cannot land on a point occupied by his opponent. The exception is when the opponent has only one man on the point. In such case, the single man or stone will be hit or blotted - temporarily removed from play and placed on the bar - if his opponent is able to land on that point.

The player must return this man to play before one can move his other men. The man or stone reenters the game on one of the six points in his opponent's inner table as determined by the dice. A player who is hit early in the game may gain an advantage - by being provided with more options for future moves - but one who is hit later in the game generally suffers a setback.

At the beginning of any turn, before the dice are thrown, a player can challenge his opponent to double the score of the game. His opponent must agree to the increase or lose by forfeit. The player who accepts a challenge gains the right to make the next challenge.

If, at the end of the game, the loser has not removed at least one man from the board the player is either gammoned (loses double) or backgammoned (loses triple). The player is backgammoned if one or more of his men are on his opponent's inner table or on the bar, and is gammoned if one does not.

Backgammon is one of the oldest board games dating back from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. It became popular in Europe after the 10th century and has found its way in every casino worldwide at the present time. The player must have the skill, the nerve to challenge and the luck to win each game played.

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