Backgammon
Backgammon is a popular board game, and although not often seen in casinos, read more about playing online here.
Origins of the Game
The origins of Backgammon are slightly unclear as all around the world. As early as the sixth or seventh century, board games have been played in Iran, Egypt, Iraq, Rome, East Asia, Europe, England, Greece, Turkey and the United States.
Most Board Games
However, all the board games that were played had all their own variations. And it is only in the twentieth century that the dice along with the board became standard. In fact Prince Alexis Obolensky, who is known as “the Father of Modern Backgammon”, co-founded the International Backgammon Association with an official set of rules and regulations.
Board Layout
Backgammon is played by two people on a board with twenty-four narrow triangles called points. There are always two colours, so each set of points has 12 narrow triangles, 6 on one side of the board and 6 on the other side.
How is Backgammon Played
To start any game of Backgammon, each player gets a total of fifteen checkers, in the color matching the points that he/she will be playing and will be set out as follows: two checkers, of the same colour on point twenty-four, five on thirteen, three on eight and five on six with the opposing color putting two checkers on one, five on twelve, three on seventeen and five on nineteen.
Both players have their own pair of dice, which one will be thrown by each player to start the game. The player with the highest number will then automatically start the game by rolling both sets of dice.
As the Game Progresses
Once the dice have been rolled, the player will then move his checkers to an open point. Only a point that is not occupied by two or more opposing checkers is valid landing spot.
A player can either use each number represented by each dice to move separate checkers or game piece. If no points are available, the two numbers can be combined and one checkers is moved to an open point.
Landing on an Opponent
If during your roll, you find you can land a piece on an opponent occupying a single spot, you can do so. This will mean the opponents piece is then placed on the “bar”. The bar usually defines the center divider between the left and right section of the main board.
Getting Off the Bar
Once a player’s piece is on the bar, they must move it off the bar before any other moves. They must be able to make that move by a single or combination of both dice from their roll. They must move off the bar in the first 6 points at the beginning of their board.
In essence, the piece on the bar is essentially starting over. If they have started “bearing off” this piece will need to be moved to the end or last 6 points before they may continue to bear off.
A Players Motivation
The whole idea behind Backgammon is move all your checkers from one side of the board to the other before your opponent which would be termed as bearing off. The player who bears off first would then be deemed the winner of this particular game.
What is Bearing Off
In simple terms, bearing off is moving your pieces off the board. You can only start this process once all your pieces are in the last 6 spots on the board.
The player that is able to bear off all their pieces first wins the game.
While they currently do not offer backgammon at their casino, they do have a number of specialty and table and board games.