You don’t need to count pips, except for very special occasions. A seasoned estimate in dice rolls is more than adequate. Pip counts typically throw the mind into a pool of bad karma. Of note, nobody can do it. Don’t believe what you are told. Nobody can. Beyond that, nobody should do it. Counting pips is yet another social nuisance that both fatigues an addled brain and inflames a holier than thou attitude. Meanwhile, the big picture along with an impermanent game plan both blurt out “Look at me! I am an attractive bet.” But once the pips are counted and the abacus put away, the brain is too weary and needs to relax. Thus, the big picture dies of neglect.

Counting pips does far more of its damage by distraction, a magician’s patter, than by addling the brain. The important questions get lost: What matters in this position? How can this game be won now? And what key objectives secure that win? Winning questions.

Pip leads rarely factor into the urgent counting questions. Inquiries like: How many blots are scattered about? How many home board points made? Any dancing checkers on the bar? Retired checkers in the bathtub during the bearoff? How many rolls is that? Number of shots to hit? Number to dance? Root numbers to crack and crumble? Length of prime? Gaps in a blockade? Spares in the outfield? Builders for a prime? These tallies are the lingua franca — the nouns and verbs — that write your winning game plan. Not the pips. They are the bureaucracy. Counting pips will sap your clarity and distract your will.

So, don’t count pips. Unless … you need to decide whether to run, now or soon enough. When the game is about to zip-line into a pure race, then pip counts matter. Laziness however pooh-poohs that and says the difference in pips should be good enough.

Three running distances bestow a rare special occasion on a pip counter. In a panic, you are itching to double the stakes based on the likelihood or fact of a pure race — all contact broken. In a pastoral mood, you can usher the herd of checkers into an endgame — but should you? Last, filled with a pecuniary zeal, you weigh a fraught decision on breaking your anchor — to pay now or pay later? At each distance are the premium events, such as pure race for win or for gammon? Offering a cube or passing a cube? Hauling freight.

Then sharpen your bearoff technique.