Cash game. Jacoby rule.

White opens with 25s, a small split to the 22pt and an extra spare on the 8pt from the midpoint stack. Seven pips is the exact average of the inaugural roll; from now on, the average roll will be eight pips and a bit. No hint that this game will become a mutual running game.

Black replies with 65s, lovers leap which safely lands a black runner onto his midpoint.

White responds with 66s, boxcars that move freight to block at the white barpoint and to plant a new 10pt builder from the advanced split runner.

Black rolls 64s which cannot hit anywhere. Black continues the mutual running theme by advancing his last runner to blot in White’s outfield. Black is still a roll behind in the race but, if missed, can adopt a comfortable racing plan anyway.

The next white roll is 26s, and hits the black blot. But which bar point should White occupy? An 18pt runner is unattractive since White has no covers to make a barpoint anchor. With a black checker dancing on the bar, White floods the attacking zone with fourteen checkers by clearing her midpoint and adding an attacking spare to her 7pt.

Black rolls 53s from the bar and must choose where to enter. Terrified and under the gun on the 20pt is simply asking for trouble. Black should enter on the 22pt. Either way, White is poised to launch a blitz and Black must make a tempo hit of the white acepoint blot. The loose hit is an attempt to gain the initiative, hoping to stall the white blitz until a later roll. Black enters B/22 then hits loose with 6/1*

And now White offers a first cube with a dancer on the bar.

Is it even a double?

Is this a beaver? Some players scour their brains for reasons to beaver a reckless cube, always alert and on lookout for a big score. But not here.

White has about a three roll racing lead. White could add to this lead by hitting with an ace from the bar. Most doubles tossed on the dice begin the blitz immediately. After the previous exchange of hits — black runner sent back versus the tempo hit by a loose desperado — White’s thoughts turn to a cube from the bar. Can White double this quirky position?

White notices Black’s devotion to the run, especially when behind in the race, which is an unavoidable strategic flaw. Now down in the race, Black plans to pivot his game plan into a holding game after a loose hit on the acepoint. Black’s new strategy is to plant a solid anchor directly on the rolling edge of a white horde of builders.

Only promises. The position has only promises. There are few tangible assets yet on the board — plenty of builders waiting to blossom, an elusive race, a clarity of opportunity embedded in mirror strategies.

Black has an easy take.

But hardly a double?

Market losers. The appeals court is always the number of market losers. Here, no major voting block of market losers, just individual sequences of “she said – he said” exchanges where White finds an infuriating Black drop if White does not cube now. Most exchanges starting with White’s toss of doubles (11s, 22s, 33s, 44s, 55s) qualify since White can then begin the blitz. Several anemic replies by Black to White running (45s, 16s, 56s, 46s, 36s) and escaping qualify. Even White building in the outfield can occasionally qualify as a market loser, as White does not always elect to hit with an entry ace. Plus a few twin hits that dangerously launch a blitz. Cobbled together, the bits and bolts of market losing sequences tally for White into a first cube, by a small but clear margin (and rollouts confirm this). Humans may guess this tally but rarely compute it. The rollouts suggest about one-in-four exchanges are market losers for White.

Scotty’s Dictum: No first cubes until a new home board point.

Scotty

Backgammon in cash games with the Jacoby rule rarely produces a position of an early first cube before improving a home board: sometimes called Scotty’s Dictum, it is a guideline but not a rule. This position is an exception.

White doubles and Black takes.