The first in a series of tips to improve at backgammon. View the game as a Taoist flow, a sequential exchange of Yang and Yin.

The Dance Sequence.

Black hits a white blot loose. White dances. Black turns the doubling cube.

A waltz: one, two, three, one, two, three, one …

A waltz: Loose hit. Bar room dance. Double.

That’s it? That’s all there is to it? When ?

Ah, when indeed?

Another Dance Sequence.

Black breaks into a footrace. White misses the shot at a black runner. Black cubes.

A waltz … one, two, three

Does Black have enough lead in the footrace? Who knows?

Another Sequence.

Black is closed out. White’s prime cracks. Black closes the deal.

A parlay of dice rolls that leads to winning play, game flow, and profits in backgammon.

When? Does Black have a specific advantage? For example: A dance sequence can detect an upcoming market loser where White will Pass the doubling cube. Photo radar to ding speeders, hurled past a hidden Take Point, detected and dinged with ticket and fine.

Always cash a money game with the Jacoby rule; maybe play on for the gammon without? But when? How much equity? How many gammons needed for White and for Black?

These imaginable dance sequences — aka market losers — occur whenever a vital point on the backgammon board threatens to be made. Such as:

Completing the full prime. Hitting a new blot-dancer. Sprinting the footrace to an easy bear off. Gaining the upper hand by an exchange of hits. Cracking a prime in a timing battle. Attacking without mercy. A blitz is like a singles bar: nothing is going to happen until the doubles and the dance. Plus many other memorable quotes of the “he said and then she said” variety.

To foreshadow each new Take Point is to discover a new market loser and then to exploit it — double for profit or cash the game. Every close Take, although not quite a reference TP, still has a lesson within. And each specific dance sequence develops its own rhythm and pace, its own fancy footwork.

Maybe capture your example as an XGID (or equivalent) text fragment in the comment box below.

More to come in Study Tip #2: