Backgammon - Game at the best of 2 or 3.

[Mod_XXII]

I was wondering if it's possible to have the possibility of longer game because one game is often driven by the rolls of the dice.
More rounds like Jaipour would be one step forward in my opinion. The doubling cube of course would make the experience a lot better as well.

[Liallan]

There's been (lots of) requests for the doubling cube.

But is doing best of 3 normal for Backgammon? I know the game but have never played more than friendly games and don't know all the intricacies of it.

[Mod_XXII]

Nope. In real tournent games are played at the best of 7/13/15 etc etc to mitigate the luck and always using the doubling dice.
But at the best of 3 here on BGA would be acceptable (like jaipour).

[Liallan]

Right now I'm feeling like this is a great idea.

My opponent got double 6's. Next turn double 4's. Out of that he was able to put me on the bar 3 times and all I was accomplishing was getting back off it (in vulnerable positions). So he got WAY ahead on just those two turns. Next turn OK, but then next turn he got double 6's again! And with that he'll be able to get nearly everything home, giving me little chance to hit him. So unless I get some good doubles coming up, this game's a goner.

Unfortunately his ELO is way below mine. Otherwise I probably wouldn't care, because even though it's only one game, I know somewhere is a game where the opposite will happen. I figure luck comes out in the wash, even if it's not with the same player. At the same time, this hasn't been much fun.

[sprockitz]

If you want skill to dominate then you need to play with the doubling cube and games to at least 5. It would probably be good to make it a setting what you want to play to.

Until that happens the only way for anyone to get a high Elo is to restrict table access to your level and above. This is already true for a bunch of luck based games like Can't Stop, and nothing can really be done about it. However, for games that could become mostly skill versus mostly luck (like backgammon by adding the cube and playing to a higher score) it makes a ton of sense to do.