Top Plays for the Five-Four Opening Roll
Every backgammon player should know how to play the opening plays properly. If you can't remember the most recommended plays by rote then at least you should know the principles behind the opening rolls by heart.
We'll discuss one of the opening rolls a player will encounter when playing a game of backgammon. We'll check out the two best plays ever recommended for the five-four opening roll.
The three top recommended plays for the five-four opening roll is a 24/20 and a 13/8, a 13/9 and a 13/8, and last is a 24/15. We'll only discuss the first two plays for a five-four since these appear to be the favorites.
A 13/9, 13/8 play would bring down a couple of builders from the mid-point while the 24/20, 13/8 splits the back checkers and brings a builder -- balanced play in backgammon.
We'll start with the 13/9, 13/8 play for the five-four opening roll. This is number two among the top three recommended plays for the five-four. The idea behind this play is place these checkers you brought down either to build home board points or to keep opponents at bay in case they would want to take your five-point, your bar point, or your four point.
The only problem with this play for this particular opening roll is that you might have advanced a little too many checkers to the front. If you check out your mid-point, you're going to see only one spare checker early in the opening roll.
Spare checkers on the 13-point are quite useful not only in the opening roll but also anytime in the game. Other players take caution about taking too many checkers off the 13-point too early in a backgammon game.
The number one recommended and favorite play for the five-four opening roll is to do a 24/20, 13/8. As stated earlier, this is a balanced play in backgammon. In this play, you expect to take your opponent's five point on your next turn after the opening roll.
Having an anchor on your opponent's five-point works wonders if you're able to pull it off on the opening roll or opening play to be exact. The only down side to this opening roll play is that you're really going to be up for a fight because your opponent will try to secure that point as well.
Another plus for the 24/20, 13/8 opening roll play is that it has a higher equity than that of the 13/9, 13/8 play for the five-four opening roll.
These are your two options for the five-four opening roll. Take time to experiment on these two favorite plays. It will definitely add to your current backgammon strategy.
