How to Get More Luck on Your Backgammon Dice Rolls
Unlike checkers and chess, a rather huge part of backgammon is the random effect of the dice. You never really have any control over what numbers would come up, so some people count on luck at certain times.
Some relatively new backgammon players may blame a loss due to a lack of luck. It is true that backgammon involves luck as an element, but unlike other dice games (like craps for instance) luck is not monopolized in backgammon.
Other than learning some street magic or rigging the dice there is another way to get more luck out of your dice rolls in a game of backgammon. The truth is that a backgammon player who has a more flexible position gets more luck out of the dice than the one that doesn't. In backgammon, you get more luck out of flexibility. In fact, it might seem that you are making your own luck during a backgammon game.
What is flexibility in backgammon? Flexibility concerns itself with how your checkers are positioned or arranged on the backgammon board. It is true that we can never really tell what would turn up on our dice rolls. But by making a flexible position we can accommodate dice rolls that aren't really constructive to our game plan.
How do you know if you have a generally flexible position during a backgammon game? The first thing you'll notice about a position that is not flexible is the presence of about six or more checkers stacked on a single point. The idea is to keep only four checkers as a maximum number to every point you occupy on the backgammon board.
Remember that there are only 36 possible combinations when using two six-sided dice. By keeping a flexible position you have more chances to use more of those combinations to your advantage at any stage of a backgammon game.
Let's take a look at an example to illustrate how flexibility helps us make use of more of the 36 combinations that may turn up. Let's take for example an opening roll of three-two. Most new players would want to play safe and would look for the safest position (meaning the one that doesn't leave a blot).
The logical safe play would be to do a 13/8, not bad. But looking at this position, the bad side to it is that your flexibility will be limited leaving you with lesser tenable moves in your next roll.
Instead of playing a 13/8 a more flexible position will be gained by doing a 24/21 13/11 that develops both sides of the board and will accommodate awkward rolls that don't help your cause. By having flexibility throughout your game, you get more luck out of your dice rolls in backgammon.