When to double in backgammon, and when to drop

How the cube works

At the start of your turn, before you roll, you may offer to double the stake. Your opponent either accepts, taking ownership of the cube so only they can double next, or declines and loses the current value immediately.

That ownership matters. Doubling hands your opponent a weapon, which is why you do not do it with a slim lead.

When to offer

Offer when you are clearly ahead but the position is still volatile. If you are winning about seventy percent of the time, a double is usually right: your opponent has to take, and you have doubled the value of a game you will mostly win.

Do not wait until you are certain. A position so good that your opponent will obviously drop earns you one point, when doubling two rolls earlier would have earned two.

When to accept

Take if you will win at least a quarter of the time. That sounds low, and it is the number most players get wrong, because dropping costs you a point for certain while taking a bad position costs two only sometimes.

Drop when you are clearly losing the race and have no contact left to create chances. A hopeless race is the one position worth giving up on.

Positions that change the answer

• A race you are ahead in by eight percent or more of the pip count: double, and expect a take.
• A race you are behind in by more than ten percent: drop.
• A holding game where you still have an anchor in their home board: take, even when you look worse. Anchors make chances.
• A blitz where your opponent has two checkers on the bar: double hard, before they enter.

Gammons change everything

If the position is likely to end in a gammon, the maths shifts sharply. Winning double means a double is worth more to you, and accepting a double in a gammonish position is worse than the plain numbers suggest.

A simple shortcut: if your opponent still has checkers on the bar or trapped behind your board, treat your own winning chances as better than they look and their taking point as higher than usual.