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 After the way poker
exploded onto the Internet in 2003-2004 a natural thing to wonder is "what will be the next poker? "What other skill gambling
game could replicate the widespread interest poker holds? Online backgammon clearly has many dissimilarities to online poker, the key
one being backgammon is not a multi-player game, but at the same time, many of the skills and challenges that make poker popular carry
over to backgammon. Not surprisingly, online backgammon games for money are readily available.
Some strategically great poker players are also great backgammon players. Like poker, backgammon can be played a straightforward,
simplistic way: roll the dice, move the checkers. But also like poker, there are layers of skill that can be peeled back to reveal a
much deeper, more complex game.
The objective of backgammon is to move fifteen checkers into your home section of the backgammon board, then remove them from the
board before your opponent achieves that same goal. Since both you and your opponent have the same goal (get all their checkers off
the board to win the game), and you both want to protect your pieces so they don't get bumped back to the beginning while also
attacking your opponents pieces to send them back to the start, what you have is the same balancing act that you have in poker -- risk
versus reward, caution versus aggression. And, like poker, you also have random luck involved as the extent of the moves you or your
opponent can make are determined by the rolling of separate dice. No matter how skillful an opponent, any player with a basic grasp of
the game could beat that skillful player simply from the random luck of the skilled player making a series of unlucky rolls of the dice.
But like poker, while luck can influence results, over the long run skillfully analyzing the board and your opponent's ability and
game strategy will have a far greater impact than dumb luck.
Besides the one-on-one nature, backgammon differs from poker in that all game information is in plain view, complete. The only things
hidden are the thoughts of the players. In poker, player's have hidden information: their own cards. While this might appear to be a
skill drawback about the game to a poker player, another difference is that backgammon games are far longer than poker hands. In any
backgammon game you make a relatively huge number of decisions. All the results of your decisions can be seen by your opponent, but
the sheer volume of decisions coupled with the much greater number of random incidents (you roll the dice far more than a random flop
or turn card is placed on a poker table) leads to multi-level strategy, and even multiple back up strategies. In poker, if we miss our
flush draw, we have to go to a back up strategy: basically bluff, check-raise bluff, or just give up. In backgammon your entire
strategy can change based on whether you get a favorable roll or an unfavorable one. You have to be set up, both on your board and in
your mind, for either occurrence.
While in one-on-one poker most players play most of the hands, backgammon is constant action. You are always rolling, and moving, and
adapting to changing circumstances. Action junkies who need four online poker game screens open to keep their attention should enjoy
online backgammon games.
Check out Party Backgammon
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