Online Backgammon

£20 FREE

Plenty of tournaments and skill games at Will Hill. Backgammon & dominoes.

 

Play 65

The largest international network with a 40% match.

 

Ladbrokes Backgammon

Ladbrokes has a really good online tutorial.

 

Party Gammon

From the Party Poker people. 50% match on your 1st deposit.

 

Backgammon is a 2 player board game played with chequers and dice. It is one of the oldest games around and has been played since the days of the Mesopotamian Empire over 4,000 years ago.

A  backgammon board has 24 triangles, with black and cream coloured points. Theses points are set out in four groups of 6.

Each player has an inner board and an outer board, with a bar running down the middle shared by both players. Backgammon is basically a race between both players in which you´ll need your wits, your strategic head and a certain amount of luck to win. You start off with 15 pieces or men, and the 1st player to get all of their chequers off of the board ("which is called bearing off") wins the game.

Backgammon is played one on one, but you can play it in individual games against opponents, or as a match (a number of games), or you can participate in real money tournaments in which players are eliminated round by round, until eventuallt one player remains who takes the jackpot.

Backgammon has exploded in popularity on the Internet, thanks to the ease in which you can find other enthusiasts through online backgammon sites, and the growing pull of biggere and bigger real money prizes in backgammon tournaments. Here we list our pick of the sites online and discuss some of the finer points behind the game.

Advanced Rules

The great thing about playing backgammon online, is that you can learn the game (it´s a rich one) and progress form being a beginner or newbie toan intermediate player and then on to being an expert. There are some advanced rules that may come into play, if you start to reach these skill levels, such as.....

Beavers
Yes really! Youcan have a Beaver will playing backgammon!. A beaver is when a player, after being doubled, can straight away re-double the stake but retain possession of the cube. Only for real money games.

Raccoons
Doubling the beaver immediately.

The Crawford rule
This Rule states that the doubling cube cannot be used in the next game if a player is one point away from winning a match. Doubling is available as per usual after this 'Crawford game'.

The Jacoby rule
In a single game, the Jacoby rule means gammons and backgammons will only count as one point if the doubling cube has not been used at least once. Only for real money games obviously.

Tournaments, Matches and Games
Single Games
A single game is played for a pre-setstake using the doubling cube. After each game, any of the players can decide to finish the play, or play another game for the same bet. Automatic doubles, beavers, raccoons, or the Jacoby Rule can apply to single games.

Matches
A match is won by the 1st player to accumulate a pre-set number of points. This total can be reached in one or more games, depending on the value of the cube during play. Points are as follows: one for a single game, 2 for a gammon, and 3 for a backgammon. The doubling cube is used, so the winner bags the value of the game x the final value of the doubling cube.

Matches are always played using the Crawford rule. Automatic doubles, beavers, raccoons, and the Jacoby rule are not used in match play.

Backgammon Tournaments or Tourneys
Tournaments are usually made up of matches, where pairs play a number of games to find a winner, who then move on to the next round, a bit like a tennis championship. All players are randomly matched. There are generally 2 types of tournaments:

Regular tournaments
These are pre-set, with a fixed start time, which is advertisied. If the total number of players is not 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, etc., byes can be handed out randomly to players to skip the first round.

Sit & Go tournaments
These are available at any time of the day, and just need the required number of players to sign up in order to kick off.