You see it time and time again. The opponent holds the midpoint and
your 5 point and you have a racing advantage. You're hoping to win
by racing home without getting hit. Typically, you double if you're 20 points
ahead or more. If it's not too much more than 20, it's an easy take.
Sometimes, while you're waiting to double, you lose your market with
big doubles. Okay, these are a few mundane observations, but where's
the question? Well, I just asked one in the previous sentence didn't I?
Okay, but do you have an actual backgammon question?
Yes, of course I do, or I wouldn't have titled my post the way I did.
Ok, so what is the backgammon question?
My question is: Given that the opponent holds the midpoint and your
5 point and you still need to get past them, what are the conditions
under which you can double them out, not just double. In my version
of EpsteinGammon, the answer is almost never. I always take those cubes but I lose a lot of points from XG by bad takes that way. Hence my question.

Thank You,

Paul

On 4/10/2022 8:48 AM, peps...@gmail.com wrote:
> My question is: Given that the opponent holds the midpoint and your
> 5 point and you still need to get past them, what are the conditions
> under which you can double them out, not just double. In my version
> of EpsteinGammon, the answer is almost never. I always take those cubes but I lose a lot of points from XG by bad takes that way. Hence my question.

Stick's book presumably discusses this in detail, although I haven't
bought it. One thing to watch for is that if you own both your bar
point and your 8pt then that tends to be significantly more dangerous
for your opponent than if you own only your 8pt. Another thing is
that if your pip count lead is higher, say in 30-pip territory, then
your opponent's racing vig goes down and it might be a drop. One
last thing is that if your opponent's home-board position is weak and
you're on the verge of a pay-now-or-later decision then it is also
bad for your opponent, because hitting a shot won't necessarily win.

---
Tim Chow