Play Backgammon to Be Good at Poker

Gus Hansen, Paul Magriel, Mads Andersen, François Tardieu, Dan Harrington... the list goes on and on, all of them Backgammon Champions that have won big money at live Texas Hold-em Poker tournaments in recent years.

Just Gus Hansen alone is said to have won more than five million dollars in his stunning Poker career so far yet Gus still plays Backgammon and is currently ranked the #21 Giant of Backgammon on Yamin Yamin’s 2007 International Poll.

It’s because they already come to Poker with built-in skills from Backgammon that help them win at Poker.

Firstly, it must be stated that skills you will possess from playing backgammon will serve you in many other popular games besides Poker. Some of these skills are endurance and the ability to concentrate over long periods of time. Long matches in backgammon can go on for hours, just like a big Poker tournament with hundreds of players.

In backgammon, you learn to appreciate the variation of randomness and how to count numbers or shots in races (dice possibilities), this ability helps you to count cards in Poker.

In Poker, you put people on a range of possible scenarios, in Backgammon, you think similarly; examples: if he rolls an ace, this kind of position comes up; if he roll over 8 pips it is this type of position, and so on - so you divide all dice possibilities in variation and assess equity, same as how you evaluate possible hands in Poker.

In Backgammon, we understand market losers and the risk-reward ratio – a market loser is based on a succession of two rolls, one for you followed by one of your opponent’s, that improves your game so much that it reach a point where your opponent will refuse a cube he would have taken before your current roll when you should have doubled to maximize your equity.

In Poker, this can be compared to when you have a good hand and the odds indicate you should bet before the draw. Another related example is when you make a bet hoping an opponent with a weaker hand will pass, and thus, you eliminate him from seeing the next card (“free ride”) which could be one that will greatly improve his hand.

In Backgammon, you need to make your game plan, you can’t always wait for good dice, you must work with what you have and play your checkers in ways that will make points to improve your board. It is the same in Poker, you need to plan with the hand you get, and not wait for good cards that might never come.

In Backgammon, you think defense by securing an advanced anchor, like your opponent’s Golden Point (20 point) or his Bar Point (7 point) in Poker it is the Button.

Therefore, you also come from Backgammon to Poker understanding that position is important. In Backgammon we know the strength of cube ownership, which in Poker is similar to understanding “position” – who is the first to act, last to bet, how many people ahead, etc.

This makes Poker like playing Chouette (which is a multiple-player cash game in Backgammon), you get different reactions from different opponents to the same action, so you learn the tendencies of opponents, such as how he positions checkers or when and why he cubes. This backgammon skill helps you to learn and understand the tendencies of Poker players, do they play tight, do they bet too much, do they bluff, etc.

So if you want to be good at Poker play Backgammon first. If you are good at backgammon already you will be good at Poker. On the other hand, the reverse is not true, we see good Backgammon players win big at Poker, but there are not many, if any, good Poker players that have come to excel at Backgammon.