Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Good advice, great attitude September 25, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book was the first I ever bought on backgammon, back in the mid-70s. It is by no means the most complete out there, but what it is missing in serious analysis and problem solving it comes close to making up in enthusiasm, and aggressive, in your face attitude.
Just for starters, the cover of edition I have has a photo on the cover of a man contemplating the board with a look of sly cunning and confidence, and in his left hand is, yes, a smoking cigarette! Good luck getting that on a book cover in 2005.
Add to that Becker's comments on general playing attitude, which comes across as playing to the crowd - and the women in the crowd - every bit as much as intimidation of the enemy...er, I mean opponent...and you get the general idea. It's all written with verve and style and some panache, and does not come across quite as arrogantly as I may be implying.
Becker's backgammon advice is fine if one takes it as a starting off point. He introduces the rules of the game, talks a little general strategy - pretty light stuff - and then plunges into openings. Well, some of the openings will be obvious, but some of his suggestions will be somewhat aggressive, maybe even risky. They do support his declared style of play. His comments on the midgame are sketchy - this is not a book of exercises or studies - and while his material on bearing off is good analysis, there is better out there. His best chapter is on the doubling cube, a medieval weapon of torture in his hands.
In general it's a good book to get a sense of strategy and tactics for a novice. It was my only book until I started playing for money with a regular group of players locally, as well as almost daily online. I got my butt kicked, and went back to other sources to learn more. I don't get it kicked quite so often anymore. So once a player is at a certain level, it's time to move on to other, deeper books on the subject. But until then, it's a great primer, and a fun bedside read.
 Very fun book October 27, 2004
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is funny. I haven't seen or heard anything about this book in about 20 years. I don't even remember the gist of its teaching, but I remember clearly the enthusiasm it gave me for backgammon.
This book made backgammon exciting. To sit down with a friend and play backgammon just for fun.....isn't really that fun. He got to the heart of what makes any sort of game exciting, namely playing for money or points. I have played tons of poker and it has the obvious advantage that more people play it, and it has the "social" advantage in that it is more fun to sit around a table with many of your friends instead of one.
Backgammon is a game of strategy that makes use of probabilities, no question about it, however, many backgammon experts try to make backgammon a mere exercise in math with their endless calculations and probabilities. However, I prefer to take chances and play a game my opponent is uncomfortable with. Played correctly, backgammon is a game of strategy, courage, and excitement.
This book could be entitled Backgammon for Fun.
 Great book with which to begin December 1, 2003
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Ray's review is excellent. This is a book that will raise a player's standing from novice to accomplished novice, but it will not, by itself, raise a player above the novice level.This book was written before personal computers, before FIBS, before Snowie, and before GNUbg so it lacks the depth that is available 20+ years later. But it is an excellent book to give a young child who wants to
learn backgammon.
 I like to enjoy cheese danish on dew filled mornings September 19, 2003
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
I bot this book around 1980, when I was in high school. It definately excited me with the idea of making money by using my inteeligence (I am unsure of the spelling of that word). I made alot of money (alot as defined by a 17 yr old - the amount of 181 dollars sticks in my head) from people who were recreational players (aka cluless)In other words, this book is excellent if you wanna be a big fish in a small pond. And since most recreational backgammon players are probably best categorized as swimming in the small backgammon pond of life, this book will serve you well, making you better than them. But just as being the best player in your Thursday night kitchen table poker game sets you up to get slaughtered the first time you walk into a Vegas casino and sit at the no limit Hold 'em table, I think this book will put you in that position. You will think you are better than you are, and you will point to your great track record as proof (see the reviewer who won 17 straight from his buddy). But you will not realize that this track record was born out of the placid saftey of a backgammon "small pond". Unfortunatley, however, when you leave the calm waters of the pond, and hit the open waters of the deep blue, you will suddenly and unexpectedly find yourself reeling as you are tossed about by mother natures relentless and overwhelming power. Waves begin to crash over you, each one pushing you further under. You struggle to get to the life giving air. But the surface is a cold mistress for as you break clear of the brine and gasp for air, you find that wind is also your enemy, for the wind has so laden the air with mist, that you begin to take in more water while above the surface than while under. But there is no margin for error, for you are immediatly toppled by a rouge wave before you can attempt another breath. As you try to right yourself, you begin to meet with some success, but only to realize that mother nature is more than just powerful, she is wiley, for she has filled has filled this world with more than just forces, she has filled it with creatures that can bring you to your doom as readily as the wind and waves. As this realization hits you, the white triangles disappear beneath your flesh and you are pulled from the surface not knowing if you will be eaten alive, or be mercifully drowned, before become the tasty sustinance of one that is greater than you... in much the same way that I enjoy the tasty sustinance of a delectable cheese danish while standing in a dew covered field on a glorious and crisp fall morning. Ahhh Cant you see how wonderfully enjoyable Backgammon is? Ray PS the astute review reader may have noticed that the style of the review above, as well as the text of the review was designed to make a commentary on the book "Backgammon for Blood". Ya know Ray may be a genius, cuz I have never seen nor heard of a reviewer who used both form and content to provided feedback. In doing so, the review experience of both the reviewer and reviewee is heightend. It also provdides a more comprehensive understanding of the material reviewed, and since that greater understanding is delivered in the same amount of words, it is a more efficient form of communication. Admittedly the efficiency is lost if the efficiency itself must be explained, but that is a one time cost. Naturally, this assumes a repeat audience - which may be the assumption the brings sinks the ship of the newly named "Mutli-faceted Self Referential Review"). However even if the assumption of a repeat audience were invalid thereby effectivley removing the efficieny gains, the bar has been raised. We can all read and write reviews in a way hertofore unknown. We are atanding at an excting and entice threshold and I challege you to step through, not with trepidation, but with vim! Ahhh Backgammon reviews, they are indeed enjoyable Ray's Editor
Never heard of Bruce Becker? December 16, 2002
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I hadn't, either. Now I know why. Becker is a good player, though not a great player. I seriously doubt that he has ever won a meaningful tournament. Basically, his book gives the impression that all games break down into "playing the odds." So, if you like memorizing the odds of a particular roll of the dice, and arranging your checkers according to statistical charts, this might be the book for you. However boring, what is more troublesome is that backgammon is not necessarily played that way; it is more complex than simply calculating odds. By following Becker's advice, the student adopts a very conservative philosophy, designed to protect you from being hit, and to increase your chances of hitting. While that seems commendable, it is no way to win backgammon games over the long haul.I bought the book with high expectations. Indeed, the title piqued my curiosity. What I found, though, was a very dry book with few diagrams after the section on opening moves. Furthermore, there was very little strategy mentioned other than "playing the odds." To Becker's credit, there is a good section on bearing off that I would recommend to anybody.
All in all, I refer the people searching for opponent's blood to Robertie's or Woolsey's works.
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