Backgammon Tables games

Hypergammon

Hypergammon is a variant of backgammon.

Rule variations

Each player begins with three pieces, rather than fifteen. At the start of the game, each player begins with one piece on each of the three most distant points of the board (the 22-point, the 23-point and the 24-point).

Hypergammon is often played using the Jacoby Rule, which is also used in backgammon money games. Under this rule, gammons and backgammons will not count extra until the cube has been doubled.

Gameplay

As a consequence of the reduced number of pieces, hypergammon relies more heavily on luck than does backgammon. The lead in a game can swing very quickly. The difficulty of getting two pieces on the same point means that both players nearly always have blots on the board. The combination of the fact that bearing off can be completed with a single lucky roll of doubles and that it is nearly impossible to protect blots from being sent to the bar results in gammons being scored much more often than in backgammon.

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