r/backgammon • u/CommercialCustard341 • 4d ago

Backgammon Pro v4.42 Android App Question?

I frequently play Backgammon Pro v4.42 on my phone. It has eight difficulty levels. My question is: how does it increase the difficulty?

I notice from the game statistics that the difficulty changes. I win most of the time at the lower levels, and at the highest level, level eight, I win slightly less than half the time. I just can not put my finger on what's different.

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u/themindset 4d ago

The best possible move is the one that gains/retains the most equity. Choosing any other move is an error, and the severity of that error is measured by the movement in equity that is suffered in contrast to the optimal move.

If my position has 0.5 equity and I don’t make the best move, I might go down to 0.4 - meaning my move is rated -0.1.

So if you play the best move every time, you will have lost no equity, and this would have an error rate of 0. An average error rate of under 5 is considered very strong.

Your machine opponent is choosing the higher equity move at the higher settings.

If you’re only playing 1 point matches, the dice will still have an overwhelming effect on the results.