Online backgammon sites often host backgammon tournaments. If you consider yourself to be a good player, online backgammon tournaments can be a great way to increase the thrill, and profitability, of playing backgammon online.

There are a few things you need to know before entering your first backgammon tournaments. This page will guide you through the process of joining and playing online backgammon tournaments, offering tips and strategies in regards to what to what to look for, and playing to win.

Online backgammon tournaments typically come in tiered divisions. Players are labeled according to their experience and win percentage at the online backgammon site. They are recommended, if not required, to play tournaments that are equal to (or higher than) their own division. This prevents a master backgammon player from participating in novice backgammon tournaments, where they are almost assured a victory.

Preparing for a Backgammon Tournament

Unless you’re a seasoned backgammon player, be sure to brush up on the rules of backgammon, including legal and illegal moves, doubling guidelines and proper turn-ending procedures. This goes especially for live backgammon tournaments. Online backgammon tournaments will not allow illegal procedures, but may fault a player for attempting them, whether by accident or otherwise.

Carefully read the rules of the tournament to ensure there are no variations you are unfamiliar with. You should be aware of all possible entry fees and prize structure. If only the 1st place finisher gets paid, your strategy will be pretty straight forward. If a number of top finishers will share the prize pool, your first goal should be to make it into the money bubble.

Practice Before the Tournament

The more you practice playing backgammon, the more comfortable you will become with decision making during a game. A less experienced player is more likely to become nervous, especially in later rounds of the backgammon tournament. When you are nervous, it is harder to concentrate, resulting in bad decisions and unnecessary mistakes.

If you’re playing a live backgammon tournament, don’t just practice playing backgammon online. You need to be comfortable playing on a real, regulation size backgammon board. There are specific rules pertaining to how and where the dice must be rolled. If you only play backgammon online, you will have more trouble adjusting to the live setting.

Backgammon Tournament Strategies

A proper backgammon strategy is chosen based on the opponent you are facing. You should practice a starting backgammon strategy, where the main goal is to get all checkers clear of your opponent’s checkers, hitting blots when it is advantageous to do so, and bearing off whenever the opportunity arises.

As the tournament begins, you should pay close attention to the strategy of your opponent. Is he using the same balanced strategy as you, or is he aiming to hit your blots at every opportunity? Maybe he is disregarding all chances to hit, choosing to progress his own checkers instead. As soon as you can define his strategy, you should adjust your own game play to counter it.

Against a player who is seeking every opportunity to hit your blots, leave him as little opportunity as possible, and try to set a trap using blots as the bait. He is more likely to fall for it without even noticing the trap.

Against a player who is disregarding opportunities to hit your blots, you should be more aggressive in hitting his. His aim is to get home and bear off asap. Hitting his blots will prevent this. Also, make sure to set anchors in your home quadrant so that he has more difficulty re-entering the blots you’ve hit.

You can learn more about backgammon strategies here: Backgammon Tips & Strategies