Match Series

Want to play a match series with me? I currently play on DailyGammon and on Heroes – either works.

I had a nice series like this a long time ago, back in the FIBS days, with a friend. I'd like to bring the concept back to life here.

The idea behind it

The better someone plays, the higher their chances of winning against a weaker opponent. The reverse holds too: when your opponent is stronger, a shorter match gives you better chances, because fewer rolls are made and luck plays a bigger role.

That's the lever a match series uses: the length of the next match adjusts to the result, so both players always have roughly equal winning chances – no matter how different their playing strength.

How it works

We start with a 9-point match. After every match we analyze it – I use BGBlitz, but feel free to use another program if you prefer.

The length of the next match depends on the result:

• If the winner had the better PR, the next match is two points shorter (the winner should have a tougher time).
• If the winner had the worse PR, the next match is two points longer.

The series ends when the next match length would go beyond the limits:

• If you win a 21-point match with the worse PR, the next match would have to go up to 23 – that's the cap.
• If you win a 1-point match with the better PR, the next match would have to go down to -1 – not possible either.

In all other cases the series continues, even after a 21- or 1-point match.

Background: Originally, the steering value wasn't PR but the DailyGammon rating. For players of similar strength that didn't say much, so I switched to the PR-based variant.

A short explanation of PR and Luck can be found in the DailyGammon forum.

Interested? Drop me a short mail at hape42 or send me a message on DailyGammon or Heroes – on both servers I'm known as hape42.

Match series

Active series (8)