Hrqls: A lot depends upon your opponent, as to double or not. If he/she is far better player than you it wont matter

skipinnz: hehe ... true .. but in that case i dont have to play the game anyway and might resign the whole match at the first move in the first game :)

Hrqls: I'll look forward to challenging you.

Hrqls: You should always double immediately.

Your opponent will always accept.

If you wait until you're winning by too much your opponent may choose not to accept. This is bad. Remember redoubles at this stage are not going to happen.

If you wait until you're losing or the game is close then your opponent will accept and there's no difference.

grenv & alanback: there certainly is a reason that i should double always right from the start ... i sometimes forget to double at a later stage .. i click on 'roll dice' automatically :)

i am always wondering when i am 3 points away from the end of the match (and my opponent only 1 and its not a crawford game) .. most of the time i wait and double when i am in a position with a big advantage .. and i think thats the right thing to do .. but sometimes i doubt :)

when i am more points behind it doesnt matter much i think .. but i double later because it feels like i am doing something about it and i like to keep my options open .. the bad thing is that i can forget to double .. and also that he might drop while he would have taken it from the start

so the only one which is clear to me is when i am 2 points from the end, and also when i am 3 points from the finish

Hrqls: Basically, I think that if you are an odd number of points away from winning a match, i.e. having 2 points in a 7 point match, you wait to double. Theoretically, your opponent should accept anyway, unless he fears a gammon. But you could get a drop that will help you have to play one less full game. On the other hand, it could hurt because you don't allow yourself to win the game with a gammon.

Hrqls: If your opponent has a "free drop", you should double immediately. A free drop is present post-Crawford whenever the trailing player is an even number of points away from winning. For example, if the score is 1-away, 2-away, the leader loses nothing by dropping except the chance to win the current game. If the leader has less than a 50% chance of winning the current game, he should always drop. So, you should double before he has a chance to fall behind.

If you are an odd number of points from match, then the strategy can get more subtle. There's a certain amount of psychology involved. The leader now has something to lose (and you have something to gain) if he drops. In most cases he should take, but sometimes you can induce an opponent to drop by mistake if you wait. For example, you may have a position in which a good roll will give you a shot at gammon. You should double before rolling, since the opponent may drop and bring you one win closer to winning the match.

Hrqls: I forgot to post my own thoughts .. i will do so now before i read the replies :)

if i am 2 points from the end i will double from the start as i want my opponent to accept the double, so that i only have to win 1 game and i dont want to forget to double :)

if i am 3 points from the end of the match then i will wait before i double .. i will most likely have to win 2 games to win the match, so if i arrive in a position where my opponent will decline the doubling, then i won 1 already. by doubling later in the game i hold the advantage of the cube .. if i get far behind then i will double anyway then i will double as well in the hope for a wonder :)

if i am more points behind .. then i am not sure :) .. i think its best to double early in even points from the end and later in odd points from the end ?