Frank Frigo

Sometimes you're trying to speed yourself up.

The idea behind the doubling cube is that you're playing a game for a stake of a single point.

If you win the game, you get a point.

If you bear off all your checkers before your opponent's borne off any, you win a gammon.

That's a double game, but it's double whatever the current value of the cube is.

The cube starts out at a value of one.

When it's your turn, before you roll, you have the option, if the cube is in the middle, to tell your opponent, I want to double the stakes of the game.

So the opponent has to then make a decision.

Do I want to play this game for double the stakes,

Or do I want to turn down the cube and the game ends immediately and they give up the point?

The decision is I can give up one point with certainty and start a brand new game, or I can accept that

the cube, and now play this game for double the stakes, but I'm accepting the risk that I could lose two points, I could lose four points, and I have to compare that distribution of potential outcomes versus the guaranteed one point that I would relinquish.

The other layer on top of that is that the cube is not just a scorekeeping device.

It's a weapon.

When you own the cube, you have bought the rights to it, which gives you the rights to play the game to the end.

It also gives you the rights to redouble the stake back to four, which puts pressure on your opponent.

It's a really difficult question because you've got to put some real context around it.

Every decision, with the exception of forced moves and backgammon, is a skillful decision.

The issue is how much it actually affects the outcome.

You're going to get randomness thrown into the equation, which is what makes the game great.