Acey-deucey rules

Acey-deucey is backgammon with a twist: every checker starts off the board, doubles earn another turn, and a roll of 1-2 lets you pick any double you like. It is the classic game of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, and it is faster and wilder than standard backgammon.

What you need

The same equipment as backgammon: a board with 24 points, fifteen checkers for each player and two dice. The big difference is the start: no checkers are on the board. Both players hold all fifteen off the board and bring them in during play. Players move in opposite directions as in standard backgammon, each heading for their own home board.

To start, each player rolls one die (sailors call this the "peewee"); the higher number goes first and rolls both dice for the first turn.

Entering the checkers

Checkers enter in your opponent's home board, called the entering table or starting quarter, just as a hit checker enters from the bar in backgammon: a 3 enters on the opponent's 3-point (your 22-point), a 6 on their 6-point (your 19-point). You can enter a checker and keep going with the other die, or move a checker that is already on the board.

You do not have to bring all fifteen in before moving the others, which is the main source of strategy in the opening: how many checkers to enter, and how fast to run the ones already in.

Moving and kicking

Each die moves one checker that many points, or one checker uses both dice, provided it can land after each step. A checker may land on an empty point, on its own checkers, or on a point with a single opposing checker. Two or more opposing checkers block a point.

Landing on a lone opposing checker kicks it (backgammon players say "hits"): it goes to the bar, sailors' "fence", and must re-enter through the entering table before that player moves anything else.

Doubles and bonus turns

A double gives four moves of that number, as in backgammon: 5-5 lets you move 5 four times. In acey-deucey you then roll again. A run of doubles can swing a game completely, which is part of the fun.

The acey-deucey roll

A roll of 1 and 2, the acey-deucey, is the best roll in the game. You:

1. play the 1 and the 2,
2. choose any number from 1 to 6 and play it as a double, four moves of that number,
3. then roll again.

So an acey-deucey can be worth 27 pips (1 + 2 + 4 × 6) plus a bonus roll. Most players choose the double that makes the most useful points or kicks the most blots, not always 6-6.

Bearing off

As in backgammon, once all fifteen of your checkers are in your home board (the finishing quarter) you may bear them off. Traditional rules add two twists: a checker that reaches the home board may not move again until all the others have arrived, and bearing off needs an exact roll. The first player to bear off all fifteen wins.

Common house rules

Acey-deucey was passed on aboard ship rather than in rule books, so rules vary from mess to mess. Agree on these before you start:

• Unplayable 1-2. If you cannot play both the 1 and the 2, many groups end the turn with no double and no bonus roll.
• Unplayable doubles. If a double cannot be played in full, the bonus roll is often lost too.
• Picking the double. Some groups roll one die to decide the double after an acey-deucey instead of letting the player choose.
• Entering only on doubles. A stricter version lets checkers come in at the start only after a double.
• Moving at home. Some allow free movement inside the home board; others freeze checkers once they arrive.
• Scoring. Most play game by game; some count a gammon double, as in backgammon. There is traditionally no doubling cube.

Strategy tips

• Do not rush everyone in. Checkers that have not entered cannot be kicked, and they keep your options open.
• Keep an Oscar. Holding one checker back until late lets you enter and kick a blot when your opponent is coming home.
• Build blocks. Points made in front of the entering table make it hard for your opponent to bring checkers in, as a prime does in backgammon.
• Count on the bonuses. Doubles and acey-deuceys make the game swingy; avoid positions that collapse to one lucky roll.

History

Acey-deucey has been the favourite board game of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Merchant Marine since World War I, and there is evidence of it being played aboard U.S. Navy ships in the early 1900s. Games that start with the checkers off the board are old in the eastern Mediterranean, and acey-deucey probably came from that family by way of Greece, Turkey or the Middle East. It turns up in war stories such as W.E.B. Griffin's The Corps novels and the 1957 film The Enemy Below.

For other variants, from nackgammon to Greek plakoto, see the variants guide, the tavla rules and long nardy. Or play standard backgammon now in Backgammon Lounge: start a game.

Questions

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