Hi, I am Vic and we are introducing you today to the game of Backgammon. I would like to show you some of the highlights of holding games and say a little bit about how they differ from back games. Perhaps a majority of games in backgammon are some kind of holding game. In a holding game what you try to do is establish a defense. What you do to block your opponent in or to attack them in their inner board, that's your offense. What you do to keep yourself from being hammed-in by say a prime or from being closed out is part of your defense in backgammon and usually, a holding game consists in taking an advance point in your opponent's home board. The best point being the five point because it controls the whole outer board or a whole outfield. Any blots brought down here could be hit here. Sometimes if you have been hit a lot early, it can involve holding two points in your opponent's home board, but this advance point functions as anchor, you can't easily be primed if you hold it, additionally, you have a platform from which to hit any blots your opponent might bring down in your inner board either voluntarily or involuntarily. If you hold a deep point in your opponent's inner board, you can threaten your opponent's play of awkward numbers here and so it's a good thing to do, but in a holding game like this, you are not as you were in a back game trying to wait until late in the game and your opponent is bearing off to get a shot.
You are still trying to go forward and basically, in a holding game you are looking for that shot almost whenever you can get it to make yourself better in the race and so basically, in a holding game, you are still looking to move forward to hit your opponent if they bring blots down into their outer or inner board so that you can move forward and gain ground on them in the race. Next, we will talk about how you might want to change your game plan from a holding game to a running game.