Play65 Dark Room

Play65 online backgammon server recently came up with a great idea and implemented a new area on their server called the “Dark Room”, where one can play unrated and anonymously, and with significantly lower rakes when considering extra commissions are not charged in this room for ratings differences.

I recently logged onto to Play65 to check out the new Dark Room. Normally when I play in the regular rooms on Play65 I go through a little process in choosing an opponent. I look through the long list of players offering to play, seeking someone slightly around my own rating who is offering to play for low to medium stakes. Otherwise, I set up my own table with my personal preferences and wait to be invited.

In the invitation window, I also check to see how many unfinished games the players has. If “less than 2 unfinished games” I will play him or her, but I won’t if it the player has more than two unfinished, as I take this as a sign that the player has either dropped games or suffers from a bad connection.

Playing Online Backgammon in the Dark

In the new Dark Room, the process is much simpler and a game can be found faster. All the players are called “Anonymous”, they have no ratings or country flags, so all I have to do is find someone that wants to play for the stakes I limit myself to, and when the invitation window comes up the only thing I check is how many unfinished matches the players has.

Here is a partial screenshot of the list of players playing or waiting for an opponent in the new Dark Room on Play65:

It shows a variety of different stakes one can play for, but if I don’t see the stakes I want to play at, I just set up my own table with the “Create a new match” button and wait to be joined by an opponent. Because Play65 has thousands of players connected at any hour of the day, I rarely have to wait more than 30 to 60 seconds to get into a game.

This is another great thing about Play65, with millions of registered players and thousands connected at any hour of the day; you can always find a game. Whereas the last time I checked, I could not find other money play backgammon servers that have even 1,000 players connected at any hour of the day.

Another thing I like about Play65, is to watch (and learn from) players playing at high stakes – many well-known live tournament players play on Play65, under their real names or nicknames, that you can sometimes recognize from the same nicknames used in the live community or that you may remember from other backgammon servers you saw them play on in the past.

Sharks in the Dark?

One must wonder... are there are any “sharks” lurking in the “dark” waters of this new Dark Room? For those of you unfamiliar with this expression, a “shark” it is what we call good players, probably of an advanced to expert level, who like to prey on “pigeons” (a.k.a. little fishies) and beginner players with much lower rankings.

During the last week I played 15 games or matches in the Dark Room and analyzed my opponents with Snowie to see the skill levels I was up against. The results of the 15 game files, as displayed in the Account Manager of Snowie, can be seen below. Note that Snowie’s system of classifying a player’s skill level goes according to the player’s error rate and is as follows:

Extra-Terrestrial - 0.0 to 1.2
World Class - 1.2 to 4.4
Expert - 4.4 to 5.9
Advanced - 5.9 to 8.8
Intermediate - 8.8 to 12.6
Beginner - 12.6 to 18.5
Novice - 18.5 or higher

So it looks like the waters of the Dark Room are not shark infested. As can be seen, only one of my opponents was ET, three of them were World Class and the rest a mix of other different rankings. The blue column to the right indicates that on average my opponents were of an Intermediate level.

You might also be asking... if everyone is anonymous, how do they check a player who might be cheating with the help of a bot? Well, for each game or match played, Play65 saves a game file which has a specific number that Play65 security can check to see the real usernames of the players. So, although we do not know who we are playing, Play65 does know who they are and will reprimand those that cheat using external software. We also get a copy of the game file, which we can analyze with GNUbg (free software) or Snowie - so if you suspect that one of your anonymous opponents is using a bot, you can report the player to Play65 by using the match file number or by sending them the match file.

In the Dark Room, one does not lose or gain ratings points, and as for the Dark Room’s commissions (rakes), Play65 has published this list on their website:

Dark Room:

Commission is taken from the final winning sum (the winner pays for both players)

Up to $50: 5.9% commission
Up to $100: 4.9% commission
100$+: 3.9% commission

These are about 1% higher than money game or match (series) play in the regular rooms if you play someone at your own level, however, in the regular rooms if you play someone with a rating of 100 or more points than your own the commissions increase significantly, according to the amount of difference in points:

Increase of 50% in commissions when the rating difference is 100 to 199.
Increase of 100% in commissions when the rating difference is 200 or more.
Increase of 150% in commissions when the rating difference is 250 or more.
Increase of 200% in commissions when the rating difference is 300 or more.

The following applies only when the last 4 rules apply as well:

- Increased commission will not be applied if both players have a rating higher than 1650 or less than 1450.
- A rating lower than 1400 is considered as 1400 and displayed as 1400*.

(For further reference see the bottom of this article for the entire listing of Play65 commissions.)

Here is an image of the colour code used for player rankings on Play65:

So depending on your rating and that of your opponents it can be a lot cheaper to play in the new Dark Room.

Personally, I don’t real care for online ratings. I once spoke to one of the top Giants of Backgammon and asked him what he thought of the use of ratings on backgammon servers. He told me he felt that ratings seldom reflect the real level of player and that it is not uncommon for a player’s rating to fluctuate by some 150 to 200 points due to extended streaks of good luck or bad luck.

He also mentioned that because most of the games or matches played on the net are pretty short, a rating can be under-evaluated or over-valuated but it will never reflect the exact strength of a player and that a rating system is more realistic when player compete in long matches only. To many online players, ratings also mean nothing since many are just casual players and play for fun or very low stakes. Others have problems finding a game because their rating is too high or too low – so the Dark Room is a solution for such players.

There was a backgammon server that was very popular a few years ago because it had excellent software and no ratings. However, at some point they started going downhill and though that implementing ratings to make more commissions on ratings differences would help them survive. However, the rakes became so exorbitant that the players left en masse – this, amongst other issues, was part of that server’s decline in popularity.

Another issue with rating systems when backgammon is played online for money is the manipulation of ratings. Some sharks win consecutively against low-rated players at a certain level of stakes and then lose on purpose at lower stakes (often to a confederate who later gives him back his money) to bring their rating down to a level where lower ranked players will play them again at the higher level of stakes - this is another reason why you never know the real strength of who you are playing until you actually play the person and analyze the game file. However, Play65 does discourage manipulation of ratings on their server and controls and disciplines those who use tactics to appear lower than their true ranking.

To conclude, the Dark Room is now my favourite room to play in, where I can find quickly find a game for the stakes I want to play and for less rakes. Check it out for yourself at Play65 by clicking on the “Dark Room” tab in the Main Lobby.

Here is the list of commissions Play65 charges according to the different play formats:

Commission is taken from the final winning sum (the winner pays for both players)

Up to $50: 4.9%

Example: Joe and Alex play a single game with an initial sum involved of $5. Alex wins by a gammon. $9.02 will be added to Alex's balance and $10 will be deducted from Joe's balance (the commission is $0.49).

$50 up to $100: 3.9%
Over $100: 2.9%

The commission is taken from the sum involved plus 0.5% for each additional point in a game over 1 (the winner pays both).

Up to $50:
base commission (for 1 point): 4.9%, every point: +0.5%, max commission: 9.9%

Example: Diane and Julia play a Series (match) up to 3 points with sum involved of $10. Diane wins the series 3-1.The commission for 3 points is a base commission of 4.9%+2*0.5%=5.9% The commission from each player is:

$10*5.9%=$0.59 (the winner pays both their commissions). $8.82 will be added to Diane's balance and $10 will be deducted from Julia's balance.

$50 up to $100:
base commission (for 1 point): 4.4%, every point: +0.5%, max commission: 8.9%

$100 and over:
base commission (for 1 point): 3.4%, every point: +0.5%, max commission: 7.9%

Play65™ encourages matches between players with a similar rating level, therefore:

Increase of 25% in commissions if the rating of one of the players is less than 1620.

And:
Increase of 50% in commissions when the rating difference is 100 to 199.
Increase of 100% in commissions when the rating difference is 200 or more.
Increase of 150% in commissions when the rating difference is 250 or more.
Increase of 200% in commissions when the rating difference is 300 or more.

The following applies only when the last 4 rules apply as well:

- Increased commission will not be applied if both players have a rating higher than 1650 or less than 1450.

- A rating lower than 1400 is considered as 1400 and displayed as 1400*.

Over 500$: 2.45%

Maximum commission possible: $20.

Up to 10% discount will be given when playing Up to $50
Up to 15% discount will be given when playing for over $50

Commission is taken from the final winning sum (the winner pays for both players)

Up to $50: 5.9% commission
Up to $100: 4.9% commission
100$+: 3.9% commission