Acey Deucey – Backgammon Variant
Acey Deucey was the favorite backgammon variant of US marine soldiers during the 1st World War. The term "acey deucey", sometimes spelled acey deucy or acey ducey refers to a roll of 2-1, which rewards the player who rolls it with a double of his choice.
Acey Deucey is played on a standard backgammon board with two sets of 15 checkers. At the start of the game, all 15 checkers are placed off the board opposite to each other. The players' object is to move them around the checker, to the starting point of the opponent, and then to bear them off the board.
Acey Deucey Game Play
Acey Deucey begins like a standard backgammon game, with the two players rolling one die each and the player who rolls the higher number plays the first move. But unlike in backgammon, the first player has to reroll to play the first move, and enters checkers to the opponent's home board according to the number of the dice roll. For example, if the player rolled 4-2, he enters one checker to the opponent's 2-point and a second checker to the opponent's 4-point.
The game continues the same manner, and once all of a player's checkers have been entered to the board, he may use the dice rolls to move the checkers forward. In Acey Deucey, a player can move one checker the sum of points on both dice only if the intermediate point is open.
Acey Deucey and Backgammon Differences
The most significant difference between Acey Deucey and standard backgammon is in the usually disadvantageous "acey deucey" roll. In Acey Deucey, the player who rolls 2-1 gets to name a double of his choice, play it twice according to the doubles rule in backgammon, and then rerolls and play the rolled dice. In addition, Acey Deucey is played without the doubling cube, and gammons and backgammon do not count.
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