What is Acey-Deucey?
Acey-Deucey is a backgammon variant in which the board starts empty. Both players hold all fifteen checkers off the board and bring them in through the opponent's home board, the same way a hit checker comes back from the bar. A roll of 3 enters a checker on the opponent's 3-point, which is your 22-point.
Once checkers are on the board they move, hit and bear off exactly as in standard backgammon, and the first player to bear off all fifteen wins. Because both armies enter in the same quarter, the opening is a crowded scramble for points, and hits come early and often.
The traditional game has one more rule, from which it takes its name: a roll of 1-2, the acey-deucey, earns a bonus double and another roll. This table plays the Acey-Deucey start without that bonus, and, like checkers on the bar, all of your waiting checkers must enter before you move one already on the board.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Backgammon | Acey-Deucey |
|---|---|---|
| Starting position | Standard BackgammonFifteen checkers each: two on your 24-point, five on your 13-point, three on your 8-point and five on your 6-point. | Acey-DeuceyAn empty board: all fifteen checkers of each side wait off the board. |
| Entering | Standard BackgammonOnly a hit checker enters, from the bar into the opponent's home board. | Acey-DeuceyEvery checker enters through the opponent's home board. Here all waiting checkers must enter before you move any checker already on the board, as with checkers on the bar. |
| The 1-2 roll | Standard BackgammonAn ordinary roll: play a 1 and a 2. | Acey-DeuceyIn the traditional game, play the 1 and 2, then any double you choose, then roll again. This table does not play that bonus: a 1-2 is an ordinary roll. |
| Winning and scoring | Standard BackgammonOne point for a win, two for a gammon (the loser has borne off no checkers) and three for a backgammon (the loser also still has a checker on the bar or in the winner's home board). | Acey-DeuceyThe same. The doubling cube and match play work exactly as in standard backgammon. |
History
Acey-Deucey is an American variant of backgammon with a long association with the United States armed forces, especially the Navy, the Marine Corps and the merchant marine. Generations of sailors played it on board ship and in port, and it is often described as the traditional game of the American sea services.
Its rules were passed on by word of mouth for a long time, so details differ from ship to ship and family to family, most of all in how the acey-deucey bonus roll is played. Games in which all the checkers start off the board and enter one by one are much older than Acey-Deucey itself and are found in many traditional games of the tables family across Europe and the Middle East.