Archive for October, 2008

Play on Play56?

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Play56 is one of the most common typing errors when searching for Play65 online backgammon website. Other frequent mistakes include plai65, pley65, plai56 and plei56. Fortunately for us at Play65, today’s internet tools are programmed to do the thinking for us and to complete our sentences. So, if you’ll accidently type "plai65" in Google’s search field, you’ll be asked in return:

play65

Why Play65?

and not Play56?

The dice rolls in backgammon are marked from the high to the low, sometimes with a dash between the two numbers (play 6-5) and in other times the numbers are divided by a backslash (play 6/5).  

Playing 65 on the opening roll is the ultimate way to start a backgammon game. While any other combination you’ll roll gives the player at least two possible plays to choose from, 6-5, also known as "lover’s leap", offers just one, in which you advance your 24-point checker into the midpoint (13-point).

 

Play65 New Deposit Options

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Play65 had recently added two more deposit methods for its real money players: instant banking and paysafecard

Instant banking is a new online payment method, in which, similar to the old wire transfer, the player contacts his/her bank to transfer a certain sum of money; yet dissimilar to wire transfer, when using instant banking as an online payment method, the transmission of money is made instantaneously. Instant banking works in Europe, Canada and Australia. 

Paysafecard is a pre-paid card sold in kiosks and retail stores, similar to the CashU card, already in use by Play65 members, except that CashU is only available in the Middle East, while Paysafecard is available all around Europe including Germany, Austria, Spain, Greece, Great Britain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia, Portugal, Czech Republic and Slovakia. 

So now, with Play65 new payment methods, online backgammon players can choose from a selection of 11 different deposit options.

play65 payment methods 

 

Play65 Old Deposit Options

Play65 online payment methods divide into several categories: credit cards, E-wallets, pre-paid cards, wire transfer and Western Union. 

Credit Cards

 At the moment, Play65 accepts deposits from Visa, Diners and Mastercard. Play65 credit cards system is extremely safe, using the same SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology commonly used in banks. 

E-Wallets

The popular electronic commerce system, which allows users to make fast and secure money payments online, is available on Play65 in several ways: PayPal (available worldwide; accepts Visa and wire transfer), MoneyBookers (worldwide; accepts Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Diners as well as many local payment systems), NETeller (available worldwide except the US, Turkey and Israel; accepts various credit cards and local bank transfers), Webmoney (specializes in the East European market) and Clickandbuy (popular mainly in Germany). 

Pre-Paid Cards

Cards such as CashU and the newly added Paysafecard are purchased by the user in advance for a certain sum of money and used for any online purchases using the private PIN appears on the card.

Western Union

A very common payment method online and offline, where the customer has to visit the nearest post office, pay the desirable sum in cash, and then send Play65 cashier the receipt and the reference, and after these get to Play65 offices, the player’s balance is updated. 

Wire Transfer

(See above for the differences between standard Wire Transfer and the new Instant Banking payment method).

 

Play65 Backgammon Quiz is Back!

Monday, October 27th, 2008

Play65 backgammon quiz is back after a short break, with a new question and a brand new winner.

On our last backgammon quiz update, we asked about the magazine that published a whole backgammon book by Lewis Deyong back in 1977. The correct answer is Playboy, which in addition of publishing backgammon books, the famous magazine used to organize backgammon tournaments in its infamous mansion.

The 21st backgammon quiz wondered about the name of the Costa Rica Backgammon Association. In the choice between "Dixie", "Nancy", "Kookla" and "Chica", a new Play65 member of Aberdeen, Scotland marked "Nancy" and got $20 bonus added to her online account.

Nancy, a backgammon mascot

Nancy

To win $20 bonus in this week’s backgammon quiz, you should, for starters, to mark the correct answer to the following question:

Pro player Andreas Humke was the winner of a drawing for what door prize at the 6th Abu Dhabi International Backgammon Championships in 2004? Is it a pair of diamond-studded dice, a $10,000 backgammon board, new car or a trip around the world?

 

From Beach Backgammon to a College Degree

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

and a successful business.

 

playing backgammon

playing backgammon near the beach

While for most people playing backgammon on the beach is an ideal form of idleness (in a good sense, hopefully), for selected few, it is a source of inspiration and creation. The establishment of Wet Products Inc, a leading provider of outdoor games, beach, pool, and surf accessories with a $10 million turnover a year is rooted in a sunny, sandy backgammon games played in Los Angeles in the summer of 1980.

Billy, a business and psychology student at University of California, Los Angeles, was preoccupied with two pressing problems: his college thesis and the fact that no backgammon board was found suitable for the beach. By drawing the pattern of a backgammon board on torn pieces of a wetsuit, he solved both issues at once. Beachgammon, the improvised water, sand and sun proof backgammon board, started to grab the attention of the beach goers, so Billy, the creator, decided to base his college project on the product. The theoretical beach accessories company turned to be a real, lucrative business called Wet Products, producing and distributing everything a beach bum needs: from towels to sunscreens, kites, ukulele’s and water guns.

 

Playing Backgammon Underwater

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

What’s your favorite location for a backgammon game? Some prefer to play backgammon online, from the comfort of their own homes, many others like to play backgammon on the beach. Some others take the "backgammon on the beach" cliché into extreme; they play backgammon underwater, and this is how it looks like:

The 1st Annual UW Backgammon World Championship took place last September at the Mediterranean Sea, in the South East coast of Mallorca, Spain with dozens of adventurous backgammon enthusiasts/scuba divers, and the registration to the 2nd annual event (scheduled to September 2009 at the same place) has already begin. 

As if the playing environment was not stressful enough, the tournament directors of the Underwater Backgammon World Championship added some extra rules to toughen the competition: each player was limited with only one tank, and only one opportunity to get buddy breathing from a single tank in the final. All the backgammon games were taken under the watching goggles of Erik, a backgammon referee of German. 

In addition, the backgammon players had to deal with issues unfamiliar to the over the board backgammon player (not to mention the online backgammon player) such as leveling the backgammon board without creating an underwater sand storm, finding the correct weight of the dice, and so on. Nevertheless, three extreme backgammon players stepped out with medals: Ilya of Greece, at the top followed by Lottie and Henrik, both of Sweden.