I play here: http://ecribbage.com/

It's pretty easy to get a game there and they run tournaments fairly regularly. You need to have Java installed to be able to run it. Not the most advanced software in the world but a lot of people play there.

And yes I learned to play with my family too, but we usually play 2v2v2. Partners cribbage is so much different than 1v1. 1v1 is by far the best way to play.

Playing backwards can be fun too. Try not to get points.

This is my favorite way to play. But if you get 0, you score 19.

Sacrilege ITT.

You're pone with 67891010 in hole 90, dealer in 65. WWYD?

You don't want your opponent to get any miracle hands, but you want to make sure you are getting your due.

Throw the 67. Keep the double run to maximize your sure points. The crib shouldn't be too good with you having blockers to big scores.

I suppose that throwing T6 maximizes skunk chances by keeping his crib to a minimum, but he is likely to make it anyway, before you get to your crib. There is also a better chance of us scoring more than 8 with a favourable cut. For a money or tournament game, this might be the way to go.

If the scores were reversed, maybe the TT, hoping to score big on a favourable cut.

6-10. Only give up 2 points to play defense. Given the game situation we can only lose on a giant crib. 67 can make a giant hand. 6-10 cannot. They need oxygen. Continue to choke them.


If we are dealer I probably throw the 67. Unlikely pone will give me a 5. More likely I get a single 6-7-8-9 with a face or low card.

Ok, glad to see I'm not losing my mind. A good player whose game I greatly respect did this: "I've been falling down on 4th street all the time, so I hold for the best potential and toss 10-10."

His thought process: "To each their own! I was just trying to get as far as possible. There are more cuts (A,2,5,6,7,8,9,10) to 6-7-8-9 than cuts (5,6,7,8,9,10,J) to 8-8-9-10, and the worst possible is generally less tossing 10-10 than 6-7. If I'm dealing from 26 out I only have a 50% chance to win. I don't want just a 50% chance to win. I want to be dealing from 21 or closer, so that's what I went for."

Food for thought.

If I'm dealer I don't think there is a huge delta between 67 and TT. Might depend if my opponent has tendencies. My gut says 67 is the right play to max across hand and crib but no real data for that.

You're pone with 555778, both players in ~80th hole. WWYD?

77.

85 is probably the safest with regard to opponent's crib, but three 5s is a possible monster. Can't justify breaking that up.

77 > 87 > 85 > 75 > 55

I'd go 87. Keeps 6 in play for a huge hand. (And we swap 2s for 3s so that's a wash).

That extra ~8% equity has got to be worth it.

876 in the opponent's crib is more dangerous than 776 though.

If the 6 hits I've got 17. I'll take that risk.

In two deals (this and the next one) your opponent (and you) will get three hands and figures to score ~30 points. In general, you will get to a third deal, with you getting to count first. You should be able to win about half the time. I think you need to stretch a little, and make sure you don't short-change yourself, more than you need to make sure the opponent isn't scoring a little more on this crib (maybe even a lot more).

I think, then, that throwing the 87 is slightly better than the 77.

Agree. I think 78 may be a little more dangerous than 77 but the added value of the potential triple run makes it worthwhile. If the 6 hits you are in danger you may as well profit.

In case anyone cares, here is what the EV is for this hand:


EV of 5D 5C is -0.07 (Hand: 9.30, Crib: -9.37)
EV of 5D 7H is 0.61 (Hand: 7.61, Crib: -7.00)
EV of 5D 8D is 1.57 (Hand: 7.87, Crib: -6.30)
EV of 7H 7C is 3.95 (Hand: 11.09, Crib: -7.14)
EV of 7H 8D is 4.24 (Hand: 11.87, Crib: -7.63)

Optimal Throw:
7H 8D
EV: 4.239565217391305

Got my new board this weekend.

Cheers!

LC post

How did everyone learn the game? From whom, how old were you, etc.

I was very young, ~6 when my paternal grandfather taught me after watching everyone play and wanting to learn. He was taking muggins right from game #1. Needless to say, I learned to count fairly fast.

All sorts of card games were always being played by my family and I was fascinated by it. My maternal grandfather taught me poker (Jacks or better) around the same time. My love for games of all kinds has carried over into adulthood. I couldn't imagine life sans cards.

I couldn't tell you how young I started. Like you, I grew up in it. My mother's family played cribbage and drank gin & tonics. I picked up one, but not the other.

Every house had 2 to 5 boards in it. I don't recall muggins ever being a factor; not that the rule was not in effect, it just wasn't necessary.

My grandmother also played bridge and golfed. I never got into playing golf (but I enjoy watching it), and I took bridge lessons when I was 13. I played socially until my kids were born (long time ago), and I want to get back into that. For a while, my mother played a weekly game with her friends.

I've always been into card games. When I was younger I used to have a deck on me at all times. Sometimes I would just shuffle to pass the time.

/ramble

Me too! Still do this every now and then. Also, chip shuffling.

We had a coffee table/cribbage board in the living room made out of a massive tree trunk. Like this, but not as long and with a much thicker top.



I miss that thing, and regret not grabbing it when my dad was cleaning house.

Think I probably posted this before. I was six and I had been watching my dad, granddad, and brothers. No one would play with me until granddad came to visit. He offered to be my partner. One of my brothers offered to help me. Said I didn't need any help. I had picked up pegging and counting from watching. I learned strategy over time by playing.

I was referred to as the cribbage savant.

Social game. Hate playing with muggins with a passion.

I'm indifferent to muggins. You're not getting anything off of me, and I'm not going to claim anything you miss. As you say, it's a social game. I don't care if I win or lose, but I enjoy the challenge of doing the best I can with what I've got.

I also loathe muggins, but most def prefer winning to losing.

My league starts up again in a couple weeks. Pumped to play live again.

So for a while I've been wanting to take a look at the distributions of scores of hands/cribs to get a better grasp of the probability that a certain player will win given the score. I want to get the probability that a hand/crib will score a certain point and use that to compute the hand that maximizes the win probability of a player rather than just the EV.

I have a simulation going right now that is simulating the discards in cribbage. The simulation is still going but it's pretty much stabilized for the pone/dealer hand distributions (12.3 million hands simulated as of now) so I can go ahead and post those now.

-------------------------------------------

This information is for the distribution of scores of Pone's Hand.


EV[Pone's Hand] = 8.12






The middle column of the table is the probability that Pone will have a particular score. The right column is the probability that Pone's hand will be less than or equal to a particular score (so of course you can subtract it from 1 to see the probability Pone will score more than this score).

Points	Prob	Prob <=
0	0.003853191	0.003853191
1	0.000497484	0.004350674
2	0.043285964	0.047636638
3	0.013992113	0.061628751
4	0.122098161	0.183726912
5	0.036226912	0.219953824
6	0.153884022	0.373837846
7	0.068565157	0.442403003
8	0.189091472	0.631494475
9	0.066746558	0.698241033
10	0.084684591	0.782925623
11	0.015897263	0.798822886
12	0.101917713	0.9007406
13	0.008710198	0.909450798
14	0.033346627	0.942797425
15	0.00490693	0.947704356
16	0.031976008	0.979680363
17	0.007004262	0.986684625
18	0.001848571	0.988533196
19	0	0.988533196
20	0.005917241	0.994450437
21	0.001818486	0.996268923
22	0.000405364	0.996674287
23	0.000247126	0.996921413
24	0.00300967	0.999931083
25	0	0.999931083
26	0	0.999931083
27	0	0.999931083
28	6.47459E-05	0.999995829
29	4.17073E-06	1