PLAY CRIBBAGE ONLINE: RULES AND GUIDE Objective. Cribbage requires a fair amount of calculation, tactical skills and strategy. The trick is in making and adding points. For a math enthusiast, this should be a walk in the park. The first player to get 121 points wins. The game has three notable parts: the deal, the play and the show. The Online Cribbage Revolution - Team Cribbage. Team Cribbage is a fun family game where you can play 2 vs 2. So go ahead, grab your wife and take on your in-laws and show them who is the better cribbage team. Cribbage is a classic card game that involves playing cards to create combinations and gain points.
| see also: Cribbage Rules - How to Play Cribbage Cribbage Internet Tournaments Cribbage 29 hand and some Cribbage statistics Cribbage pone pegging score Cribbage dealer pegging score Cribbage dealer maximal combined score How to count your cribbage hand Cribbage scoring chart Play Cribbage Online. Cribbage Tournaments |
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Cribbage Strategy Introduction
To play cribbage well, you need to learn two things: how to discard and how to peg or play the hand. How to discard is divided into two sections: how to discard into your own crib and how to discard into your opponent's crib. Though there is a considerable luck in cribbage, the main portions of the game - hand recognition and counting, discarding to the crib and pegging - are heavily influenced by the strategies employed by the individual player.
Now about Luck: keep in mind, that the best cards to be dealt are fives, because they form fifteens with 10s, Js, Qs, and Ks. Combinations adding to five are good, too, especially when repeated and matched with a 10. For example, 2 3 3 K, is worth six, but a 10, J, or Q starter card will add four points to its value and a 2, 3, or K starter will be worth six more points.
Cribbage Strategy for Discarding for Your Crib
It is generally easier to discard when you have the crib; you don't have to worry about putting good cards into the crib. In discarding you have two aims:
1. To get as much as possible out of your hand
2. To build a good crib
Try to put something good into your crib - fives are good, pairs, any two cards totaling 15 (7 and 8, 9 and 6, or 5 and 10, J, Q, K) or cards that touch (to form a run).
According to player's statistics, you should put cards to your own crib which have high scoring potential. In order of preference, and as available, discards to own crib should look like this: 5-5, 2-3, 5-J, 5-6, 5-K, 5-10, 5-Q, 4-5, 7-8, etc. Some of these discards are strong enough to sacrifice points in the hand.
But never break up your hand in hopes of getting a good crib. Your hand is where you need to score most of your points. High-scoring cribs are unusual and require luck or an opponent's mistake.
In deciding what to throw away, The Starter Card must be considered but don't count on it too much. Try to hold cards that will be helped by several different starter cards.
Cribbage Strategy for Discarding for Your Opponents Crib
There is no such thing as a safe crib, but here are several ways you can reduce the chances for giving your opponent a big crib.
1. Avoid discarding cards that add up to five, a 3 and 2, or a 4 and 1.
2. Avoid giving the Q, J or 3, 4; they often produce runs. J has also a 25% chance of counting one point as Nobs.
3. Avoid two cards with just one between such as Q-10, 10-8 combination as it only takes one card from the dealer to complete the sequence.
4. Avoid 7s and 8s; they are big hand builders.
5. Don't discard two cards of the same suit.
So the good cribbage discard onto opponent's crib is: 10-K, 9-K, 6-K, 6-Q, 9-Q, 8-K, 7-10, 6-10, A-Q, 7-Q, 7-K, 8-Q, A-K and so on
Sometimes it pays to give your opponent something good. If four of your cards combine to make a good hand then, give your opponent what is left over.
Double runs should almost always be kept; chances of a quadruple or triple run are high enough to warrant keeping a double run even if you must help your opponent's crib a bit. An exception would be a hand like 5 5 10 10 9 8, when the best play is to throw the 9 8.
If you need to discard face cards, throwing a king into the opponent's crib is better than throwing a queen or jack, since it's hardest to form a run with a king
When there's a conflict between helping the opponent's crib and keeping your own hand intact, consider the score of the game. If you're ahead and it's okay if you both score big, you might take a chance on giving the opponent a big crib; but if you're behind, you want to play defensively and slow down the game, which means you should give up your own best hand to avoid helping the opponent.
Cribbage Strategy for Pegging
Try to lead your opponent during play. For example, if you start with a 7, your opponent could play an 8 for 15 and score 2 points. By leading, you can play a 9 to score 3 points for a Run.
If possible, try to cover yourself in case the opponent pairs you or makes fifteen. For example, if you hold 2 3 6 9, lead the 3 rather than the 2, because if it's paired you can make fifteen.
In a play, leading from a Pair is a good strategy. For example, if you have a Pair, you can lead by playing one of the cards of that Pair. If your opponent plays a matching card, you can play your other Pair for Three of a Kind and score 6 points.
Low pairs such as aces can be very good to hold when you need to peg a lot of points. If the opponent says go, you can play them consecutively and score the pair (plus a point for the go).
Eleven points cards. These are cards which total eleven points and are instrumental in scoring 31-for-2 or more. Two card elevens favor the dealer (5-6, 4-7, 3-8, 2-9, A-x). Three card elevens favor the non-dealer (A-A-9, 2-2-7, 3-3-5, 4-4-3, 5-5-A). Four card elevens favor the dealer (A-A-4-5, A-2-3-5, 2-2-3-4) and often result in huge pegging scores when a portion of the eleven point combination is a triple (A-A-A-8, 2-2-2-5, 3-3-3-2)
If you're the dealer and you hold two cards that would form a run with a five: 3-4, 4-6, or 6-7 - you have a good chance to score a run by saving these cards if, as is fairly likely, opponent holds a five. Opponent won't lead the five, and may well hold it to the end, after 31 has been reached. Chances are then good that the last three cards played will give you a run, plus a point for last card.
Endgame pegging involves strategy unlike that employed in other areas of the board. You have to prevent dealer from pegging at game end. It may be a good idea to keep low cards in your hand so you'll have more opportunities to score Go points.
Play Cribbage Online Multiplayer
| Bidding: | Generate a maximum willing bid by picking a random number. Increment the bid until it is above the maximum willing bid, then pass. |
| Declaring Trump: | Declare trump suit with whichever suit has the highest sum of card values. |
| Passing Cards To Declarer: | Pass a random set of cards. |
| Passing Cards As The Declarer: | Pass a random set of cards. |
| Trick-Taking: | Play a random legal card. |
| Bidding: | Simulate many rounds with cards randomly dealt to standard strategy players. Set the maximum willing bid at the round score achieved in more than 83% of the simulations. |
| Declaring Trump: | Simulate many rounds with cards randomly dealt to standard strategy players. Pick the trump suit that resulted in the highest willing bid. |
| Passing Cards To Declarer: | First prefer not to pass any cards that result in a meld score for your hand. Then, prefer to first pass highest trump cards. Then prefer highest non-trump cards. |
| Passing Cards As The Declarer: | First prefer not to pass any cards that result in a meld score for our hand. Then, prefer to first pass non-ace cards that would make us void in a suit, then prefer non-trump kings, then non-trump queens, then jack of diamonds (except if just received from partner), then lowest non-trump cards, then lowest trump cards. Finally, if necessary, we would choose to pass the cards that contribute the least amount of points to our meld score. |
| Trick-Taking When Leading: | Remembering what has been played and what was shown during passing and melding, play the highest trump card that is guaranteed to take the trick. Otherwise, play the highest non trump card. |
| Trick-Taking When Following Lead: | If we don't have a play that can beat what is currently in the trick pile, then if our partner played the current highest trick card then we play our lowest counter. Otherwise we play our lowest card. If we do have play options that could beat what is currently in the trick pile, then we play our highest winning card unless we are playing last. If we are playing last and we can take the trick then we play our lowest card that can take the trick. |
Play Cribbage Online Multiplayer
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| Bidding: | Simulate many rounds with cards randomly dealt to standard strategy players. Set the maximum willing bid at the round score achieved in more than 75% of the simulations. |
| Declaring Trump: | Simulate many rounds with cards randomly dealt to standard strategy players. Pick the trump suit that resulted in the highest willing bid. |
| Passing Cards To Declarer: | First prefer not to pass any cards that result in a meld score for your hand. Then, prefer to pass highest trump cards (except 9's of trump). Then prefer aces. Then prefer 9s of trump. Then prefer queen of spades or jack of diamonds. Then prefer jacks. Then prefer nines. Then pass the cards that contribute the least amount of points to our meld score. |
| Passing Cards As The Declarer: | First prefer not to pass any cards that result in a meld score for our hand. Then prefer non-trump kings, then non-trump queens, then jack of diamonds (except if just received from partner), then lowest non-trump cards, then lowest trump cards. Finally, if necessary, we would choose to pass the cards that contribute the least amount of points to our meld score. |
| Trick-Taking When Leading: | First remove bad options: For each legal play, simulate the rest of the round 200 times with random deals of the unseen cards. If any play results in an average round score that is more than half a point lower than the highest average play, then remove it from the options considered. Remembering what has been played and what was shown during passing and melding, play the highest trump card that is guaranteed to take the trick. Otherwise, play the highest non trump card that is guaranteed to take the trick. Otherwise, play the lowest card. |
| Trick-Taking When Following Lead: | First remove bad options: For each legal play, simulate the rest of the round 200 times with random deals of the unseen cards. If any play results in an average round score that is more than half a point lower than the highest average play, then remove it from the options considered. If we don't have a play that can beat what is currently in the trick pile, then if our partner played the current highest trick card then we play our lowest counter. Otherwise we play our lowest card. If we do have play options that could beat what is currently in the trick pile, then we play our highest winning card unless we are playing the last trick card. If we are playing last and we can take the trick then we play our lowest card that can take the trick. |