The Game of Cribbage



Cribbage is a card game played in a series of rounds until one player moves the peg around the board twice (121 points - standard cribbage board).  In this cribbage game, you play the computer instead of a human opponent.

At the start of each round, each player gets six (6) cards of which they will pick two (2) cards to discard into the "crib" hand (leaving them with four (4) cards to play the hand with).  After the crib is discarded into, a card is turned up (the rounds upcard) and the round begins with the player holding the "crib" hand starting by playing one of the four cards.  Game play continues with each player taking turns playing a card until all of the cards are played.  Note though that during a hand, you may not be able to play a card because the total of the cards played makes more than 31.  In which case the player who played last gets one point and the played cards are cleared from the table.  During game play, it is possible to make other scores.

After all of the cards are played from the players hands, the hands are then scored starting with the player who does not hold the "crib" hand.  Then the other player scores his hand, then scores the "crib" hand.  At any point during this scoring if one player or the other makes 121 points, the game is over.  When scoring the hands at this stage, the upcard is included within the hand as a wild-card.

Play Hints:
- When determining what cards to discard, you should keep the hand that without the upcard gives the biggest score possible.  All that the upcard can do then is make your score better.  Sometimes you can get lucky guessing what the upcard might be, but overall, you should keep the hand that will give the biggest return not depending on the upcard.
- If at all possible, do not play a five as your first card.  It is too easy for the opponent to make 15 with a five.
- When determining what card to play next, play the card that will give you points.  If not, try to play a card that will not give point advantages to the opponent.



Where To: [index][play scores][hand scores]