Jay Boysun asks via email:

I had a quick question regarding pegging and am hoping you could provide some light being shed upon the subject. My Grandfather taught me the game when I was younger and I thought I remember him telling me that if you are the dealer you will always have at least one point in the peg although you would not necesarrily reciev any points in the hand or crib. The subject came up tonight when my family was playing cards and this talked about. I am just curious if this holds true in 2 handed cribbage as well as 3 or 4 handed play.

We referred this question to Professor Plum, Cribbage Corner's resident maths and statistics expert. Professor Plum:

Jay,

Your grandfather was quite right. In two player cribbage, the dealer must peg at least one point. Here's why. You both have the same number of cards. Your opponent plays first. When you play your last-but-one card, either your opponent can go or he can not. If he can, you get a point for last. If he can't, you get a point for Go.

This is not necessarily true in the 3 or 4 player game as someone else can score the Go.

Thanks, Professor! And thanks Jay, for asking the question.

Edie Cappy writes:

How many combinations to make a 24 hand?

Can any mathematically inclined readers answer this?

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Danine Schlosser writes:

I have 4 sevens and 1 ace showing. What is the count?

Danine,

First count 15s. It is clear that a pair of 7s makes 15 with the Ace - but how many pairs of 7s are there in four 7s?

An easy way to remember this is to start by asking how many pairs there are in 2 cards. Obviously just one pair.

Now if you add another card, that card can pair with each of the previous cards - making 2 more pairs. So there are 3 pairs in 3 cards.

If we add another card again, that card can pair with each of the previous cards, making 3 more pairs. So there are 6 pairs in 4 cards.

That makes 6 15s, for 12 points in all.

Now we count pairs, and as we just worked out there are 6 pairs in your hand - for another 12 points. That's a total of 24!

Jason Massie writes:

Dear Cribbage Corner,

I am hoping someone can settle a Thanksgiving day dilema. We had a hand of 2-2-3-8 and a 2 was cut. How many points is there, 10 or 12?

Jason,

This is not an easy hand to count at first glance, but let's take it step by step. First the 15s. The 8 and 3 make 11, so requiring 4 more to make 15. As there are three 2s, there are three sets of different pairs of 2s to do this with. Therefore three 15s, for six points.

(We know all 15-scoring combinations must include the 3, because there must always be an odd-numbered card - that's a time-saving tip!)

Now count pairs - we already agreed there are three pairs of 2s, for another six points. That's 12 altogether, so I hope your family can now be reunited and enjoy many more games of cribbage!

Lucy writes:

If a sequence like: 2-4-5-3-7-6. Can the person that put the 6 count 6 points?

Lucy,

Indeed she can! And if her opponent held an Ace, he could play it for another 7 points. Anyone who plays a card which completes a run, whether in order or not, scores a point for every card in that run.

I hope this helps.

Christine Hendricks writes:

Hi

I have just read your 'Simple Cribbage rules', I used to play a lot with my family many years ago, I have now joined a Cards group and they welcome new games, so I thought I wold introduce them to Cribbage, there is something not clear in you rules and I can't remember, during 'The count' when players are laying down the cards what happens when, say for example 4 of a kind came up and they were 8 or above - thus taking the total of the count to over 31? also the same for runs that would go above 31 - do you stop or what ?

Christine,

During the playing phase - as distinct from the scoring phase - each player lays down just one card at a time, and you cannot play any card that would take the running count over 31.

So in your example, 4 successive 8s could not be played. After the third 8 (making the count 24), the next player would have to play a 7 or lower, or 'Go' (meaning they have no legal card to play).

When nobody can play any more cards without exceeding 31, the count is over, and a new count begins at zero, with the last scoring player laying the first card.

Cribbage rules and cribbage strategy make the discard one of the key elements of skill in cribbage. You must try to maximise the remaining points in your hand, while leaving yourself useful cards to play in different tactical situations during the pegging, and without giving your opponent cards which may help her in the crib. When discarding to your own crib, you will be trying to anticipate what kind of cards your opponent is likely to give you, and discard cards which will work with them to create big scores in the crib.

Cribbage discard hints

Here are some simple hints to help you get started with your cribbage discards:

On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 7:03 PM, james heap wrote:
> hi
> could you please tell me what points i have in my hand three threes and a
> six in hand six turned up

Hi James,

If we count 15s first, then the three 3s make 9 so they can make 15 in
combination with each of the 6s - that's two 15s. In addition the two
sixes make 12, so they can make 15 with each of the 3s - that's
another 3 15s. Here are the scoring combinations:

3 3 3 6   = 15
3 3 3   6 = 15
3     6 6 = 15
  3   6 6 = 15
    3 6 6 = 15

That's 5 15s for 10 points total.

Now count pairs - a pair of 6s scores 2, and a pair royal of 3s scores
6 (you can make 3 possible pairs from 3 of a kind). For pairs 8 points
total.

There are no runs or flushes and you don't have the Jack of nobs, so
the total is 10 + 8 = 18.