Cribbage Books

If you like to play cribbage, you will remember many times when you were set to take a game, heading down Fourth Street, screaming ahead of your opponent and confident of a win. Then, one hand and you find yourself in the "dead hole" (or as the Brits have it, the "stink hole") and your opponent pegs past you for a win, smiling a superior smile at your folly.

The strategy for discarding to the crib and for pegging changes as you get to the end; winning is everything. Who gets to count first, pegging points become more important. This slim book of quizzes will sharpen your play by giving you a number of hands and asking you choices to make--which card to throw, which to play when and the percentages. While cribbage is a game of chance, you can improve your odds by a few points pegged here and there and by careful strategy at the endgame, which for me is the hardest part of the game. Nice little book, easy to use and gets the job done.

It's often said that there's a lot of luck in cribbage, and of course there is, but this book demonstrates more than any other I've seen how much skill is involved. And it's completely interactive--and fun. Given the position and your cards, you decide the best play. Then you read the solution and explanation. If this book doesn't improve your game you aren't trying hard enough.

Also recommended: Winning Cribbage Tips, Cribbage for Experts

COMPLETE CRIBBAGE DISCARDS, written for cribbage players of all skill levels, was the first book in history to feature a complete listing (excluding flushes) of correct discard choices, for both your crib and your opponent's crib, for all 18,395 possible deals (every rank combination from AAAA22 through QQKKKK). The book also included a complete frequency analysis of all 182 possible discards (AA through KK, to your crib and to your opponent's crib). The final result of a 23-year computer project, this was the ultimate cribbage reference book for experts, a unique source of instruction for beginners, and an encyclopedic answer to discarding questions.

American Cribbage Congress Life Master -- One Star, and Hall of Famer Phyllis Schmidt says: "Your book is incredible."

American Cribbage Congress President, Life Master - Three Stars, and Hall of Famer De Lynn Colvert says: "Nolan's book will certainly be a welcomed addition for any serious cribbage player."

FROM THE INTRODUCTION:

Every cribbage player, whether beginner or expert, is confronted with only two basic questions during the game:
1. Which two cards should I discard to the crib from the six cards dealt to me?

2. In what order should I play the remaining four cards in my hand?

This book addresses the first question in a uniquely comprehensive way; it specifies the correct discard choices for all 18,395 possible deals. That's all possible rank combinations, of course, not all possible rank and suit combinations. The analysis of suit combinations would require the inclusion of 20,358,520 hands, clearly beyond the physical capacity of any book.

It is assumed that the reader has at least a rudimentary understanding of the rules of cribbage, but no further knowledge of the game is necessary. This book is intended to be enjoyed by, and increase the playing skill of, both the novice player, just learning to correctly choose his discards, and the expert player, occasionally needing some help in the analysis of a particularly difficult discard choice.

FROM THE DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY:

There are 18,395 possible six-card deals (rank combinations, not rank and suit combinations). For any one of those deals, it is possible to calculate which pair of cards should be discarded so as to statistically maximize the resulting average hand score. But that calculation is not really sufficient when choosing the correct discard. The goal is actually to maximize the sum of your average hand score and your average crib score, when it is your crib, and to maximize the difference between your average hand score and your opponent's average crib score, when it is your opponent's crib. The goal is to maximize your net score.

Over the board, the expert player relies mostly on experience, enhanced to some degree by basic calculation. A complete calculation over the board is impossible, however. This is because there are literally thousands of possible combinations to consider for just one deal. First, there are between three and 15 different rank combinations of two cards that can be discarded from the six cards originally dealt to you. Second, there are either 12 or 13 different rank starter cards that can be drawn, each carrying a different probability. Third, there are between 77 and 91 different rank combinations of two cards that your opponent can discard. Each one of these, also, carries a different probability. This means that for just one deal, the number of possible combinations to consider is at least 2,772 (3x12x77), and can be as high as 17,745 (15x13x91). Each one of these combinations has to be scored, and receive an assigned probability! No wonder it is beyond the reach of anyone to completely analyze even a single deal over the board.

Luckily, the type of calculation required for full cribbage discard analysis is ideally suited for a computer. Indeed, the discard choices listed in this book are the result of a computer program written by the author. The program considers, individually, all possible rank combinations of 52 cards, taken six cards at a time (the deal); it considers, individually, all possible rank combinations of those six cards, taken two cards at a time (the player's discard); it considers, individually, all possible rank starter cards, and assigns to each the probability of being drawn (the starter card); it considers, individually, all possible rank combinations of 52 cards, taken two cards at a time, and assigns to each the probability of being chosen (the opponent's discard); it considers all possible combinations of the player's discard, the starter card, and the opponent's discard, and for each combination, it calculates the score of both the hand and the crib, and assigns to each the probability of occurrence; it calculates the sum of, and the difference between, the average score of the hand and the average score of the crib, for each player's discard choice, for each deal, and it lists each deal, and the corresponding discard choices that maximize that sum and that difference.

In short, the program produces a listing that predicts mathematically, for every possible deal of the cards, whether it is your crib or your opponent's crib, the discard choice that statistically maximizes your average net score.

This project started in 1978 with my first computer program. That program calculated the score of all 6,175 possible cribbage hands (rank combinations of 52 cards taken five cards at a time). Two years later, I wrote a program that calculated, for all 18,395 deals (rank combinations of 52 cards taken six cards at a time), the discard choice that would result in the statistically highest average hand score (it did not take the crib into account). Two years after that, I rewrote the previous program, this time calculating the discard choices that would result, for the player's crib and for the opponent's crib, in the statistical maximization of the player's average net score, taking into account the player's discard and the starter card, but not the opponent's discard.

In 1984, I rewrote the previous program, this time taking into account full five-card crib hands comprised of the player's discard, the starter card, and the opponent's discard. It assigned a probability of being chosen to each combination of opponent's discard, but one based upon only the availability of the cards that could be chosen, not the likelihood of their being chosen. The program ran continuously for 801 days, non-stop. That's 2.2 years of unshared, dedicated computer time in which the program calculated the correct discard choices for each of the 18,395 deals, scoring 195,845,299 hands in the process (at a speed of 2.8 hands per second).

Later, it occurred to me that in order for the discard choices in the listing to be completely accurate, they would have to take into account the likelihood of each of the opponent's discard combinations being the one chosen. The only correct way to accomplish that goal would be to run the program, gather the total results of all discard choices, enter that new information into the opponent's discard section of the program, and run the program, again, using the new data. The iterative process would be continued until the results converged, and two successive runnings of the program produced identical results. Unfortunately, the running of a 2.2-year program multiple times was clearly not a realistic possibility.

By the 1990s, computer speed had increased to the point where such iterations were possible in a practical sense, but the original 1984 program had been written in a language that is incompatible with modern operating systems. Therefore, the project waited for me to find an opportunity to completely rewrite the program from scratch; this finally happened in 2001. Each iterative running of the current program took 7.66 minutes, scoring 425,900 hands per second, calculating discard choices for 40 deals per second. (That's 150,000 times as fast as the 1984 program.) Twenty-one iterations were required for the results to converge, an exactingly accurate result to be obtained, and my 23-year project to be completed.

Michael Wortley Nolan
Author, Complete Cribbage Discards

This was the perfect book for me. All I knew about the game prior to reading Buttler's book had come from reading rules published by cribbage board makers and the American Cribbage Congress, which are sometimes leave a few items unclear. Buttler makes all aspects of the rules and strategy clear, at least to me. Highly recommended by me, a beginner, but I suspect that experts would find the book well worthwhile.

This is an excellent guide to the styles, manufacturers and street price of cribbage boards. Great photographs. Very helpful in identifying antique boards. Only negative...I wish it had an index!

This book covers the subject of cribbage in a depth not usually achieved.It has great pictures and is very informative. Whether you play cribbage and wanted to know the history or you are a collecter of cribbage boards then this is a definative guide to changing styles. A must have by anyones standards

Review: 1997 - I have used this book with students, teachers, and grandparents in teaching the basics of cribbage. Children - ages 8-12 become very focused with "Uncle Joe" and other characters of the text. The book allows for the combining of a wooden cribbage board, a deck of playing cards, and the principles of 360 year old cribbage - hands on or 'experiential learning theory' approach! Karl W. Grube, Ph.D., Editor of educational games.

Bought book as a gift for my son .He said it was fine for what he wanted

Like the same author's other cribbage books, this one is written in a casual, reader-friendly style. The tips range from basic to very advanced, and each is explained with clear examples. It's hard to come up with new material on such a seemingly simple game, but this book has several strategy ideas I haven't seen in other books. And the tips that I'd seen before are expanded with new variations and sample hands. If I had to rank all the cribbage books out there, I'd put this one at the top for players who already know the basics.

"Play Cribbage to Win" is a fine introductory text,perhaps best thought of as a sampling of the concepts of skilful playthat Barlow has written about in his previous books andarticles. Barlow covers some important aspects of pegging and endgameplay, and gives many interesting examples. His writings on FourthStreet tactics have made him perhaps the game's leading endgametheoretician, and the chapters on endgames are particularly stronghere.

The book is an enjoyable read, and there are quizzes every fewpages, making it a lot of fun to work through. The typesetting andlayout are reasonably good, but I personally would have preferredsmaller type and larger margins (leaving more room for notes). A fewtypos and outright errors have crept into the book, perhaps theinevitable result of commercial publishing nowadays. But one of thethings I've appreciated about Barlow's self-published books is theirlack of gaffes.

The primary downside to Play Cribbage to Win is itsscope. It is not a comprehensive treatment of the game. Missing arestatistical tables, a discussion of averages and odds, and coverage ofpsychology and cheating. The chapter on discarding is weak, andcertain pegging tactics, such as jack traps, are not covered atall. There is also no mention of board strategy, except as it appliesto the endgame. Considering that most of today's top players regardboard strategy as the centerpiece of modern play, this is asignificant omission.

If you're a novice or an intermediate player,I think you would do well to read "Play Cribbage to Win" inconjunction with DeLynn Colvert's "Play Winning Cribbage"(still the best single book on cribbage) and John Chambers'"Cribbage: A New Concept". Together, these three books willgive you all the essential knowledge you need to move to the nextlevel.

If you're an expert player, or if you've already readBarlow's other books, you'll find yourself going over familiarterritory. Nevertheless, it's always worthwhile to review importantconcepts, particularly when they're presented through new illustrativehands and examples (as far as I can tell, none of the material in PlayCribbage to Win is recycled). You may disagree with the text from timeto time, but perhaps you'll also pick up some new ideas - I know Idid.

Whatever your level of play, this book is well worth having,and well worth reading...

This book concentrates on strategies that will help players gain extra holes here and there, holes that could make the difference between winning and losing. The discarding section is thorough and well organized, explaining each of the situations in which one should not necessarily save the most points. The sections on pegging include many ideas I had never thought of, and which were not mentioned in the other books. And anytime Barlow is discussing a complicated idea, he gives easily-followed examples. Some of the "expert tips" in this book may seldom come up, but they're interesting to think about, and when they DO come up, it's worth being prepared. The book is especially strong in describing strategy at the end of the game, when anything you do can cost you a win. When I saw that the book included basics such as the history and rules of cribbage, I didn't expect it to reach a high level of strategy, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I've purchased two other cribbage books online, but found one of them to be more detailed than any sane person would want to read, and the other to be lacking in sound strategy tips. Both seemed to devote huge amounts of space to the principle that one should play completely differently depending on whether he had first deal or not, because over time, both players would have about the same points in their hands and cribs. This is somewhat unsound: hands don't even out in one short game. Maybe if a game lasted 4 hours....

I'm particularly pleased that the author makes no claim that you'll start winning all the time after reading his book. He admits that luck is a major factor, and simply tries to give the reader a slight edge. I would recommend this book to someone who wanted to learn cribbage, as well as to someone who wanted to improve his skill level.

Just learning to play cribbage can be a real challenge when it comes to counting scores. I was extremely pleased with this book and what a difference it made. Plainly written.

The title says it all, "For Experts". If you just want to learn how to play, without all the technical terms, this book is not for you. There were 2 terms I was disappointed to have not seen. "Skunk" and "A skunk is 2 wins". I think every cribbage book should make that clear :)

At 96 pages, I wasn't expecting this to be so useful, but it doesn't waste pages explaining the rules and how to add up points. It assumes you already play cribbage, and concentrates on the area of the game in which the player has the most control, the play of the hand. If you want a book that does have the rules and basics, try Play Cribbage to Win by the same author, different publisher. And if you want to tackle really complex aspects of the game, try Winning Cribbage Tips and/or Miracles on 4th Street. They're all excellent.

If you're an average player looking to become an expert, then Ieagerly recommend you get a hold of DeLynn Colvert's Play WinningCribbage. It covers basic discarding and pegging technique, as well as more complicated endgame and psychological concepts. It's attractively illustrated, and includes discard tables and other statistics, as well as some "color" material on cribbage history and tournament play. There is also extensive treatment of board strategy, although you might find the discussion in John Chambers' "Cribbage: A New Concept" easier to grasp.

If you're only going to read one book on cribbage, make it this one. The author has been National Champion four times, is the highest rated tournament player in the history of the American Cribbage Congress, and is widely regarded as the world's best over-the-board player. With a track record like that, his advice warrants close attention.

Despite the endorsement, I must knock off a star due to a number of typographical and grammatical errors. It's not a perfect book, but it's the closest thing we have to it in cribbage...

This book is very informative and easy to read. The illustrations greatly aid the comprehension of Colvert's unique winning "26 Theory." I strongly recommend this book if you are a serious tournament cribbage player (American Cribbage Congress). Colvert has proved this method of play by winning the National Championship 4 times and is currently America's #1 ranked player (lifetime). I began playing in ACC sanctioned tournaments and this has opened up a highly enjoyable hobby and I have met many new friends over the cribbage board. Cribbage is a great sociable game and this book has improved my skills and winning average.

The artwork is great, and many of the ideas are useful. What I didn't like was the tables based on hands the author held, not really reader-friendly, and not exactly scientific. Some strategy isn't explained fully. For instance it's explained how to "trap a Jack," but it isn't explained why one should expect his opponent to save a Jack as his last card in the first place. Most players play off their high cards early, and hang onto low ones. Thus it would be more useful to discuss trapping a low card than a Jack. Trapping 5's is discussed, and makes much more sense, as players do hold onto 5's frequently. These are minor points however. There aren't a lot of cribbage books out there, and this one is entertaining, if more expensive than most.