Cribbage Strategy Resources?

[pzhon]

A good "customer" wants to mix cribbage in with the games he normally plays. He may be a good cribbage player, or not. I'd appreciate advice from people who are very familiar with playing cribbage competitively or for substantial stakes over advice from those who have just played friends.

How long does it take to become a good cribbage player? What sort of advantage does a good player have over a mediocre player, or an expert over a good player? What stakes correspond to, say, $10-$20 limit? What are some good cribbage resources for someone who has mastered other games of skill and chance, but not cribbage?

Thanks.

[Siegmund]

I would rate it similar to backgammon. (That is, I consider myself good but not an expert, and would expect to win ~45% of games against an expert, and maybe 80% against a beginner.) Disclaimer: I have played semiseriously over the net and at local competitions, not major regional tournaments or for high stakes.

A starting point is browsing around the "tips" portion of the American Cribbage Congress's website and Michael Schell's www.cribbageforum.com site . The latter includes - or included a couple years ago, anyway - a fair bit of detail on how an allegedly expert-level computer program HALSCRIB was created. (You can buy the program, but I haven't... I confess, I have a secret project of writing one good enough to beat myself.)

If you prefer reading books of tips / practice situations with analyses, there are several by Dan Barlow in print.

Given my somewhat unusual geographic circumstances, I can't really answer questions about typical stakes in the "real world."

[SheetWise]

The design of the game is brilliant -- and the 120 point finish is as perfectly positioned as the first bag in baseball. Consequently, when two experts play heads up, there are a phenomenal number of 1-2 point wins. It's the very fine points of playing that will determine who wins in the long run. The order of the counts will determine the winner in most games, and tends to make the number of games won a lot closer than the number of points won. I've played series of 100 games where I lost 51-49 games, but was ahead 400 points. How you wager games/points will make a difference. If you feel you're the underdog, play for game only -- if you feel you've got the best of it, play for points. Avoid 4 handed games while you're learning -- it's a completely different game.

[Decks]

I played several hundred games vs a beginning player last year while on an extended vacation. We played points (doubling for skunks, 10x for double skunks). Over ~200 games I was winning at a rate of 5 points per game. The majority of $ won playing this way comes from the few points advantage you have when you just skunk them or you just sneak over the skunk line when they win.

If you are a logical thinking winning poker player you can expect to pick up cribbage pretty easily and likely win at the pace of 2-5 points per game long term. The beauty of this game is that most players play a very simple strategy and believe that the game is 95% luck. Price your game accordingly.

Edit: I don't think it's possible to have an 80% win-rate except over someone with a diminished mental capacity. Versus the 'average' player (like it sounds like your 'friend' is), I would not expect to win more than 60% of the time. However, these wins will on average net you far more than his do.

[Siegmund]

Yes, when I mentioned 80%, I meant versus someone who had literally just been taught the rules. If they pay any sort of attention at all, that'll come down to 60% quickly. 60% sounds about right for a good player playing against those "very simple strategies" you mention.