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CRIBBAGE REINVENTED - SECOND EDITION, 2006 - A CRIBBAGE
BOOK EXCERPT
COMPONENTS OF PLAY
There are eight very separate
and distinct components to every game of cribbage. A few are perfunctory single function events that merely move the game
from one phase to the next. Other events involve scoring points and are of such complexity they can be further broken down
into smaller, more complex, parts and sub-parts. They are, in the order of their occurrence:
(1) cut for deal; (2) the deal; (3) the throw-off; (4) the cut for start; (5) pegging play; (6) count and peg the non-dealer's
hand; (7) count and peg the dealer's hand; (8) count and peg the crib; (9) Muggins-an optional scoring component. The following
descriptions are limited to the mechanics as to how each component is performed during a single hand of cribbage. For the
vast majority of recreational cribbers the following components also constitute the basic rules by which the game is played.
Strategy and playing techniques relative to each component will later become the subject of intimate discussion.
* * * * *
The 1,5,9, are worrisome cards to have to play
against the seven lead but if one had to be chosen, it would be the ace because there are only three sevens and aces that
can be used to retaliate. But as between the five and the nine, the five is preferred over the nine for several reasons.
It is a favorite to be retained with high cards whereas sevens and ten cards do not work together. Also, if retained
with the seven, the five can rarely be used to count fifteens i.e. 5,6,6,7, which is an eight-count hand that can do no better
than sixteen with the cut. Whereas, a 6,7,7,8 is a twelve-point-hand, that, with a cut, can double to twenty-four. Perhaps
the most persuasive argument in favor of the five verses the nine is that the eight is friendlier with the seven than is the
five. Thus the greater likelihood is that the opponent, who leads a seven, has retained upper middle cards over the lower,
therefore in a tight spot the five is better than the nine with which to answer a seven lead. The point
of this little analytical tidbit is that there will be an overabundance of situations where there are no unfriendly cards
to choose from, but a card still has to be played. Then, in order to select the best card, you must analyze your options with
regard to habits of play as opposed to choosing the best percentage choice. That means, in some instances, the card selection
process is not necessarily based upon raw mathematics but partly upon knowing what card combinations will most likely be retained
by an opponent. The five versus nine strategy as an answer to the seven lead is just such an instance in that they both submit
to identical mathematical probabilities of a run being scored against yet the five over the nine is far more likely to be
the safer answer to the seven lead.
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