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Dan Barlow:

My feeling regarding the ethics of the dealer are based on the ethics required at bridge tournaments. It should be unethical to intentionally delay taking the two points. Likewise it should be unethical to pause as if considering which of your last two cards to play if there is no choice (i.e., only one of them can be played without going over 31, or both cards are 4s, and suit is not an issue). This assumes that the winner should be determined by quality of cards and quality of play, not by trickery and deceit.

Of course this isn't bridge. If there's nothing in the cribbage rule book discouraging deception (as there should be), I would have to rule in favor of the dealer — otherwise there will be subjective rulings over whether His Heels was intentionally "forgotten" or whether it was an honest mistake discovered at the last second. You might be unlucky enough to get the French figure skating judge. The fact that a player is the type who would deliberately delay doesn't mean he did this time. Besides, if dealer had an A and not a 4, his delay would have brought the lead he didn't want from pone.

DeLynn Colvert:

The rule book tells the story: dealer may peg his two points before he plays his first card. I would warn him that his play was unethical, and to knock it off! But rules are rules. Perhaps a retraction of the first lead would be allowed, since pegging had not officially begun, since he had not pegged his two for the J?

George Rasmussen:

In this case it is not possible to describe the behavior as ethical or unethical. Often pegging two points for the turn of the J is delayed, and occurs after the opponent has played a card. The rule requires pegging those two prior to the play of a card by the dealer. The pegs were taken in this case prior to the play of a dealer card. Motivation for the delay of play is not possible to discern even though it appears that I have some prior knowledge of "shaky" practices on the part of this player. When pone assumes that dealer will not take those two points is the beginning of the problem. Such an assumption should not be made, as it is very unlikely that a player will miss the J in end-of-game situations. Pone should have made the safest play possible with the knowledge that the J had been turned and would be pegged.

Michael Schell:

The rulebook does say that dealer is entitled to peg His Heels anytime before he plays his first card. So I'd judge in his favor here. Having said that, I must say his conduct seems borderline unethical to me, a bit beyond the usual "pause before playing one of your two remaining cards which are actually both the same rank" variety of deception. He deliberately disrupted the mechanics of the game in order to fool his opponent, which comes close to violating the prohibition on "initiating a violation of the rules for the purpose of gaining an advantage". Still, he hasn't quite crossed the line, so I'd just issue a verbal warning, and perhaps informally suggest that other judges and tournament directors in the region keep a special eye out for him in the future.

Phyllis Schmidt:

Pone first mistake was to assume anything. She should have lead her best chance. If she was confused by her opponent that's her problem. Behavior unethical? No! I would rule game over.

Peter Setian:

Wow! I never thought I'd have to answer judgment questions here. I am not a judge. But if I were, I would have to say that the game should not be overturned. However, special note may be taken in case any similar situations arise again with this dealer. I might suggest to the rule book authorities that His Heels be treated just like pegging. That is, if after a reasonable pause, pegging points such as runs are disallowed, then why not His Heels?

HALSCRIB:

Sorry, ethics are strictly a human notion, so I'll take a pass on that part of the question. Suffice it to say that if it were me playing, and Display, Points was set to Auto, I'd count the two points for His Heels right away, so this situation wouldn't have come up.

As for the lead, if I were pone I'd look at the board position, decide to play off accordingly, and lead the A based on normal pegging principles. I don't generally fall for psychological ploys...

Panelists

Dan Barlow won the 1980 National Open Cribbage Tournament, and made the 1985 All American Cribbage Team. His cribbage strategy articles appeared in Cribbage World for many years, and can be seen on the ACC Web site. He also provides strategy tips at MSN Gaming Zone. He has written seven books on cribbage, two of which have been glowingly reviewed in Games Magazine. All, including his latest book Winning Cribbage Tips, are available at The Cribbage Bookstore.

HALSCRIB is widely regarded as the world's strongest computer cribbage player. Its opinion was solicited using a special analysis version of the program. Since HALSCRIB only speaks binary, its thoughts have been translated into English by Michael Schell and its creator, Hal Mueller, a retired mathematics professor and eight-time ACC tournament winner. For more information, see the HALSCRIB home page.