hide answers

Dan Barlow:

You often lead from a pair in singles, hoping to triple. In doubles, it's your partner who would triple, and he's unlikely to triple if you lead from a pair. Unloading your high cards early and saving your low ones often leads to bigger pegging than in singles — though not necessarily for your team. In doubles your hand is more likely to be bad, so make an effort to toss a 5 into your (or your partner's) crib, even if it means sacrificing two points.

John Chambers:

Players generally pair more often than in the two handed game except when your opponent's team is close to Fourth Street. If you have the lead, 99% of the time you will lead a low card in order to give your partner an opportunity to get a 15. Also, in the same regard, keep the play at 20 or under to allow your partner an opportunity to get a 31-2. In two-handed cribbage the dealer wants to have three counts to their opponent's one count. In partners, the dealer's team wants to have four counts to their opponent's two counts. If you have a hand with two 5s and you won't get many points with a cut, split your 5 and give your partner one.

In the original game of partners, the two non-dealer players would count both hands, then both players on the dealer’s team would count their hands.

George Rasmussen:

Drop a single small card with value of 3 or less early in play. The risk far outweighs any potential gain if you're holding only one such card. If you're holding two or small cards, keep them until the end of the play. If you're holding a 5 in the hand for two points when either you or partner has the crib, then toss the nickel to the crib. Lead from middle cards if your team needs pegs. You can pair an opening lead with greater safety in doubles. Face cards are often thrown to the crib in doubles as pegging cards are often retained. Hand value is less when dealt five cards, and leading a face card is less likely to be paired (although you can still give up a 15-2).

That might be too much advice already for a first-time doubles player. Just show up and take a seat!

Michael Schell:

Honestly I carry a prejudice against doubles. One of my favorite features of cribbage is the characteristic rapid interplay between players in the discarding, cutting, pegging and counting phases of the game, and this is much less simulating to me if I'm only responsible for 25% of the game action instead of 50%. Also, given four eager North American card players, there are a host of other games that work better for that number than doubles cribbage (hearts, spades, contract bridge, etc.). But since the question is on strategy and tactics rather than game choice, I'll offer that one difference in doubles is that the lead of an A can be troublesome:

^A?  _K  ^?

You partner might be lucky enough to have a 4, but if she has a K, pairing your left-hand opponent makes the count 21, in addition to the usual risk of being tripled.

Peter Setian:

First of all, throwing one card means you can completely play to maximize the hand, unless you're tossing a 5 in the opponents crib. But any other discard, whether a 7 or a K, should not affect your decision. Likewise, consider tossing a 5 in your own or partner's crib if it only adds two points or less to your hand (unless you can speculate with two 4s or 6s for instance).

The biggest difference is probably pegging points. Don't worry as much about pairing lead cards, except maybe in key board positions at the endgame. The endgame doesn't differ much from a single's game. Decide for aggressive or defensive pegging, whether your hand will actually count, etc., and discard/play accordingly.

REX:

Doubles? Oh that's right, you're American. They call it team cribbage in these parts. Either way I haven't played it, so I asked my creator Hal Mueller what advice he'd give me:

"I was a team member for the Royal Canadian Legion #173 that was in the Eastern Region of the Hamilton and District Cribbage League. We played against nine other teams — home and away — to determine top four for playoffs. Winner of playoffs proceeded to play the winner of the Western Region for the championship. We made it to the playoffs but were eliminated each year. However, we did win the End-of Year one-evening tournament once.

"Having said all that, luck plays an important role as does skill. I was unsuccessful in convincing my team members that positional play should affect discarding and pegging (to pair/run or not to pair/run). In the DOS version of HALSCRIB for two players, I computed the average hand value to be about 5 per player and 3 for the crib, and average pegging is about 1 per player plus 1 for the dealer. Taking into account that four-person cribbage pegging does not end after the first go or 31, the hand averages are 5+ per player and pegging averages are 4+ per player plus 1 for the dealer. So after two deals, each team should be around hole 35. Experience showed this to be the case. So after 5 deals, both teams should be around hole 105 on average with the advantage to the first dealer team. Play position as you would in two-person 6-card cribbage."

Click here for a guide to cribbage notation and symbols.

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.

John Chambers was one of the original founding members of the ACC. He is a Grand Master, winner of seven major tournaments, and author of Cribbage: A New Concept, He also directs three annual tournaments: the Ocean State Cribbage Classic, New England Peer Championship and Charity Cribbage Challenge.

George "Ras" Rasmussen is a Life Master - Two Stars, a four-time All-American, the national Grass Roots Division 1 champion in 2009, a former state champion in Virginia, Montana and Washington, and holds a Gold Award and a President's Award. He also directs the Washington State Championship, held each year in Centralia, WA. His articles on cribbage are available on the ACC Web site.

Michael Schell is a pioneer of modern cribbage theory, which synthesizes traditional concepts of expert play with new computer-informed insights and analysis. He has published Cribbage Forum since 2000. Schell holds a Bronze Award, is a Washington State Champion (2001), and was one of the principal architects of ACC Internet Cribbage.

Peter Setian has played cribbage for over 20 years, and has been a member of the ACC for about 14 years. During that time, he has won seven major tournaments and earned his Life Master rating. He plays in about eight tournaments per year, including the ACC Tournament of Champions and the annual Grand National. He enjoys participation in Grass Roots Club #72.

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.