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Ask the experts: Read the
November problem and our panel's answers to the October problem
(added 12/7/2008)
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I've updated the links page, removing
some old or inactive links and adding a couple of interesting new
ones (added 8/4/2008)
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Cribbage threatened by anti-gambling hysteria: As reported in
the June 2008 issue of Cribbage World, the state government of
Maine has cracked down on sanctioned cribbage, claiming that the
small stakes Grass Roots events held at various venues violate
Maine's gambling laws. The governor recently
vetoed a bipartisan attempt at legislative relief claiming that
it was an "unacceptible expansion of gambling". Left unexplained was
why, even if cribbage tournaments constitute gambling, this somehow
gave the state the right to ban them in lieu of their organizers
forking over a $700/year license fee. Note that poker games are also
affected by the crackdown. Unfortunately this kind of government
intrusion isn't confined to either major US political party.
Republican anti-gambling zealots like
Senator Kyl
feel they have a right to impose their moral beliefs on the rest of
us, while Maine's Governor Baldacci, a Democrat, seems eager to
protect his state lottery turf from competitors. The situation in
Maine shows that we have a real threat our our hands in the US, and
that your favorite club, tournament or Internet gaming site could be
the next to go. Fortunately the experience of Rep. Leach in Iowa,
defeated for reelection in part due to the
efforts of online poker players, shows that political pressure
can work in our favor too, so hopefully this can be brought to bear
on Gov. Baldacci to either reconsider his opposition to the
legislature's efforts at reforming Maine's gambling laws, or to at
least try to get the state officials to curtail enforcement on the
non-profit hosts of cribbage and poker tournaments
(added 7/5/2008)
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Hal Mueller has released HALSCRIB CLX 2.0, the latest update to his
pioneering cribbage playing and analysis software. Also new is
Cribbage Vox, which incorporates voice activation and speech
synthesis into the Halscrib line, allowing physically and visually impaired players to take on the world's premier computer
cribbage engine. I believe it's the first substantive computer
cribbage game to feature ease of access. Both new products are
Vista-compatible. Have a look at Halscrib Central
(added 4/15/2008)
Welcome to Cribbage Forum, the first and best Web site devoted
to cribbage strategy. If
you're visiting for the first time, or would like an introduction to our
contents, click here for an overview. And
check out our monthly quiz feature, Ask
the experts.
- Michael Schell
Old news:
June 2007:
After numerous outages, Cribbage Forum has
given up on Interland/Web.com and switched to a new Web host provider (Aplus.net).
Since the new Web server runs Apache and doesn't use host name
headers or ASP, most of the pages have different names, so it may
take a while for the search engines to catch up, and there may be
some broken hyperlinks on referring pages (I've put in forwarding
pages at the old locations, but some browsers gag on pages with ASP
file extensions when served up by an Apache Web server). Our Search
page now uses Google Co-Op
rather than the Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions
May 2006:
Halscrib 2006,
the newest version of Hal Mueller's groundbreaking computer cribbage
program, is now available. Halscrib has been playing at expert level
for a couple of years now, and this new version quite possibly plays
at championship level. George "Ras" Rasmussen and myself have logged
several hundred games against it, and we are batting only a hair
above .500 (see Ras's results
here). The age of
computer-human parity in cribbage seems to have finally arrived. Halscrib 2006
includes several analysis tools essential for serious players, and
Prof. Mueller even offers a bundle with electronic copies of books
by Cribbage Forum contributors DeLynn Colvert, John Chambers and
George Rasmussen. This is a crowning achievement of Mueller's career in cribbage
programming. Check it out at Halscrib Central.
February 2006:
I've retired as Editor for ACC Internet Cribbage, so I
have stopped writing the Internet Cribbage articles for Cribbage
World and the ACC Web
site, at least for the time being. You can read my brief
farewell announcement
here.
Don't worry though, I'll still be helping out with ACC Internet
Cribbage from time to time as an Assistant Commissioner, and I'm
proud to have been a principal architect of that program. I'll also
continue publishing Cribbage Forum updates each month. And if
you're passing through Seattle, I hope to see you at my Grass Roots
club. So there'll still be plenty of opportunities for us to get
together in the years ahead. Keep tuning in Cribbage Forum every
month!
July 2005:
Cribbage Forum extends its solidarity and sympathy to the victims of
the recent terrorist atrocities in London. As you sit down to enjoy
our favorite game — another British gift
to the rest of us — take a
moment to consider the pluck and resolve and pluck of these people who
have stood with us "shoulder to shoulder" in defense of secular
democracy. Today, we cribbage players are all Brits.
September 2004:
Schell ranked second in North America: Yes, I finished the
2003–4 Grass Roots season ranked
2nd of
over 4,000 club players across North America, with 323 rating points
in Division I, behind only Charles Barnes record-setting 380 points.
September 2004:
Mike Fetchel has
won the
first Internet Cribbage Championship
June 2003:
The ACC Internet Cribbage Program now has its own
Web page,
where you can stay informed on on the development of ACC-sanctioned
Internet cribbage, which will begin on a trial basis in Fall 2003.
Volunteers are needed to serve as online tournament hosts, statisticians
and general coordinators. Join us, and bring legitimate sanctioned
competition to the Internet!
April 2003:
On March 7, 2003, MSN
Gaming Zone hosted the first HALSCRIB vs. the Rest Of The World
match. Hal Mueller took one side of the table, using a prototype of
HALSCRIB 5 to play
the cards dealt him by the Zone. I sat on the other side, captaining a
team of about 30 human players who played by consultation, discussing
our discarding and pegging choices on the chat lines. It was great fun,
and an opportunity to play a couple of instructive games while seeing
the world's most powerful computer cribbage program in action. The bot
won twice, including a skunk (click here for
my commentary on the first game), but the humans will get their chance
at payback soon: these matches will happen every three months or so,
with the second one slated for June 19.
February 2003:
After years of lobbying by Internet cribbage enthusiasts, the ACC
Board of Directors has authorized creation of an ACC Internet
Cribbage Program. I've been appointed to the Internet Steering
Committee, which will develop and implement the Program. This is an
exciting opportunity to create bona fide play on the Internet
under the auspices of the game's preeminent sanctioning organization,
with a legitimate rating system and even an Internet championship cycle.
It will also help attract new players to the ACC, ensuring the
continuity of the Tournament Trail and Grass Roots programs. There's a
lot of work to be done, and some thorny problems to solve, but if we can
make this work, the upside for both the game and the ACC is tremendous.
August 2002:
The Northwest Washington Open
took place on July 12-14, 2002, co-hosted by my Grass Roots club, Sno-King
Peggers, and our sister club, Everett Peggers. Appropriately enough, the
tournament was won by my clubmate Laurie Kenny, who prevailed in the
finals against DeLynn Colvert (who topped the qualifying round with a
rare 42 point scorecard). Several Cribbage Forum readers came out
specifically for the event, and Hal Mueller showed up from Ontario with
version 4.82 of
HALSCRIB, featuring a new endgame pegging algorithm and improved
middlegame pegging and board strategy technique. The bot dusted both
George Rasmussen and myself in a series of demonstration games. OK, it
had the better cards, but we were still impressed with its playing
strength, which is roughly equal to that of a strong human tournament
player. Check it out at
HALSCRIB central, where you'll also find biweekly articles on
pegging and discarding situations analyzed by the bot.
July 2002:
International Cribbage MEETUP Day is the third Thursday of the
month, beginning July 2002. What does this mean? Well, go
this Web page,
select your city and vote on a local meeting place from a preselected
list of possible venues. Check back for the voting results, then show up
to meet any other local cribbage players who have responded. The
suggested venues include restaurants, coffeehouses and the like — now
you know where the MEETUP people get their money. Still if the concept
takes off, it could be a good way to meet new friends and opponents if
there's no
Grass Roots club in your area. And if there isn't, use this to help
start your own!
December 2001:
The ACC Web page has been given a
major facelift by its new Webmaster, Paul Gregson. Paul has also added
lots of new features, including a compete list of lifetime MRPs. I am
now editing the Tips section. Check it out!
 September
2001:
A dedication and a pledge to the victims of the atrocities committed on
September 11, 2001. In particular, to the fallen firefighters, police
and emergency workers, and to the passengers of United Airlines
Flight 93 who fought back against the terrorists. The heroic actions of
these individuals saved untold lives. They are the first resistance
fighters in the war on terror. In their honor, I will donate half of my
tournament winnings in the 2001–2 season to aid relief and recovery
efforts. I invite others in the cribbage community to join me in this
pledge. Together, we will defeat terrorism.
 July
2001:
Cribbage Forum has a new home. After 1½ years and 20,000 hits, it
was time to expand. So we've moved to a new URL (cribbageforum.com),
switched to a faster Web host, and redesigned the home page for easier
browsing. Thanks to all of you who've helped make this the premier
cribbage site on the Internet! To celebrate our expansion, I've
inaugurated a regular feature called Ask the experts which will
let you match your wits with some of the game's most prominent players
and writers. Here's how it works: every month I'll post a new cribbage
problem. A month later, I'll republish the problem along with commentary
from our all-star panel. There'll be no single "correct" answer given.
Each of the panelists will explain what they would do in a real
game, and why. Want to see how players like Dan Barlow, DeLynn Colvert
and George Rasmussen approach a tough game decision? Well, stay around
and find out. Click here to view this
month's problem. Try to find the best answer yourself, then check back
next month to see if the panelists agree with you!
April 2000:
Cribbage Forum has received the prestigious
Grandmaster Link Award from Mind
Sports Organisation Worldwide, organizers of the annual
Mind Sports Olympiad.
Announcing the award, John Knoderer of MSO said: "Michael Schell has
created a comprehensive site that helps explain the intricacies of the
game of cribbage. We were especially impressed by his explanations of
discarding techniques. Our Deputy Webmaster has played more than 500
games of cribbage in the last year, and hopes to compete at the
Olympiad, yet he learned something about discarding techniques from
reading Michael's pages. There's a lot of other good information to be
found here. Whether you are a beginner, or whether you are an expert, we
strongly recommend this set of pages to you." The Grandmaster Link Award
recognizes sites that are "the very best on the Web in their field".
Cribbage Forum is the first cribbage-related site ever to receive this
award.
January 2000:
Cribbage Forum begins publication.
Cribbage Forum features articles on cribbage strategy
and tactics by Michael Schell,
ACC Bronze Award winner, 2001 Washington State Champion and winner of
other accolades
in Internet and over-the-board cribbage. Cribbage Forum is a project of
schellsburg.com.
Publisher/Webmaster: Michael Schell. Assistant Editor: Lauren Marshall. Contact us here.
Original Material and HTML Coding
Copyright © 2000–8 by
Michael Schell. All Rights Reserved.
Ribbon art created by
Alon Cohen.
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