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Crib
The English pub game that has been scored on a pegboard since the 1630s. Every deal you throw two cards into the crib — a fifth hand that only the dealer gets to count — then play cards one at a time trying to hit fifteen and thirty-one, and finally count what is left in your hand. Almost every point comes from making fifteen or building a run, so you spend the whole game doing small sums in your head. This is the short version, once around the board to 61.
Each deal you get six cards and throw two into the crib. The crib belongs to whoever is dealing, so give it good cards when it is yours and junk when it is not — the dealer tag under the count tells you which. A card is then cut; if it is a jack the dealer takes two points straight away.
Next comes the pegging. You and the computer take turns laying one card down while a running count climbs toward 31. Score 2 for bringing the count to exactly 15 or exactly 31, 2 for matching the rank of the card just played, 6 for a third of the same rank, and 3 or more for finishing a run of consecutive ranks in any order. If you have no card that fits under 31 the game says go for you, and the last player able to lay a card takes a point.
Then everyone counts what they kept. Score 2 for every distinct set of cards adding to 15 with aces low and all face cards worth ten, 2 for every pair, one point per card for runs of three or more, four for four cards of one suit, and one for holding the jack that matches the cut card. The non-dealer counts first, then the dealer, then the crib — that order decides close games.
First to 61 wins the game and adds one to your streak; losing resets it to zero.
The single biggest skill in cribbage is the discard, and it is not about your hand alone. Two cards that would be worth nothing to you can be worth four in the crib, and the crib is the dealer's. When it is your crib, throwing a five, or two cards that add to five, or a touching pair like six and seven, pays off far more often than it looks. When it is your opponent's crib, break those combinations up even at the cost of a point or two in your own hand.
Fives are the most valuable cards in the deck and the most dangerous to lead with. Ten, jack, queen and king are sixteen of the fifty-two cards, so leading a five means roughly a one-in-three chance that the reply makes fifteen. Lead a four or lower instead: it leaves the count too small for an easy fifteen and gives you room to answer.
During the pegging, watch for the count reaching 21. From there any ten-card makes 31, and there are sixteen of them. Getting the count to 21 as the last card of your run is fine; walking into it when your opponent still has cards is how you bleed two points at a time all game.
A hand of 12 that pegs well often beats a hand of 14 that cannot answer anything. Keeping cards that are close in rank gives you pair and run chances during the play, and those small pegs add up to more over five deals than one extra fifteen in the show. And when you are behind near the end, count what the dealer is likely to make and take the risky discard — second place is the same as last.