Crib (Mind Loft)

Crib isolates the one decision in cribbage that can be worked out exactly: the discard. Every hand starts with six cards, and two of them go to the crib, an extra hand that belongs to the dealer. The crib alternates between yours and your opponent's, starting with yours, so the same two cards can be a good throw on one hand and a bad one on the next.

Mind Loft points out that keeping the four cards that look best is right about two times in three. The rest of the time the crib changes the answer: a five or a pair is worth more in your own crib than in your hand, and some cards should never be handed to the opponent even if your four would score more without them. Each throw is valued over all 46 possible cut cards and every pair of cards the opponent could add, and a second, separate scorer checks the numbers before a deal is published.

The best throw scores 2 points and a throw within 0.75 of it scores 1; after each hand you see every throw's value. Nothing counts against you and ties break on the clock. Hands score fifteens, pairs, runs, flushes and his nobs as usual. A new set of hands arrives every day at midnight Eastern, and Sundays deal seven hands.