Cribbage Trivia

Some of these are obvious, but others may surprise you.

1. The highest scoring hand in cribbage is four 5's and a jack, when the jack counts for nobs. This scores 29. Tournaments often pay out bonus money for 29-hands.
2. The most frequently mis-scored hand in cribbage is probably A-A-6-7-8. This scores 13 (or 17 with a flush). The A-A-6-7 combination for 15 is often overlooked.
3. The only cribbage hand that cannot be improved by the cut is four aces.
4. The dealer in cribbage is guaranteed a point in the pegging (unless pone goes out first).
5. Any cribbage hand containing a 5 (or cards that add up to 5) is guaranteed to score at least 2 points.
6. No matter what you discard, there is some possible three-card combination that can bring the crib score to at least 12 points.
7. The lowest hand point total impossible to achieve is 19 points. Worthless hands are sometimes called "19-pointers".
8. The largest hand improvement a cut can produce is 20 points, i.e., when a 5 is cut to 4-4-6-6.
9. The largest improvement a cut can produce for a hand which is worth nothing initially is 14 points, e.g., when a 5 is cut to the crib holding of 3-4-6-7 and all five cards are the same suit.
10. Any pairing cut to the hand 6-7-8-9 brings the hand score to 16 points (20 if the holding is a flush).

The following results are from computer simulations, but seem reasonable.

11. The most common pone hand is 5-10-J-Q, with 5-J-Q-K, 5-9-10-J, and 5-6-7-8 as the next three runners-up. The dealer top four in order are 5-10-J-Q, 6-7-8-9, 5-J-Q-K, and A-6-7-8. Together, these account for about 3% of all pone/dealer hands.
12. On average, the best discard by pone (and worst by dealer) is 10-K.
13. Dealer and pone hands each average about eight points (pone average is slightly higher), while the crib averages about four and three-quarter points.
14. Dealer averages about one and a quarter points better per hand than pone during pegging. A combined average of five and a half pegging points per hand is typical, but may be lower in cautious tournament play.
15. The player dealing first in a game wins 55% to 60% of the time, if the players are evenly matched.

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