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. |