How to play Swiveller's Cribbage

Options   Duplicate Cribbage   Choose Hand   Level   View Log

General

You can start the game, once you have downloaded and installed it, by double clicking on the 'Swiveller's Cribbage' icon on the desktop

The first screen to appear will be a request to register the game. Registration is $15 and can be paid by check, or more conveniently by credit card using PayPal's secure web site:

The next screen starts the game requesting you to choose a card from the pack. The program will then reveal the card chosen by you and the one chosen by your opponent, the computer. The player with the lowest card gets the first crib of the game.

You will then be launched into play with your hand of six cards shown at the top of the screen. You need to choose two cards to be discarded to the crib. This is done by clicking on the two cards and then the 'OK' button. If it is the computer's crib then you need to make sure that you maximise the points in your hand whilst making sure not to give good cards to the crib. If it is your crib then you have to make a decision whether to 'salt' the crib (give good cards to it) or maximise the points in your hand. Ideally try and do both. You can ask the computer for a hint on which cards to discard by clicking on the 'Hint' button.

You then play the remaining cards out with the computer trying to score points by making pairs, sequences and 15s. Royal cards have a count of 10, so a Jack and a 5 make 15 thereby scoring 2 points. Once a count of 31 is reached or neither player can play a card without exceeding 31 then the play starts again with the remaining cards being played.

After all the cards have been played, depending on the Options you have set, you will be prompted to determine the score in your hand which includes the Starter card which was revealed after the discards to the crib. Combinations of cards score, so for instance if you had the hand 2S, 3S, 4S, 4H and the starter was the 5S your score would be

2S, 3S, 4S, 5S - 4 card sequence worth 4 points

2S, 3S, 4H, 5S - another 4 card sequence worth 4 points

4S, 4H - A pair worth 2 points

2S, 4S, 4H, 5S - A count of 15 (2+4+4+5) worth 2 points

This sums up to (4+4+2+2) to a score of 12 points, quite a good cribbage hand.

Incidentally the maximum score in cribbage is with the following combination of cards:

5S, 5H, 5D, JC and a starter card of 5C. This gives:

5S, 5H, 5D, 5C Four of a kind worth 12 points (6 sets of pairs each worth 2 points)

5S, 5H, 5D 15 for 2 points

5S, 5H, 5C 15 for 2

5S, 5D, 5C 15 for 2

5H, 5D, 5C 15 for 2

5S, JC 15 for 2

5H, JC 15 for 2

5D, JC 15 for 2

5C, JC 15 for 2

JC, 5C One for his Knob as the Jack is the same suit (clubs) as the starter.

This sums up to a grand total of 29 points!

If it is your crib then you will be prompted to determine the score in the crib. The crib alternates between the computer and the player with each hand.

The process is repeated until a score of 121 (twice round the cribbage board) is reached which wins the game.

Good luck!

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Options

The following options can be set by clicking on the item which will place a tick next to it:

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Duplicate Cribbage

To play a pre-determined set of hands Duplicate cribbage can be played by clicking on 'Game' and then choosing 'Duplicate Cribbage'. The hands are specified in the file Cribdupl.txt. If desired you can edit this file to specify your own hands. The file must in the following format.

Each line should specify thirteen cards, with each card separated by a space. The first six cards specify the player's hand, the next six the computer's hand and the last card the Starter card.

Cards are specified in the following way:

1S - Ace of spades

2S - two of spades

3H - three of hearts

10H - 10 of hearts

JS - Jack of spades

QD - Queen of diamonds

KC - King of clubs

Here is an example of the first two lines in the file

1H 4S 5D 9C JD QD 5H 5S 6C 8H KD KH 2C

1H 3D 7C 8C 10H QH 3C 4C 5H 5S 7S 9D 6H

This will mean that the first hand for the player will be

1H 4S 5D 9C JD QD

i.e. Ace of hearts, 4 of spades, 5 of diamonds, 9 of clubs, Jack of diamonds and Queen of diamonds.

The computer's first hand will be

5H 5S 6C 8H KD KH

and the starter will be 2C, the 2 of clubs.

The next hand to be played will consist of

1H 3D 7C 8C 10H QH for the player

3C 4C 5H 5S 7S 9D for the computer

and the 6H as the Starter.

There should be at least twenty lines in the file to ensure that a full game of cribbage can be played.

You could send this file to friends and see how they compare against you. The file needs to be called cribdupl.txt and should be in the same folder as the main program cribbage.exe

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Choose Hand

This allows you to quickly pick the cards for your hand, the computer's hand and the Starter card. The screen is accessed by clicking on 'Game' and then 'Choose Hand'.

This can be used if you want to hone your playing strategy with different card combinations and see the consequences of different discard decisions.

The first six cards you choose will move into the player's hand, the next six to the computer's and the final one will be set as the Starter. If you make a mistake then you can click on the card to put it back into the pack and then choose a different card.

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Level

The level can be set to either Beginner or Expert by clicking on 'Game', then 'Level' and then clicking on the desired level.

• Beginner

the computer randomly discards two of its cards to the crib.

• Expert

the computer chooses the two cards to discard to the crib based on its own probability algorithm.

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View Log

The log file can be seen by clicking on 'Game' and then 'View Log'.

It records the previous play including the cards in each hand, the discards made to the crib, the order the cards were played and the score of the hand.

This file will grow and grow, and you may delete some of it if you wish.

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