The real fun in cribbage comes along on in the end game on 4th street. We had a small crowd in my grass roots club tonight due to the ACC Open going on this weekend in Reno, but I still have a couple of interesting hand situations that came up in end games. End games are quite important too - in many situations, picking up a few spread points or even better, squeaking out a small win when you should have lost will correspond to more money finishes.
The first scenario was a pretty dire situation to start. The score was 110-120*, which means that I had 110, and my opponent was dealing at 120. Since he's guaranteed a point in pegging as dealer, my hand wasn't going to score, and I was just playing to pick up a couple of spread points. I was dealt A 7 8 8 J Q. I tossed 8-J, giving myself a couple ways to steal a couple of points. The cut was another 8, and I led from the ace, because there were 3 cards in the deck that put him out with that lead, and 4 cards with a 7 or 8 lead. He then plays a 6, making the count 7.
My opponent's a decent player, but from past play, he seems willing to trade off 2 points to go out quickly. He also plays high to low very often in these situations, so I tried something tricky. I figured he wanted me to play the 8 for 15-2, and then he was going to play the 7 for his run to go out. So I played my Q, making the count 17, and my board showing A-Q, which conceals the rest of my hand pretty well. My opponent then played his 7 for 24, feeling it was safe, and I took 31-4. The rest of the hand played quite uneventful - he led a 3, I played my 8, and he played the 2 to go out.
This is not the line I'd always take - against a strong player, I'd probably take my 2 points and be happy, but there's always room for imagination in pegging.
The second endgame situation of the night was really a discard counting exercise of sorts. I was ahead 116-110*, and was dealt 3s-6c-6h-Js-Qd-Ks (no flush possibilities). There were two possible ways to hold this hand: 3-6-6-J, or 3-J-Q-K. At this point, it's just an exercise to count how many outs give me the needed 5 points.
3s-6c-6h-Js
As
2s 2h 2c 2d
3h 3c 3d
4s
5s 5h 5c 5d
6s 6d
7s
8s
9s 9h 9c 9d
Ts
Jh Jc Jd
Qs
Number of outs: 26
3s-Js-Qd-Ks
2s 2h 2c 2d
3h 3c 3d
5s 5h 5c 5d
Ts
Jh Jc Jd
Qs Qh Qc
Kh Kc Kd
Number of outs: 21
The other factors point towards 3-6-6-J as well. If you do hit one of the 20 cards that don't help you, then playing 3-6 to start might get your opponent to play a two-card go, giving you the point you need. Nine cards will give you the same situation with 3-J-Q-K, however 16 cards will require you to peg two points. It's a bit easier to force a two card go with 3-J-Q-K, however many times you'll need two points, and that's a pretty tall order in that situation.
I managed to hit my out, and pegged a pair no less in that game to win it, but that didn't help my less-than-awesome 8/4/+8 card. I'm going to be flying out to San Diego on Saturday night to play in some of the WSOP Circuit events out there (as well as visiting some friends from school). I'll make sure to get some trip reports posted.
User login
Syndicate
