Today's results so far

*** This hand was suggested by Andy (muesli64)
89-95*  ?
43%
43%
26%
26%
20%
20%
5%
5%
1%
1%
1%
1%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Total votes: 260
dec

Joined: April 2008 (6812 votes)

Monday 3:13 AM
Start at 96-97 to 97 ? I will pass on those. Only 3,4 for immediate non cuts. Eight lead. dec
JQT

Joined: October 2008 (4471 votes)

Monday 3:13 AM
Occasionally in Cribbage, we may rely upon a sort of Ecclesiastical Guidance: There is a time to DEFEND, and a time to play OFFENSE -- and normally we tend to call these two respective ideas: Being Pone and Being the Dealer. 🎭

Trying to haphazardly generate OFFENSE when we are Pone, or attempting to DEFEND willy-nilly while we are the Dealer, can be tantamount to inviting the chaos that often ensues and that may land us at an undesirable Relative Score, much like the one that we see and have inherited in this puzzle. Our odds of prevailing in this game are exceedingly remote. 😰

Incidentally, if we were in a Tournament, and this was one of several in a series of games, since no SKUNK is at stake, we would be wise to simply do the best we can Offensively after Toss (5 J), simply in order to reduce those Spread Points by which we are almost certain to LOSE. But for sake of discussion, let's treat this as an individual game that we are trying to WIN. 💀

Desperate times call for desperate measures; or do they? Toss (8 8) is well over a Full Point SAFER than Toss (5 J) in terms of Crib Value, so if we're going to gamble, it might be a better path to start off with One Point LESS in our Hand and Toss (8 8). Otherwise, if we don't like either of the previous risk(s), we could 'hedge' and Toss (8 J). 🍹

Let's do just that and Toss (8c Jd) unsuited today, since at least we have Three Shots (TTT) at a Dozen Points, and Eleven Shots (555, 88, 999, TTT) at getting Nine Points or more. 🍧

After the Ace of Hearts Cut, we now have an honest Seven Points in our Hand. Let's lead the 8 Card from the lower end of our Run. 🎱

If the Dealer scores (15=2), we'll play our 9 Card and 'gobble up' the Run-of-Three, and hope that the Dealer doesn't hold (5 5 6 7)! 😋

Wordle 1,430 3/6 (turning YELLOW 💛 into GREEN 💚)

⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟨🟨🟨⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Rosemarie44 says: I got the word but it took me on the 4th try. I got most of the letters right off. The first letter was challenging.
JQT says: When I first began playing Wordle, I tried to come up with a five-letter word that characterized what it took to find the solution for each number of guesses: 1) cheat; 2) lucky; 3) skill; 4) honor; 5) smart; 6) usual. 🥰
Rosemarie44 says: Thanks John. This time I tried words using a different vowel and/or consonant to eliminate or add correct letters. It's fun.
Eolus619 says: hello both..these three words get you 15 different letters and all the vowels RIGHT..MOUSE…CANDY
JQT says: If your goal is to solve the puzzle in six or fewer guesses (which are ostensibly the rules!), then "blanketing" the alphabet with three or four words that obtain maximum "coverage" is an adequate plan. But many players want to further achieve (*) the lowest average score (my current average is 3.78) or number of guesses, and the aforementioned "coverage" strategy will almost never lead to a "solve in two guesses" solution, and rarely will it converge even after three guesses. To minimize the number of guesses, you really must ADAPT your process after each guess and think of just the right next "guess word" to converge. For example, I have guessed more than 32.36% of the solutions in three guesses or fewer, and this figure would be closer to zero percent if I simply "blanketed" the alphabet. Here are a few of my "Two Guess" solutions (second word is the solution!) from Wordle and Wordleunlimited over the past few years, and these likely would never have occurred if I chose a "blanketing" strategy: Wordle 1,084 2/6: shear, melon! Wordle 1,196 2/6: slant, faith! Wordle 543 2/6: stray, usual! Wordle 1,238 2/6: shade, ready! Wordle 1,173 2/6: spire, stern! Wordle 1,152 2/6: shale, shore! Wordle 701 2/6: grate, brash! Wordle 753 2/6: pearl, whirl! Wordle 1,396 2/6: spare, ashen! Wordle 655 2/6: smear, smash! Wordle 726 2/6: bream, maybe! Wordle 523 2/6: spate, feast! Wordle 767 2/6: stare, heart! Wordle 754 2/6: large, barge! Wordle 1,192 2/6: steal, steam! Wordleunlimited: spare, ardor! shale, scald! REF(*): https://whatisthisthing.com/wordle-average-score-calculator/
james500 says: Hi all. With regards the, "blanketing", strategy, one way to go is using NYMPH, BUILD, STOCK and WAGER for the first four attempts for 20 different letters and all vowels including Y. Takes a lot of the fun out of it for me though, since you're simply left with an anagram to solve.
tevdodd

Joined: May 2021 (203 votes)

Monday 3:15 AM
Expect to see a lot of agreement today.
scottcrib says: I agree. 😉
Gougie00

Joined: March 2008 (6126 votes)

Monday 3:31 AM
Interesting position puzzle. I want to end up at hole 95 if possible without the dealer advancing much. Hence, I hedge with 8J. Lead the 8 and ditch the 5.
Rosemarie44

Joined: March 2016 (2196 votes)

Monday 3:59 AM
Not worth loosing two points in the hand to send two points to dealer's crib.
Rosemarie44 says: not worth "gaining".
james500

Joined: June 2013 (4302 votes)

Monday 4:12 AM
8J from me too. Hole 95 is borderline par, and if I can slow them a little I might be able to wrestle the advantage away.
glmccuskey

Joined: April 2011 (4462 votes)

Monday 4:37 AM
Eolus619

Joined: June 2020 (1716 votes)

Monday 5:04 AM
For those who wish to review ( or see for the 1st time) Ras’s lowest average balking discards here is the link..8-J is on it

https://www.cribbage.org/NewSite/tips/rasmussen7.asp
Rosemarie44 says: Thanks Bruce for suggestions on wordle
Eolus619 says: R..welcome ..there are a zillion..maybe 2 zillion approaches that people have for solving wordle !!..good luck ..mine works if your ego is willing to solve in four or five ..JQT would not follow my say ..for sure ❗️
Eolus619 says: meant ……..follow my way
Eolus619 says: whoops i see i hit the wrong card…my keep should be 5-8-9-10
JQT says: The approach to Wordle depends upon your objective: I have a 3% failure rate to solve in 6 or fewer guesses using my technique, and using your approach I can get that close to 0%. But if you want to achieve the Lowest Average Score of Guess Numbers, other approaches can do much better. You are actually following the rules; I find it much more challenging to seek the lowest average score. Other players like to invoke "Hard Mode," but I especially dislike this as it greatly reduces the grammatical complexity. 🤓
MarktheShark

Joined: January 2024 (455 votes)

Monday 5:32 AM
Dealer is once again threatening to go out with his three hands, but it is borderline today. I cannot keep max points by helping Dealer's crib with the 5-J, so I need to break up my hand and hope for a cut. The nice cut gives us seven points and puts us at least at our positional hole (96) for our chance to go out in our next three hands. But, we need to play defense this hand to keep Dealer short. If your 8 lead is paired, remember to play the 9 with this type holding.
mfetchCT425

Joined: February 2009 (1599 votes)

Monday 5:40 AM
Defensive 8-J. With 7 holes after cut, will peg defensively to try and hold dealer up.
mrob2199

Joined: February 2009 (1662 votes)

Monday 5:57 AM
Dealer is too close to risk either a J5 or 88 toss,which are fraught with peril-even with a bad cut and no pegging we will be at hole 100
Inushtuk1 says: Hi Rob. Help me out here. I'm not seeing us reaching 100 with a bad cut and no pegging. I see us being short.
mrob2199 says: You’re right-I had the positions reversed -even more reason to break it up with dealer only 26 out
Assman

Joined: May 2024 (391 votes)

Monday 6:20 AM
Whoops! I guess I shouldn't have been so aggressive..
Djgoat

Joined: December 2023 (246 votes)

Monday 6:33 AM
Terrible options! Tossing the 8s could come back to bite me but this keep guarantees I'm in position for my next deal and could have easily turned out to be 12 or 14 with an X cut but alas we get an A.
Sgt Pegger

Joined: July 2017 (642 votes)

Monday 7:27 AM
All about defense for me and not giving up any more points than I absolutely have to. 8 lead and peg only if safe.
ryman554

Joined: January 2025 (118 votes)

Monday 8:23 AM
Dealer is 50/50 to go out counting 3 to our 1. However, if we play really good defense and don't give up too much on offense, we're 50/50 to go out counting 4 to their 3.

So we need to play good defense. Can't toss the J5. 88 seems wrong, so I'll toss the J8 for 5 points, giving the dealer as little as possible. The A puts me right on target, so I'll be very very cautiously pegging today.
JJx7fan

Joined: December 2023 (107 votes)

Monday 9:16 AM
Not tossing points, defense only here.
Inushtuk1

Joined: July 2016 (1802 votes)

Monday 10:17 AM
Yes I do know how dangerous the (8-8) is. According to Ras's Crib discard averages, this one has the biggest discrepancy between the averages for Dealer, and Pone. When you toss it over the board, the average is almost 2 points higher than when you toss it into your Crib. However I really wanted to give myself the best chance to make my target with cuts for 14 and one cut for 15. From the comments from the majority I'm most likely wrong today.
Inushtuk1 says: Switching to defense with the 5 lead. I can pair three different responses without fear of a triple.
JQT says: I would play it exactly this way in order to manage Spread Points in any Tournament or Stakes Game, since we probably have only about a 10% chance of WINNING. 🪔 🌴 🏹
Inushtuk1 says: Yes John. I was going to say maybe our chances of winning after seeing these cards at this score is 15%.
JQT

Joined: October 2008 (4471 votes)

Monday 12:40 PM
After several playouts with Toss (8 8) and leading the 5 Card, I still LOST many games by an average of Twenty Points! Maybe Toss (5 J) can do better?! I kept trying until I could log a WIN, and it was a good battle. Have a look at this one:

(89-95*) (5s 9h Th Jd) (8d 8c) vs (7s 9d Td Js) (2c 4h) Qs
5! [5] J [15=2] J [25-3], 7 [7] T [17] T [27=3], 9 [9] 9 [9=3], (92-103).
Pone 10, Dealer 5, Crib 2, (102-110).

(102*-110) (3c 4c 6s 6h) (7d Qh) vs (2s 2h 5d 7s) (Ts Kc) Jc=2
6 [6] 7! [13] 3 [16] 5 [21] 4 [25-5] 2 [27=6] "go" 2 [29=3], 6 [6-1], (113-116).
Pone 4, Dealer 4, Crib 4, (121-120). Whew! 🎠 🍷 🍰