Cribbage: The Crib & Discarding

Keep four, lay away two — the discard decision that decides the game

An advanced cribbage epoch built entirely around the layaway: the two cards you throw to the crib every single deal. Where the first course taught the rules and the count, this one teaches the decision that separates strong players from beginners — choosing which four cards to keep and which two to discard. You will learn to read the difference between your crib and your opponent's, exploit the 'magic' fives that pair with every ten-card, recognize the best-scoring four-card keep inside a six-card hand, throw point-rich combinations (5-5, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8) into your own box while starving theirs of fives and connectors, balance hand value against crib expectation, account for the starter, flushes, and his nobs, play the discard differently as dealer versus pone, and finally think the way experts do — in expected values and studied 'best average discard' tables. Exact cribbage scoring throughout: fifteens, pairs, runs, flushes, and nobs counted to the point.