Skip H.

Yes, the cards are not like a random deal at your home card game. Even so, I can generally "out-think" my electronic opponent on the pegging portion of the game. Of course there are times when you get stuck for a proper play (just like in a real game although more frequently in the online version.) Your most useful hand turns out to be something that once your opponent plays a card you can only either play for the pair or give up a 3 card run. It's of course automatic; you have to take the pair to garner at least some points and invariably "Bill" will have the 3rd one and peg 6 for three of a kind.

A couple of other frequent happenings I've noticed are when you get 3 of a kind on the deal. Naturally you keep the 3 in your hand with another complementary card. Very often, and much more frequently than probability the card draw will pair the complementary card you kept with your trio. This is the first thing that made me suspicious. It happens again and again.

When the game is tight and you get a pat hand that you "have to" hold a certain 4 cards, you should look out! For instance, you're dealt J, J, Q, K, 6,8. You keep your sure 8 points and toss the 6 and 8 into your opponents crib. The cut produces an 8. Your opponent drew to a 9, 10, 10, 10 and hit a triple run. He also put a 6,7 in his crib and got a double-double! As a result, you were 20 points ahead before this hand but end up losing the game by 15 points. If this were only once, it's feasible. Once every 15 games is not statistically probable. The tide seems to frequently turn roughly at the most critical point of the game for having a small lead... right around the 90 point area, give or take.

Now, it's not impossible to win. In fact sometimes the game is a blow-out in your favor. The whole idea of "rigging" the game is not to screw you over; after all, who's gonna come back for more if they can never win? The reason to "adjust" the game's probability is to make sure each session has some excitement. During play at your kitchen table with a friend you'll have some really exciting hands but, you won't have something improbable happen during each game. The website's mission is to have something interesting happening during every game (and it can be for you or against you) to keep you coming back for more. And, it is tough for them to do that without making it obvious that they are skewing the results from random play. Hence, this is why you are seeing in these reviews that many players see through the lack of randomness... games like these do not happen with random deals!

The game is still fun. Just don't kid yourself into thinking you're playing great when you clobber your opponent. Don't beat yourself up when you lose either. It's pretty much out of your hands whether you win or lose because it has been predetermined beforehand whether you will win or lose that particular game. It is a good time waster but don't believe anything other than the cards you get, the hits you make on the draw and the situations you find yourself in during the pegging portion have all been manipulated by the website designers in an attempt to entertain you and to ensure you get hooked playing on the site.

I believe there is a review that states all of us "complainers" are cribbage tyros who are just "sore losers" and don't understand the game. I for one have been playing cribbage for over 50 years and, whilst not a world champion, am not unknowledgeable about the game and understand the frequency and probability of certain hand sequences within the game. The idea that this online game reflects everyday real world statistical probabilty is well, just laughable,