Cribbage

Cribbage is two games in one hand of cards. First the play, where you lay cards one at a time and score as the running total climbs towards thirty-one. Then the show, where the same cards get counted all over again for fifteens, pairs, runs and flushes. The scores are pegged along a track to 121, and the first player there wins the moment they arrive.

The decision that matters most happens before either of those. You are dealt six cards and you throw two of them into the crib, which is a fifth hand that belongs to the dealer. On your own deal, throwing a five or a pair into it is a gift to yourself. On theirs, the same two cards are a gift to them. Playing that one choice well is worth more over a game than everything you do afterwards.

Every count on this site is itemised rather than totalled — two fifteens, a pair, a run of three — because that is how anybody learns to see a hand, and because it is the only way to check the site is not making the numbers up. Three levels of opponent: easy throws at random and lays at random, medium counts, and hard works out what every possible throw is worth across all forty-six cards that could be cut.