For your conclusion to be completely correct, the 28/29 hands would have to be the only winning hands, but of course they’re not. Still, it would seem that higher payoffs for 28/29 would cost the casino almost nothing. But consider it from the casino’s viewpoint:
Absolute payoff odds are also important, and, IIRC, this 100-to-1 payout is higher than any other casino payoff on cards or dice. (Keno machines and slot machines give much bigger payoffs, but those are encapsulated.) The point is that cards and dice do not always follow the mathematical odds. The ability of some dealers to make cards appear in a non-random order is higher than many people realize. This is one reason I’d bet house vigorish is very high in this game – they build in a margin of safety for cheating and other surprises on a new game.
On the question of why 5 cards are dealt instead of 6, I suspect it is so a clear deterministic discard policy can be devised for the house dealer to follow.
I just watched the Youtube, learning what “dealer qualifies” means and also that dealer (but not player) sees up-card before deciding what to discard ! :smack:
An important variable would be shuffling – do they shuffle after every round? If not, players could react to changing deck odds by varying bets or discard policy. I doubt this would be enough to overcome a large built-in house advantage and, anyway, casinos would respond by shuffling.
I wonder if the odds line up with those high-payout hands, if they were dealt from a 6-deck shoe instead of a single-deck shuffler.
Counting cribbage hands is pretty easy once you get the hang of it(like most things) but still it only takes one inexperienced player to grind the table to a screeching halt when they stop to count.
I also agree that the dealer should make his decision before the shared card is shown.
I’ll probably grab a deck tonight and deal out a few hands to see what happens.
All in all, I’d sit with a small amount just for the experience, but probably wouldn’t stay for long.
Gotcha. I suppose you’re right that it might be worth a crooked dealer’s while to deal four 5s to a confederate to split up a $50,000 payout. And at the same time you’d want to make sure that no player palmed a five or two to switch in. Since Cash Crib is a game where the players must handle the cards, there would be ample opportunity for slight of hand. So for a $50K potential payout you’d want to be watching the table like a hawk.
In the play I’ve seen, yes, the dealer shuffles after every hand. He or she collects the cards, gives them a shuffle and a cut, and puts them in the shuffling machine. Note that there is already a deck in the machine, shuffled and ready to go, so the game can continue with minimal interruption. The decks have different-colored backs, so you can tell them apart, and the colors alternate for every hand.
House rules at my local casino state that in games where you can handle cards, the cards must be over the table at all times–no leaning back in your chair, taking the cards with you for a close look; no putting cards over your lap, etc. Anybody trying to pull cards “behind the bumper” is quickly reminded by the dealer and/or the pit boss to put them back over the table. With Cash Crib, Caribbean Stud, etc., all cards are dealt in such a way as to show how many there are before play begins (so the cameras can see that five cards were indeed dealt), and the dealer fans discarded hands to check that five cards are being returned. Sleight of hand is not entirely out of the question, but these rules seem to make it a lot more difficult than it might otherwise be.
First off, the hands to the player were phenomenal.
I don’t understand why the player discards the starting card they discard, but then again, as no one plays from the crib, this would change basic cribbage strategy a bit. I can’t shake the notion that the player just gave a 10 point card away [to be used against them].
The game as played seems to have mechanics similar to blackjack - Dealer standing on all 16s / Needing at least 8 points to ““qualify””. This would imply that the Vig is already figured in.
The dealer would have to be pretty good at figuring out how to score the hands. Perhaps this is why the cards are put in rank order.
I like cribbage for how random and chaotic it is. Does this translate to a casino game? Personally, I’m not so sure I could put 20 bucks down a hand on a game so random.
I think the game will make it, with a few tweaks and not an overhaul. Doubt I will play it unless the table minimum is $1.
Oh, I’d have to play. Don’t know how many times I’ve looked at my poker hand and thought ‘I HAVE AN AWESOME CRIBBAGE HAND!!’. Which does me no good at poker, of course.
I was at the casino recently, and the Cash Crib table was quite crowded. I’m unsure whether it’s the novelty of a new game, or whether people have been dying for some card game not based on poker and blackjack, but Cash Crib is attracting a lot of play. Still, the game has its detractors; a friend of mine who tried it said she would never play it again–seems blackjack is much simpler. So, I guess we’ll see.
I have been playing Cash Crib in Red Deer since it started early last year. Personally I love the game, and I’m happy there is a new game out there besides poker and blackjack variations. I have played cribbage before so it was an easy game to pick up. It was a new game for the dealers so it took time but know the game runs smooth. I try to get there every other weekend, and its always busy. The couple who invented it are from Red Deer, they seem nice. Overall its a good game it’s fun and it doesn’t take my money too fast. I keep you posted from my end in Red Deer:)
Like a lot of games, cribbage has a fairly large element of luck, but a nontrivial skill component. If you’re a little bit better than me, you might win 52% of our games; if you’re a lot better, you might win 60% of the time we play.
There are plenty of card games where a much weaker player will beat a much stronger player a decent fraction of the time, just because the cards break that way. It’s as true for gin rummy or casino as it is for cribbage.
Well, I don’t know how to measure skill vs. luck in various card games, but it’s pretty much QED IMO that gin rummy levels the luck and puts maximum pressure upon the players’ abilities. Cf. Stu Ungar IIRC.
You’re probably right that someone who knows the rules and how to exploit them to one’s advantage will, on average, best the newb at cribbage, though – it is one hell of a fun game.
From my local casino, at any rate. I was there recently, and the Cash Crib game was nowhere in sight. I did get the chance to ask my Friendly Neighbourhood Dealer (remember her, from the OP?) what had happened.
Apparently, after an early popularity based mainly on the novelty of a new game, it lost many players. The reasons for this were twofold: primarily, many players had no idea how to play cribbage, and thus, this game; and secondarily, most players tended to want a faster game than this. Something that was decided as quickly as blackjack, for example.
But the ultimate reason for getting rid of the game was the casino’s: Of those players who did stick with it, many were experienced cribbage players. And they were cleaning up. The casino was losing money to them on the game, meaning they were the only ones playing; and the casino was unable to attract new players to the game, because it was too complicated to understand in a couple of minutes and after a few drinks.
So, no more Cash Crib at my local casino. It replaced the Cash Crib table with another blackjack table.
Cash Crib is still doing well in Red Deer. Open every day with players. I have also have been told its in St.Albert, Grand Prairie and Whitecourt. It must have been just the location because it seems to be doing well everywhere else. I hope its here to stay:)
This is one reason I’d bet house vigorish is very high in this game – they build in a margin of safety for cheating and other surprises on a new game.