About Play Cribbage Online

Who runs Play Cribbage Online

This site is built and run by John Weeks, a web developer who designs, codes and maintains every site in the network himself.

I am a web developer. I build for the web full time, mostly TypeScript and PHP on the server, React and Tailwind CSS on the front end, and I build and run my own sites rather than only shipping other people's.

This network came out of a simple frustration: the free version of whatever you were looking for was slow, buried under adverts, gated behind an account, or built once and abandoned. I wanted the version I would actually want to use, instant and readable on a phone with no sign-up, and then to write the explanation properly so anyone can get the answer in one page.

Every site here is a single game on its own domain. I write the code, the rules, the strategy and the reference tables myself, and I keep them current. There is no content farm behind this and no AI-generated filler: if a page states an odds figure or a scoring rule, it came from a solver I wrote or a primary source I can point you at.

Cribbage punishes a sloppy build harder than anything else in this network. The scoring has enough corners to it that plenty of free versions quietly get a case wrong, so I wrote the scoring engine first and then built the game, the hand calculator and the discard table on top of that same code. If the table and the game could disagree, one of them would be lying to you.

What this site is trying to be

The goal is simple: the best free version of cribbage on the web, and the clearest explanation of how it works.

• A full game against an opponent that prices its discards rather than throwing whatever looks least useful.
• Scoring you can check yourself: a calculator that counts any hand and shows where each point came from.
• Muggins available when you want to learn the scoring, and off when you just want to play.
• Deals committed with SHA-256 before a card is shown, so a run of terrible hands can be checked rather than suspected.
• The discard maths written out on the page, with a printable version for a game at the table.

How the site is paid for, and what it knows about you

Adverts pay the hosting and the time. Being straight about that, and about the data side, matters more than pretending the site runs on goodwill.

The site is free and always will be. Display advertising is what will pay for it, and the slots go around the play area rather than over it. An advert will never cover the game or interrupt you mid-turn.

Your game statistics (streaks, best scores, preferences) are stored in your own browser using localStorage. They are not sent to me, there is no account, and clearing your browser data clears them permanently.

Analytics tell me which pages are useful. Advertising has not started yet, and when it does the advertising partners will set their own cookies. The privacy page lists what is collected either way, and how to opt out of it.

Where the discard table came from

The two cards you throw to the crib matter more than most players expect, and the advice usually given for them is inherited rather than measured.

So this site measured it. For each of the 91 rank-pairs you can throw, the engine plays that throw against all 1,225 two-card combinations the opponent could add, against every starter that could still be cut. That is 58,800 crib deals for every pair, scored by the same code that counts your hand while you play.

The result is published as a table under a Creative Commons licence, so a teacher or another writer can reuse it as long as they say where it came from. It is not copied out of a book and it is not an approximation of one. If you think a number is wrong, the method is written down and you can run it again.

Corrections and contact

The fastest way to reach me is email: john.weeks.dev@gmail.com. I read everything sent there.

Who created Play Cribbage Online?

John Weeks, a web developer, built and maintains it. The code, the game logic and the written rules and strategy are all his own work.

Is Play Cribbage Online free?

Yes, completely. There is no account, no download, no trial and no paid tier. Display advertising covers the costs.

Do I need to create an account or install anything?

No. The game runs in your browser. Your scores and preferences are saved on your own device, so nothing needs to be signed into.

Can I use the rules, tables or score sheets on my own site?

Yes, with attribution and a link back. The reference data is published for reuse. That is the point of writing it out properly.

I found a mistake in the rules. What should I do?

Email john.weeks.dev@gmail.com and say what is wrong. Rule variations differ by region and household, so specifics help, and genuine corrections get made.