Customer Reviews

Cribbage: A New Concept

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If you're serious about separating yourself from the cribbage playing masses, it is vital to master the concept of board strategy, in which your decisions to play offensively or defensively are governed by the score (or board position, to use cribbage parlance). This book has the best treatment of it. This is the second book you should read about cribbage (DeLynn Colvert's "Play Winning Cribbage" is the first), and you should go over it and Colvert's book again and again until you feel confident evaluating board position and formulating a playing strategy to meet it.

One caveat about this book: it does gets its share of criticism from experienced players, since it contains some mathematical errors and a fair amount of questionable tactical advice. Fortunately most of the errors are in the details, and don't undermine the author's fundamental points. Besides, part of the process of learning the game is to independently evaluate different author's perspectives. As you'll discover, the "authorities" don't agree about every play. Concentrate on Chamber's discussion of board strategy, and don't assume that you have to agree with everything he recommends. Just make sure that when you do disagree, it's for a good reason, one that you can explain in words...

Although there are a number of technical errors in the concept's description, the basic approach is sound. I rank this among the best of the 10-12 books I have read on the subject.