EV Explained

EV (expected value) is the average score a play earns over many possible outcomes.

What EV means here

• Hand EV: average points from your kept 4 cards across all legal cuts.
• Crib EV: average impact of your two discarded cards on the crib.
• Total EV: hand EV adjusted by crib ownership.

How to interpret rankings

• Higher EV is better over time.
• A small EV gap can be practically close; a large gap is usually a clear mistake.
• A single hand can beat EV; EV is about long-run performance.

Quick example

If a discard has EV 6.8 and another has EV 6.2, the first choice is worth about 0.6 points more on average per hand in that situation.

Reference and Credit

The app's crib discard assumptions are informed by Liam Brown's cribbage analysis work: https://cliambrown.com/cribbage/.