Cribbage

Cribbage is a classic game dating back to the early 17th century. As many classic games it is a variant of another game of it's time called “Noddy”.

Cribbage as we know it today is played with a standard deck of cards and a scoring track, typically as a two player game. Each player is initially dealt six cards, from which they discard two cards to form the “crib”. One additional card is turned face up from the deck and is considered to be part of each players hand. Players take turns playing cards in order to hit certain values, make sets, and/or runs; each time this occurs points are scored for the player who made the pattern and are recorded on the score track. This continues until the players have played their four cards.

Next each player scores their hand, including the face up card, making the same patterns as before. Finally, the dealer scores the crib and adds those points to their total. The cards are then collected, shuffled, and the deal passes to the next player. The winner is the first to 121 points. The game is often played as a series of games to determine the outcome.

Where I found the fun

As the dealer, there is an element of guessing what cards that your opponent may discard to the crib in order to maximize your total points. However, that is greatly limited by the six cards that you are dealt.

What worked for me

The game is highly dependent on luck of which six cards you are dealt. While you are allowed to make the best four card hand from those six, sometimes you are dealt cards which barely work together while your opponent is dealt a killer hand. There is the fact that you score the hand in two ways which does help to mitigate this, it sometimes falls very short for the unlucky player.

What didn't work for me

The variety of ways to score is intriguing which means that a non-scoring hand is almost non-existent. Also, the game play is fast once you have the hang of scoring your hand which can help even out the luck factor.

Final Thoughts

This is a game that was played a lot at my house growing up and for that reason will always hold sentimental value. However, there are far more interesting games available to play these days. That being said, I probably wouldn't turn down a game or two of cribbage if presented the opportunity – after all, the game does play quickly.