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30.01.2022
304 Comments
If I could only own one game it would be Cribbage. The deck gives you other options, ha ha! Really, I have been playing this game for 45 years and I never tire of it and others take to it very we'll. Yes it has a lot of odd rules but it includes: set collection, drafting (kind of), sequential play with deduction.last 30 points plays different from rest of game, 2-4 player head to head, 4 player teams, tournament play, point stealing, dead mans hand, count anallisis (15). It is a lot of game on a slab of wood. If you play this game on paper you lose the horserace feel of the game and it's visual clues. Please do not get a 61 hole board (except for travel). It works but I find it weakens the experience. I have a four, three and a two track board. Some hold the cards and the pegs. A serviceable board can be found for around $10. Some wonderful boards can be had for around $30. Start with one whose pegs are easily moved and held. Enjoy
Is cribbage only a 2-player game? Heck no! We'd have 4-player cut-throat games (on a 4-player board, no less) back when I was in college 'round the turn of the millennia…
I am 29 years old now, when i was 15-18 years old this game was my regular game over tea and music after school work, I even made my own cribbage board in shop class that had wood burned decals and drilled all 121 x 2 lanes using like a surgeon . Make your own board!
I love cribbage. My grandparents spent evenings playing cribbage because they didn't have cable or anything else to do. My parents played cribbage as a result and I guess that's where I learnt it (they had a little bit more to do, but not enough to not play cribbage). The rules aren't as hard as they make them out to seem; a couple games in and you'll get the hang of it. I remember hearing of one of my grandmother's friends, who got the ever so hard to achieve max of 29, and getting her picture in the local newspaper because of it; good times! I'm sure there were massively sounding high fives and legendary statuses doled out on individuals because of this… Typing all of this out kind of makes me seem like someone who's never seen the internet. Cribbage is good.
You don't play with the skunk or double skunk rules? So much fun if you do.
Basically, a skunk is if you win a game by 31 points or more. If you do, your win counts as two games instead of one. A double skunk is winning a games by 61 points or more and counts as three games. You should play best out of five or seven game matches. This counteracts some of the randomness, but (because of skunking and double skunking) adds a lot of tension to the overall game.
My dad is an amazing card player. He attributes it to growing up on a farm with a low capacity water heater when he was a kid. He and his siblings would play a game a Cribbage to see who got the hottest shower in the morning. He said that he learned to get good really quickly.
Then he picked up bridge and started to hustle it when he was in the military in Vietnam and after he got home. He would act like a rube and go to Bridge clubs that were popular back then and play somewhat poorly, but (full of confidence) asked if the players wanted to play for money (for points). Then, no matter who he was paired with, he'd go on to win again and again and rack up some impressive pots.
I wonder if Quinns is going to cover Bridge at any point?
I always feel like it is a big accomplishment if I can beat my dad at Cribbage or any card game really.
It would also be great if the SUSD crew covered playing Cribbage with four people. It is a really fun way to play as well.
Learnt this from my granddad, and it is pure nostalgia goodness. There are a lot of rhymes about how to win extra points and stuff that I don't really remember. "27 four is heaven" etc. And the counting of hands at the end is hypnotic. There is a banter to it. "15 two, 15 four. Pair's 2. And one for his knob." And so on. I got pretty good at discarding the right cards at the start, but granddad would always win because he could rack up points on the playing cards phase. It looks like a game of chance at first. But the more you play, the better your 'luck' gets.
So I know you arent life long cribbage players but… rule 1, ots an "honest man's game" if you are offered the cut and u accept, your opponent scores 2 points. Sooo that opening statement with first deal was terribly wrong. But, yes cribbage is great, played it since I was 4 with grandfather. It's pretty easy to learn difficult to master.
Another nuance: When counting your hand after a round, runs can use interchanging cards as well. Example: You have a 5, 6, 7, K and the upcard is a 6. You can count the run in your hand for 3 points then swap the 6's and score the run for a total of 6 points. Also Muggins is lots of fun once you have the game under your belt!
Lets say i say go cause i cant play a card without going over 31, and my opponent has 3 cards, 2 of which when BOTH played, do not exceed 31. Is she able to play both those cards? If so, does she get a point for each card played, or only the last card?
Cribbage is highly over rated. It’s more of a guessing game and luck than any kind of strategy. Either the other player puts cards in their crib that sync with the cards you put in or the don’t. 🤷♂️ There’s nothing you can do. The cards dealt determine the outcome mostly. SOMETIMES, strategy can turn a game if it’s close at the end. If you throw caution to the wind you’ll win just as many games as trying to be careful. It really doesn’t matter. A nice casual game but not one I would invest time to get good at. Sometimes there are no right plays you can possibly make and sometimes no matter what you do, you can’t go wrong. I’ve even TRIED to lose and ended up skunking people.
There a luck element to every card game but in cribbage it’s just too much. It gives a pretty big illusion of strategy making a big difference.
The reason why people have a hard time picking it up is not because it’s hard, it’s because automatically their brain is aware that they are really not in control of the outcome to much. They are expecting that there is more to what they are perceiving, but there isn’t. It’s just awkward that way and throws people off.
I have a set of Cribbage from my Great Grandfather. I never could be bothered to figure out the rules but this video has inspired me to dig it out and give it a go!
For combinations of cards, you score points based on how many cards are used. So a run of 3 is 3, a pair is 2, and a triple, composed of 3 pairs, is 6.
I love seeing cribbage mentioned online by others in the UK it seems that it has become almost forgotten here. Also like seeing someone else talk about how difficult actually teaching crib is… "So you deal six cards to each….ok so now you have to understand the scoring to do this properly….but now forget about that but also kind of remember it for scoring this part …. don't play too high to start but also don't play too low"
I use the muggins rule for all kinds of other competitive games. My favourite is using it for D&D when the players get ultra competitive with the DM (forgotten damage becomes healing)- quite quickly stops people interrupting future players turns when they finally realise they got the maths wrong. Wouldn’t do it for all games, but it’s useful if you’re trying to get players to keep the flow of a game going in maths heavy games
When scoring your hand, it best to do it in the standard order. Not only is this clearer for all to follow what you're doing, but it helps to avoid overlooking scores. Hand scoring sequence is:- 15s:- "15-2, 15-4, 15-6…" Runs Pairs, trips and fours Flush and finally "One for his knob" if you have it. Derived from the original "One for his nibs." 'Nobs' (sic) is just an American corruption. "Two for his heels." has several common alternatives based on something else he has two of, and related to knob, naturally.
"Two for his heels" is a weird term variant I've not heard. I've been playing cribbage for years with my relatives and to us that's called "nibs" which makes better sense as a counterpoint to "nobs".
My family typically plays cribbage as a 4 player game. Each player is dealt 5 cards instead of 6, and only put 1 card in the crib. The players opposite each other when sitting are on the same team. You can also play as a 3 player game with each person on their own, they all get 5 cards dealt with one to put in the crib, and one card is automatically dealt into the crib.
did anyone else go nuts when she passed the 5-7? What was she doing? She passed the five instead of the king…. bonkers. Plus, she gave up the 7-7-8-9 double run for a guaranteed 12. I know passing a 15 is bad, but you just have to there. And if you don't… DON'T PASS THE FIVE! I think I was screaming at my computer for a solid 5 minutes there
Ive been playing cribbage since I was 8. Its a fantastic game that I will also enjoy at 2 players. However, you can play 3 or 4 players, but I dont like it at those player counts. Now that I am older and have played many other board games, there is one rule of cribbage I am really starting to hate. That rule would be the one for the dealer getting 2 free points if the up card ends up being a jack. It makes literally zero sense and isnt points that are earned. You can say the same thing about the crib, but I feel that after many, many games, there is a fair bit of strategy to knowing which cards to throw or not to throw into the crib. Ive considered removing the 2 points for a jack rule and I dont imagine it would make the game worse in any way.
This explanation could have been better. You make it a lot more complicated than it needs to be – I’ve successfully taught cribbage to 5 different people and none of them expressed as much confusion as the comment section here 😅😅
I am bound and determined to learn this game since I have not opened my cribbage set box that I received last Christmas from my sister…have not even taken the plastic wrapping off and feel so bad about it ! lol My grandfather and uncles would sit all night long drinking and smoking and playing this classy ( difficult looking) old English game of Cribbage …I know it has to be very fun to play and addicting once you learn! Thanks for this educational video…cheers from Alabama,USA!
Just to add something here, each player is dealt six cards each, whoever got the lowest card first gets to go first. Each player discards two cards into what's called a "crib" (whoever's turn it is, that crib is like a bonus at the end of their turn). Then the deck is cut (not like bugs bunny did that one time, lol) and the card that is on top of the cut deck comes out and goes on the very top of the deck. All cards like in other card games are like this: Royals: all count as ten point(s) Aces: count as one point. If you reveal a Jack (of any suite) after cutting the deck, you score two points on the cribbage board.
I have a phone app that has the game, but the game comes with a board and a scoring calc so you can play a game with anothe rplayer and real card. You just input your cards into the calc and it score it for you. Obviously no good if you wanna play muggins rules but still makes a super easy for a new player as remebering the ways you score at first is annoying. Hmm that Go rule is different' from the version i play. Go just means the other person can go. If nobody get sto 31 the player who playe dthe last card scores that 1 point.
If I could only own one game it would be Cribbage. The deck gives you other options, ha ha! Really, I have been playing this game for 45 years and I never tire of it and others take to it very we'll. Yes it has a lot of odd rules but it includes: set collection, drafting (kind of), sequential play with deduction.last 30 points plays different from rest of game, 2-4 player head to head, 4 player teams, tournament play, point stealing, dead mans hand, count anallisis (15). It is a lot of game on a slab of wood. If you play this game on paper you lose the horserace feel of the game and it's visual clues. Please do not get a 61 hole board (except for travel). It works but I find it weakens the experience. I have a four, three and a two track board. Some hold the cards and the pegs. A serviceable board can be found for around $10. Some wonderful boards can be had for around $30. Start with one whose pegs are easily moved and held. Enjoy
Is cribbage only a 2-player game? Heck no! We'd have 4-player cut-throat games (on a 4-player board, no less) back when I was in college 'round the turn of the millennia…
7 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 31
Should have actually gotten 8 points at ~6:30
6:33 Calling muggins on Quinn. Fifteen for two.
Why do all these "good card games" gotta have such archaic scoring systems?
Muggins is the only way to play. Especially if you're playing a Dollar a point.
Good Review: Here is a GREAT board.
Outside Inside Summit Trail Cribbage Board Game
Are you going to do Exploding Kittens some day?
I am 29 years old now, when i was 15-18 years old this game was my regular game over tea and music after school work, I even made my own cribbage board in shop class that had wood burned decals and drilled all 121 x 2 lanes using like a surgeon . Make your own board!
Too much for a card game!!!
I love cribbage. My grandparents spent evenings playing cribbage because they didn't have cable or anything else to do. My parents played cribbage as a result and I guess that's where I learnt it (they had a little bit more to do, but not enough to not play cribbage). The rules aren't as hard as they make them out to seem; a couple games in and you'll get the hang of it. I remember hearing of one of my grandmother's friends, who got the ever so hard to achieve max of 29, and getting her picture in the local newspaper because of it; good times! I'm sure there were massively sounding high fives and legendary statuses doled out on individuals because of this… Typing all of this out kind of makes me seem like someone who's never seen the internet. Cribbage is good.
Almost forgot about cribbage. Learned it from the net and used to play it regularly some years ago. Should pick it up again, it was fun!
You don't play with the skunk or double skunk rules? So much fun if you do.
Basically, a skunk is if you win a game by 31 points or more. If you do, your win counts as two games instead of one. A double skunk is winning a games by 61 points or more and counts as three games. You should play best out of five or seven game matches. This counteracts some of the randomness, but (because of skunking and double skunking) adds a lot of tension to the overall game.
My dad is an amazing card player. He attributes it to growing up on a farm with a low capacity water heater when he was a kid. He and his siblings would play a game a Cribbage to see who got the hottest shower in the morning. He said that he learned to get good really quickly.
Then he picked up bridge and started to hustle it when he was in the military in Vietnam and after he got home. He would act like a rube and go to Bridge clubs that were popular back then and play somewhat poorly, but (full of confidence) asked if the players wanted to play for money (for points). Then, no matter who he was paired with, he'd go on to win again and again and rack up some impressive pots.
I wonder if Quinns is going to cover Bridge at any point?
I always feel like it is a big accomplishment if I can beat my dad at Cribbage or any card game really.
It would also be great if the SUSD crew covered playing Cribbage with four people. It is a really fun way to play as well.
Learnt this from my granddad, and it is pure nostalgia goodness.
There are a lot of rhymes about how to win extra points and stuff that I don't really remember. "27 four is heaven" etc.
And the counting of hands at the end is hypnotic. There is a banter to it. "15 two, 15 four. Pair's 2. And one for his knob." And so on.
I got pretty good at discarding the right cards at the start, but granddad would always win because he could rack up points on the playing cards phase.
It looks like a game of chance at first. But the more you play, the better your 'luck' gets.
So I know you arent life long cribbage players but… rule 1, ots an "honest man's game" if you are offered the cut and u accept, your opponent scores 2 points. Sooo that opening statement with first deal was terribly wrong. But, yes cribbage is great, played it since I was 4 with grandfather. It's pretty easy to learn difficult to master.
Love this being reviewed keep up the good work.
Another nuance: When counting your hand after a round, runs can use interchanging cards as well.
Example: You have a 5, 6, 7, K and the upcard is a 6. You can count the run in your hand for 3 points then swap the 6's and score the run for a total of 6 points.
Also Muggins is lots of fun once you have the game under your belt!
Lets say i say go cause i cant play a card without going over 31, and my opponent has 3 cards, 2 of which when BOTH played, do not exceed 31. Is she able to play both those cards? If so, does she get a point for each card played, or only the last card?
Cribbage is highly over rated. It’s more of a guessing game and luck than any kind of strategy. Either the other player puts cards in their crib that sync with the cards you put in or the don’t. 🤷♂️ There’s nothing you can do. The cards dealt determine the outcome mostly. SOMETIMES, strategy can turn a game if it’s close at the end. If you throw caution to the wind you’ll win just as many games as trying to be careful. It really doesn’t matter. A nice casual game but not one I would invest time to get good at. Sometimes there are no right plays you can possibly make and sometimes no matter what you do, you can’t go wrong. I’ve even TRIED to lose and ended up skunking people.
There a luck element to every card game but in cribbage it’s just too much. It gives a pretty big illusion of strategy making a big difference.
The reason why people have a hard time picking it up is not because it’s hard, it’s because automatically their brain is aware that they are really not in control of the outcome to much. They are expecting that there is more to what they are perceiving, but there isn’t. It’s just awkward that way and throws people off.
Anyone else call it 'getting skunked' when the other player beats you before you get a lap in around the board?
I have a set of Cribbage from my Great Grandfather. I never could be bothered to figure out the rules but this video has inspired me to dig it out and give it a go!
Every day, every hour, Cribbage games and tournaments at GameColony com!
We need games with a spanish deck
For combinations of cards, you score points based on how many cards are used. So a run of 3 is 3, a pair is 2, and a triple, composed of 3 pairs, is 6.
I love seeing cribbage mentioned online by others in the UK it seems that it has become almost forgotten here.
Also like seeing someone else talk about how difficult actually teaching crib is… "So you deal six cards to each….ok so now you have to understand the scoring to do this properly….but now forget about that but also kind of remember it for scoring this part …. don't play too high to start but also don't play too low"
One of Feld’s wackier point salads. As usual, no theme to speak of.
I use the muggins rule for all kinds of other competitive games. My favourite is using it for D&D when the players get ultra competitive with the DM (forgotten damage becomes healing)- quite quickly stops people interrupting future players turns when they finally realise they got the maths wrong. Wouldn’t do it for all games, but it’s useful if you’re trying to get players to keep the flow of a game going in maths heavy games
Crib Sheet
The dealer doesn't cut it's the opponent does
When scoring your hand, it best to do it in the standard order. Not only is this clearer for all to follow what you're doing, but it helps to avoid overlooking scores. Hand scoring sequence is:-
15s:- "15-2, 15-4, 15-6…"
Runs
Pairs, trips and fours
Flush
and finally "One for his knob" if you have it. Derived from the original "One for his nibs."
'Nobs' (sic) is just an American corruption.
"Two for his heels." has several common alternatives based on something else he has two of, and related to knob, naturally.
"Two for his heels" is a weird term variant I've not heard. I've been playing cribbage for years with my relatives and to us that's called "nibs" which makes better sense as a counterpoint to "nobs".
My family typically plays cribbage as a 4 player game. Each player is dealt 5 cards instead of 6, and only put 1 card in the crib. The players opposite each other when sitting are on the same team.
You can also play as a 3 player game with each person on their own, they all get 5 cards dealt with one to put in the crib, and one card is automatically dealt into the crib.
did anyone else go nuts when she passed the 5-7? What was she doing? She passed the five instead of the king…. bonkers. Plus, she gave up the 7-7-8-9 double run for a guaranteed 12. I know passing a 15 is bad, but you just have to there. And if you don't… DON'T PASS THE FIVE! I think I was screaming at my computer for a solid 5 minutes there
7:20 No you couldn't play another card because the count was already at 30. A better example would have been to use lower value cards.
Ive been playing cribbage since I was 8. Its a fantastic game that I will also enjoy at 2 players. However, you can play 3 or 4 players, but I dont like it at those player counts. Now that I am older and have played many other board games, there is one rule of cribbage I am really starting to hate. That rule would be the one for the dealer getting 2 free points if the up card ends up being a jack. It makes literally zero sense and isnt points that are earned. You can say the same thing about the crib, but I feel that after many, many games, there is a fair bit of strategy to knowing which cards to throw or not to throw into the crib. Ive considered removing the 2 points for a jack rule and I dont imagine it would make the game worse in any way.
At least in Wisconsin, no one but the dealer is allowed to touch the deck after the shuffle. A cut gives the dealer one peg.
This explanation could have been better. You make it a lot more complicated than it needs to be – I’ve successfully taught cribbage to 5 different people and none of them expressed as much confusion as the comment section here 😅😅
I'm still laughing at "What is this, 'Card Games that DO Suck?'"
This looks like a Mathmatics cards game :/
His heels is scored as soon as it is upturned before the first card is played.
I am bound and determined to learn this game since I have not opened my cribbage set box that I received last Christmas from my sister…have not even taken the plastic wrapping off and feel so bad about it ! lol
My grandfather and uncles would sit all night long drinking and smoking and playing this classy ( difficult looking) old English game of Cribbage …I know it has to be very fun to play and addicting once you learn!
Thanks for this educational video…cheers from Alabama,USA!
Just to add something here, each player is dealt six cards each, whoever got the lowest card first gets to go first. Each player discards two cards into what's called a "crib" (whoever's turn it is, that crib is like a bonus at the end of their turn). Then the deck is cut (not like bugs bunny did that one time, lol) and the card that is on top of the cut deck comes out and goes on the very top of the deck. All cards like in other card games are like this:
Royals: all count as ten point(s)
Aces: count as one point.
If you reveal a Jack (of any suite) after cutting the deck, you score two points on the cribbage board.
Still not as complicated as scoring riichi mahjong.
I am a pro in this game and i build a Asterix version cribbage board
…and one for his knob!
Tried teaching this to a barman in Amsterdam, it all fell apart really quickly.
Incidentally cribbage can be played with 3 or 4 people, just thought I’d mention late as this comment is.
I have a phone app that has the game, but the game comes with a board and a scoring calc so you can play a game with anothe rplayer and real card. You just input your cards into the calc and it score it for you. Obviously no good if you wanna play muggins rules but still makes a super easy for a new player as remebering the ways you score at first is annoying.
Hmm that Go rule is different' from the version i play. Go just means the other person can go. If nobody get sto 31 the player who playe dthe last card scores that 1 point.
Pegs, schmegs. Use matchsticks
lol the non-dealer is supposed to cut
Technically if you said Go and she could stay play, she should.