Cribbage

Cribbage, or Crib, is a card game for two, three, four or six players that involves forming combinations of cards to accumulate points over a series of hands. more...

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Points are scored mainly for runs (sequential cards, regardless of suit); for pairs, triples and quadruples (cards of same rank); for flushes (cards in the same suit); and for combinations of cards that add up to 15. It is generally played by two people, but can be played by three (as individuals), four (as two two-person teams), or six (as three two-person teams).

Overview

According to John Aubrey, crib was created by the English poet Sir John Suckling in the early 17th century as a derivation of the game "noddy". Crib has survived, with no major changes, as one of the most popular games in the English-speaking world.

The game has three distinctive features: the eponymous crib (or box) which is a separate hand made up of discards from each player, counting for the dealer; the concept of scoring for "15s"; and the fact that each hand has two separate scoring stages, "the play" and "the show".

Playing the game

The deal rotates with each hand. This is important because of the advantage having the crib gives to the dealer (especially in five-card play). If at any point in a hand a player "pegs out" (reaches the winning score), then the game ends and the player wins. A notable feature of cribbage is that as soon as a player pegs out, the game is over; this can happen during the play of cards or while the hands are being scored. Some cribbage boards are marked with an "S" in place of "90" because a player is said to be "skunked" if, when the game ends, the player has fewer than 91 points. A player who finishes with fewer than 61 points is said to be "double skunked" or "lurched".

The deal and the formation of the crib

The dealer shuffles the deck and deals the required number of cards. The non-dealer has the right to cut the deck before the deal, though this can be ignored at the option of the cutting player. The players then discard cards face-down to form the crib, which will be used by the dealer.

The Starter

The player to the dealer's right or left (consistently use one or the other) cuts the pack and the dealer turns up the top card, called the "starter" . If the card is a Jack, the dealer scores two points for "his heels".

Card values

Aces are always a low card and have a counting value of 1. Face cards always have a counting value of 10 but retain their customary rank for runs, thus 9,10,J,Q,K is a valid run of 5. Because the ace is always a low card it only counts as a run in combination with the 2 and 3 etc and not with the K and Q.

Read more at Wikipedia.org