Cribbage

Cribbage, or crib, is a card game traditionally for two players, but commonly played with three, four or more, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. Cribbage has several distinctive features: the cribbage board used for score-keeping, the eponymous crib or box (a separate hand counting for the dealer), two distinct scoring stages (the play and the show) and a unique scoring system including points for groups of cards that total fifteen.

History

According to John Aubrey, cribbage was created by the English poet Sir John Suckling in the early 17th century, as a derivation of the game "noddy." While noddy has disappeared, crib has survived, virtually unchanged, as one of the most popular games in the English-speaking world. The objective of the game is to be the first player to score a target number of points, typically 61 or 121. Points are scored for card combinations that add up to fifteen, and for pairs, triples, quadruples, runs and flushes.

Cribbage (pool)

Cribbage, sometimes called cribbage pocket billiards, cribbage pool, 15 points and pair pool, is a two-player pocket billiards game that, like its namesake card game, has a scoring system which awards points for pairing groups of balls (rather than playing cards) that total 15. Played on a standard pool table, participants who pocket a ball of a particular number are required to immediately pocket the companion ball that tallies to 15 when added to the prior ball's number. The goal is to score five paired cribbages out of a possible 8, with the exception that the last ball, required to be the 15 ball, is not paired but alone counts as one cribbage.

Gameplay (Billiard Congress of America)

Set-up

At the start of cribbage, a standard set of fifteen pool balls are racked at the foot end of a pool table, with the apex ball of the rack centered over the foot spot and the 15 ball placed at the rack's center. All other balls are placed randomly except that no two of the three corner balls may total to fifteen. Such an open-ended racking rule is unusual in that most pool games require particular balls to be placed at the corners of the rack and sometimes in fixed positions inside the rack as well. The arrangement thus results in 134,120,448,000 possible racking patterns (14 × 12 × 10 × 2 × 11!).

Rules of cribbage

Over the 400 or so years that the game of cribbage has been around, variations and rules have evolved, with house rules, preferences and even misunderstandings being passed on from one player to another. However, the core of the rules remains constant, and should be familiar to most players. The rules here apply to the standard two-, three- or four-player games, with details of variations being listed below.

The deal

Cribbage uses a standard 52-card deck of cards. The jokers are removed; the suits are equal in status. The players cut for first deal, with the player cutting the lowest card (the ace counts as one, and is the lowest card) dealing first. If the cutters tie, the cards are re-shuffled and re-cut. The dealer shuffles, offers the deck to the player on his right to cut (required in tournament play), and deals cards singly to each player, starting with the player on his left. During the deal, if any card is exposed by the dealer or found face-up in the deck, cards must be redealt.