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Jeshie's Cribbage (Other)

[February 11, 2016 11:50:38 PM]

Cribbage: Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 (Game 1). Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016 (Game 2).

Cribbage is a competitive, multiplayer card game that uses a wooden board and a standard 52 card deck of playing cards. The board is used to help keep track of the score and is called the Cribbage board, which is what the game is named after. The game has mildly high learning curve for a basic card game, but has some depth once the initial difficulty barrier is broken through. The game is traditionally designed for 2 players, but their are mild changes to the rules that can support up to a total of 6 players. A typical game usually lasts until a player or team reaches 61 or 121 points, depending on how long the players want a game to last. Using counting skills, strategy, and a little bit of luck helps a lot and can put oneself in an advantageous position to score the most points.

>>Structure<<

A game consists of several hands and each hand has three phases. The initial phase is known as 'the deal' which basically sets up the round for the next two phases. Next comes 'the play' or 'pegging', which is when players take turns in a clockwise motion playing one card at a time with opportunities to score points. Following 'the play' is the final phase called 'the show'. Here players are scored on the cards in their hand.

>>The Deal<<

On the first round the dealer is decided by having each player take a cut of the deck and whoever has the lowest card on the bottom of their portion becomes the dealer. The dealer will deal a total number of cards to the players so that after they discard each player will still have 4 cards in hand. The total number of discarded cards should also be 4 and will form 'the crib', which is face down. The dealer then has someone cut the deck and from the remaining half will flip the top card face up. This card is known as 'the starter' and affects scoring during 'the show'. If 'the starter' is a Jack the dealer scores 2 points instantly.

>>The Play<<

This phase is one of the main opportunities for players to gain points. After 'the deal', the player to the left of the dealer starts the count from 0 and plays a card. This card is then added to the count and the next player goes. Each time a card is played the count is added to it. As for card values, all face cards are treated as 10, aces as 1, and other cards are held at face value. The count can never exceed 31, which means if a player can not play anything that will make the total count less than or equal to 31 then they must say 'go'. By saying 'go' the player gives the next player in line a chance to play. If everyone at the table says 'go' and it gets back to the owner of the most recent card played, that player scores +1 and a new count is started with the player to his/her left. If a player creates a total of 31 it is instantly a full 'go' around the table and they score +2 instead of just +1. If a count resets and the count value was 15 the player scores +3 points. During this phase points can also be earned through certain card combinations created by playing off of previously played cards in the current count. Once everyone is out of cards the round moves on to 'the show'.

>>The Show<<

'The show' is the second main scoring portion of the game where everyone picks back up their hand and scores it using 'the starter' as a 5th card. The scoring order begins with the person left of the dealer, so that the dealer scores last. This is important because the second someone reaches the point total the game instantly ends. Even though the dealer goes last though, the dealer gets to also score using 'the crib' as a separate hand. After the scoring of 'the crib', the dealer passes the deck to the left and that player starts the next hand as the dealer.

>>Scoring<<

Card Combinations:
Fifteen - (Play) If a player plays a card that causes the total
count to equal 15 they score +2. (Show) If the values of the
subset of the cards equals 15 score +2.
Pairs - (Play) If the previous card is the same as the one just played
score +2. (Show) Have a pair in hand or with 'starter' score +2.
Triplets - (Play) If the 2 previous cards are the same as the one just
played score +6. (Show) Have three of a kind in hand or with
'starter' score +6.
Four - (Play) If the 3 previous cards are the same as the one just
played score +12. (Show Have 4 of a kind in hand or with the
'starter' score +12.
Runs - (Play) If 3 or more cards played in a row are numerically next to
each other, score up to the number of cards in a row. These cards
do not need to be actually played in numeric rotation.
e.g., P1 plays 6, P2 plays 4, P3 plays 5 and scores +3. (Show) If
3 or more cards in hand or 'starter' are in numeric sequence
score up to to the number of cards in the run.*Note values do not
wrap meaning ACE, KING, QUEEN is not a run.
Flush - (Play) If 4 or more cards played in a row have the same suit
score up to the number of cards in a row. (Show) If 4 or more
cards in hand or with 'starter' are the same suit score up to
the number of cards. 'The crib' is an exception and only allows
a flush of 5 cards for a score of +5.

Misc:
If you have a Jack that is the same suit as the 'starter' card during
'the show' phase score +1.

*Note: Cards can be used more than once in separate combinations just not
the same one twice during 'the show'. E.g., 5Hearts + QSpades = 15 and
5Hearts + QHearts = 15 scores a total of +4.

>>Game Play<<

First Game: Played with a total of 3 people. One had played before and it was the first time for the other two(One of them was me). With three people each person gets 5 cards and discards one, then a fourth card is dealt to 'the crib' to reach 4. The first hand was played like a tutorial round to get the hang of the structure of a 'hand' and how to score points properly. Took a few hands, 1 or 2 more, before everyone got the hang of it and the game was moving smoothly.

I definitely started to notice very quickly that it was much safer and easier to try to score points during 'the show' rather than 'the play'. I feel like the other two were also thinking this as most of 'the play' was uneventful except for the occasional pair or fifteen combination. This made it feel like 'the play' was more luck based for most of the game.

About halfway through I started to realize some simple ways to avoid the most common scores during 'the play' by disrupting possibilities for others to make a fifteen combination. Some of this included starting the count with a value less than 5 or making it to where count was in a range of 1-3 short of 15 as people tend to hold on to medium to high value cards.

The whole way through the game everyone was pretty close to one another score wise, but near the end I started to get very good 'cribs' when I was dealer, which helped me pull ahead and win.

A majority of this session was to get used to all the scoring rules, but near the end I started to sense some more depth to the strategy even though I did not necessarily know how to take advantage of it yet.

Second Game: The second game was played with only 2 people, one being me and the other being the experienced player from the first game. This time I was much more comfortable with the rules and was looking more towards finding tactics that felt like they led to positive results.

It was this game I learned very early on that a 2 player game of Cribbage is much different than a 3 player one. In this set up, each player is dealt 6 cards and then discards 2 to form a 'crib' of 4. The fact that you are discarding two of the cards going into 'the crib' means your influence on its scoring possibilities are much stronger. At the beginning of this game though, I was still playing much like I was the previous game and worrying mainly about my own hand for'the show'. This was a huge mistake as the opposing player started to get very big scores from 'the crib'. It was then that I realized I would discard cards that were had good scoring odds just because my they did not help my present hand. My opponent understood that you had to be wary of what you discard, so my 'cribs' did not net nearly as many points as theirs.

Ultimately this led to my defeat as I noticed it too late and they were too far ahead. My scores during 'the show' were constantly decent, but 'the crib' scores were keeping me behind. It was at that moment I truly felt the potential depth with the strategy of the game, which was much more prevalent than in the 3 player game. I also noticed that cards with a value of 10 and 5s were very powerful scoring tools. This meant I should probably discard other cards when my opponent is the dealer even if it means hurting my own hand's current score a little bit.

Finding a balance between managing 'the crib' and managing one's own hand really showed through during this match. It really changed how a I played near the end even though it was too late and made me approach the game differently.

>>Overall<<

Cribbage was an enjoyable game and I would like to play it some more. I would like to note that the board does not feel necessary and that you could easily play the game with just the cards if you have some other way to keep track of scores, like writing them down. It has a more casual appearance on the surface with a lot of potential for hardcore strategy. Initially, the game is not so intuitive, but after getting used to some of the scoring patterns one can quickly move past that and start worrying about the strategy within the game. It's just as good as any other standard multiplayer playing card game with the potential to be so much better if you are the kind of person who likes strategy.