Tag: ACC cribbage rules

Two to Tango Cribbage Mistake Update!

I already have an update to the cribbage kerfuffle I posted about yesterday! The American Cribbage Congress (ACC) representative clarified what to do if the non-dealer and dealer by mistake switched roles during the cut of the deck and picking the starter card. According to Dan:

“This mishap of the cutting of the starter card is addressed in the rulebook under Rule 6.1 Even though it does not specifically address the wrong person cutting the starter card, it alludes to a similar situation and says, the starter card must be returned to the pack… the dealer reshuffles the pack, and the pone cuts the starter card.  No penalty is assessed.  Therefore, you did the exact right thing by keeping your hands and the crib and shuffling the remaining deck and then correctly cutting.  The jack that was originally cut is not in play at all.

Hope this helps.”

Dan got back to us the same day we sent the question, which was a fantastically quick response in my book!

The “It Takes Two to Tango” Mistake in Cribbage

Yesterday while playing cribbage, Sena and I accidentally switched non-dealer and dealer roles during the cut and pick the starter card phase of the game. I was dealer and by mistake cut the deck. Sena was non-dealer and by mistake picked the starter card—which happened to be a jack.

At that point we both realized this was wrong. I was the dealer and should have got the two for his heels, but I was also guilty of cutting the deck which the non-dealer is supposed to do. Sena, for whatever reason, picked the starter card, compounding the mistake of switching roles. This actually would have resulted in her getting 16 points!

At first, she suggested she get the two for his heels points and proceed. I thought this would compound the mistake further and thought we should reshuffle and redeal—which she did after a fairly long discussion. We kept our original hands and cribs and just repeated the cut and picked a new starter card the way it was supposed to be done—nondealer (Sena) cut and dealer (me) picked the starter card. In all fairness, we’ve both done this in the past but caught the mistakes before it got as far as it did yesterday.

However, we then looked for any rule which would cover what we should have done. I couldn’t find one either on the American Cribbage Congress website rulebook page or anywhere else. The link takes you to the ACC 2025 version of the tournament cribbage rules; which gives the cut card rules starting on page 28 of the flipbook. It covers the mistakes of the dealer turning up the starter card before both players discard to the crib, nondealer looking at the bottom card of the upper pack when making the cut, and the dealer placing the cut card in his hand and not showing it to the nondealer. It doesn’t cover the wild mistake of both dealer and nondealer accidentally switching roles either by somehow switching to a parallel universe or by extraterrestrial intervention.

We also tried to ask Artificial Intelligence (AI): What happens in cribbage if the dealer cuts the cards by mistake and the non-dealer turns up the starter card by mistake?

AI answer: “In cribbage, if the dealer cuts the deck by mistake and the non-dealer mistakenly turns up the starter card, the dealer loses the deal and the crib. The non-dealer then becomes the new dealer, and the cards are dealt again.”

I couldn’t find anything on the web which supported the AI answer or its detailed explanation. Long story short, I think this might be an example of an AI confabulation (some would call this a hallucination).

However, when I searched again asking the same question, AI gave a different answer:

“In a friendly cribbage game, if the dealer cuts the deck and the non-dealer turns up the starter card by mistake, the cards should be reshuffled and re-dealt. There is no penalty for this mistake as it is considered a misdeal.”

The explanations for the AI answer make sense but tend to sound like rephrasing of the initial answer and there are links which don’t seem connected to the answer. And if I search again, I get a slightly different answer and the explanations are not really connected to the original question.

But we reshuffled and redealt. I sent a question about this to the relevant ACC representative who takes general questions about cribbage. If I get an answer, I’ll pass it along.

Cribbage for Turtles!

We’re still turtles when it comes to how long we take to play a cribbage game. And, I think I misjudged how randomization works with shuffling cards using a machine. I checked on line and various sources say, in general, whether you’re manually shuffling or using an automatic shuffling machine, adequate randomization of 52 cards would require shuffling seven times.

We experimented a little using a stopwatch. I can shuffle a deck in about 10 seconds using one table shuffle riffle and cuts. Sena probably takes about the same amount of time although she uses a different manual shuffling method (overhand, riffle). Rounding the numbers, shuffling 7 times would take about one minute and over 10 deals (one game), it would use up about 10 minutes or so.

The automatic shuffling machine takes about 5 seconds to shuffle a deck and doing that 7 times would take 35 seconds. Over 10 deals this would take up about 6 minutes. You can see it in action in our YouTube video, “Cribbage Meets Card Shuffler.”

We also ran the 24 face cards through the machine and it didn’t randomize them at all. Adding more cards didn’t improve it that much. It occasionally jams, but overall, it seems to do the job when you’re playing with a full deck—although I’m now skeptical that it does any better at randomizing cards than manual shuffling. And that probably accounts for the recommendation to shuffle seven times—by machine or manual methods.

This imposes an incentive for the tournament cribbage player to cut the time out of certain phases of the game. That’s because of the rule that you need to be able to play a cribbage game in 15 minutes. We wonder if experienced players might skimp on the shuffling phase.

For reference, the American Cribbage Congress (ACC) official rules about proper mixing of the cards (sec. 2.1) says:

2.1. Proper Mixing The pack must be mixed or shuffled at least three times (including mechanical card shufflers) with the cards face down or otherwise hidden from both players. The shuffler is not permitted to look at the bottom card after the last shuffle. If the shuffler should do so, the nonshuffler is to remind the shuffler of the prohibition and score a two-point penalty. The pack shall then be reshuffled by the offender.

What’s interesting about this is that it looks like the ACC allows automatic card shufflers, which made me wonder about whether mufflers are required. Ours makes a real racket. Note that a table riffle would work well to hide the numbers sides of the cards. It’s also clear you have to shuffle at least three times.

We’ve never been to a cribbage tournament so we don’t know how this works in actual practice. Let’s suppose that the strict 15-minute game time limit is the main rule and players shuffle three times. Then using a machine would take up only 3 minutes and manual shuffling would take up 5 minutes—if you’re not that concerned about randomization.  

Manual shuffling means a tournament player might have 10 minutes for actual game play, so there could be an incentive to use a machine. On the other hand, experienced cribbage tournament players probably play every phase of the game very fast.

We take about 20 minutes to play a game regardless of whether we shuffle manually or with a machine. That’s how turtles roll.