Tag: cribbage variations

Twelve Card Cribbage on the Tournament Board!

As promised, we played a game of 12-card cribbage on the tournament board today. What an adventure! We both missed pairs in counting high scores on one round (that we noticed after viewing the video)—but we got through it.

I don’t know of anyone else who’s made a video of this wacky variant, but let me know if you do. You know, it’s remarkable, we practiced it all morning and kerfuffles were the rule when it came to counting hands. You’ll see them. Yet we still finished the game in about 20 minutes because the scores were so high!

This is Calvinball Crib for sure. We don’t know where this tangent will go next.

Anyone for 12-Card Cribbage?

You know the winter is getting long when Sena and I talk about trying to play 12-card cribbage. We’ve come up with a way to manage the deal and the crib and we’ll try to play it tomorrow.

Sena’s been bugging me for a while now to try playing both 11-card and 12-card cribbage—despite the fact that no rules exist for them. There is the mystery of the American Cribbage Congress (ACC) having a section in their cribbage history which clearly claims that:

“Did you know that there are at least 18 variations to the BASIC game of cribbage? There is the basic 2 or 4 handed game, and then there are the 5 card, 7 card, 11 card and 13 card cribbage games. “

Notice that the author (who doesn’t have a byline) says there are both 11-card and 13-card variations. On the other hand, I’ve spoken with someone else at the ACC who knows everything there is to know about tournament cribbage and he and everyone else he asked at a recent tournament never heard of these variants. And you can’t find them anywhere on the web.

This whole Calvinball Crib thing comes from our having tried 7-card, 8-card, 9-card, and 10-card cribbage. Sena wore me down. So, we cobbled together some rules for 12-card cribbage. We’ll let you know what happens. If anybody out there has suggestions and comments, let us know!

Jokers Wild in Cribbage!

We tried out using jokers wild in cribbage yesterday. Sena won best of 3 games, even though I was dealt the joker the most times. I had the joker at least 4 or 5 times. On the last hand of the third deal, she won because she had a joker.

What do I have to do?

Playing cribbage with jokers wild might increase the chances of getting a 29 hand. It would be a quest, similar to playing Seven Card Cribbage to see if I could again make myself believe I could score 19, which is normally equal to zero in regular cribbage because 19 is impossible to score.

Impossible. I’ll tell you what’s impossible; it’s impossible to win any cribbage game with Sena. Therefore, my quest will be to win. I will be the Don Quixote of cribbage with Sena.

Fun Cribbage Variations!

We’re trying out some cribbage variations. One of them is the old 5-card variant that was probably the original version of cribbage. That makes it historically important. I think it might still be the preferred version in some regions of Britain and Australia. It’s simpler to play and is faster. You play to 6, but pegging stops every time you get a 31 or a GO. The non-dealer gets to peg 3 points at the first deal.

We also played seven card cribbage, which presents a ton of opportunities for scoring. I know that every expert says there is no way to score 19 (or 25, 26, or 27) in cribbage, but both Sena and I thought I got a hand score of 19. We counted it three times. Could one more card make that possible? The highest possible score is 46! The rules are outlined here.

Did you know there’s a song about cribbage? I didn’t either until yesterday. I hear one line in the song, “19 in the box.” I looked up “in the box” and it means generally to be in a bad situation. That makes sense because that essentially means you got zero points in your hand. Maybe I’m making a mondegreen out of it.