Tag: cribbage

This is National Scrabble Day

I almost forgot that April 13 is National Scrabble Day. I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about it before, so I’ll inflict some thoughts on you now about it and add some others about International Cribbage Day, which is on February 10 annually—and which I evidently tend to forget every year.

The big news about Scrabble is that it’s changing in a major way, at least in Europe. I guess some people think the game is too difficult and they want to make it less “intimidating.” That’s what Mattel in Europe says, anyway. Others accuse the company of “dumbing it down.” I guess a certain generation of players want the game to be less competitive and more cooperative.

The thing about Scrabble Together is that it’s available only in Europe—for now. I just found out that Mattel is based in California and owns the rights to the game around most of the world. However, Hasbro licenses the game in the U.S. and has no plan to offer Scrabble Together in America.

We play Scrabble rarely—I’m not a very good player so I tend to avoid it. Sena has a couple of computer versions on CD, The Hasbro version of which is getting to be about eBay age. I think I bought it in 1999 (or was it 1998?) at Best Buy, back in the day when you could buy stuff in the actual stores. Even though the shelves looked pretty bare the last time I was there, web articles indicate it’s not going out of business, just evolving into online retailing.

Sena plays Maven (an interactive character that morphs, makes noises, and makes fun of or cheers your plays) on the Hasbro CD Scrabble version. She plays the Advanced Level and says she loses most of the time. Maven is very competitive. Funny thing, this doesn’t discourage Sena from playing. I tried to play Maven yesterday and got slaughtered. Maven thought it was pretty funny.

This change to Scrabble Together reminds me of a big story about a guy named Nigel Richards who won the French World Scrabble Championship Tournament in 2015—and he doesn’t speak a word of French. He memorized the French Dictionary. He concentrates on maximizing his scores without focusing on the actual words. It’s really more about the numbers than the vocabulary. Nigel Richards is definitely competitive and probably would not be interested in Scrabble Together.

Scrabble Together could attract more young people to an old game, which is more than you might say about cribbage. Just to be clear, cribbage is a competitive game and always has been. Every once in a while, you’ll see interesting descriptions about this two-hander card game which uses a board and can teach you a thing or two about math, strategy, logic, and building friendships.

People often observe that typical cribbage players tend to be older. It’s common to see there are fewer players under the age of 50. Many fans of cribbage try to attract younger players to the game by extolling its virtues and assuring younger novices they’ll be treated kindly. You can see that on the American Cribbage Congress (ACC) website page entitled “Cribbage Club Code of Congeniality.” Cribbage, while a competitive game, can be supportive as well. It’s not impossible.

Try not to let an experienced cribbage enthusiast persuade you to play for money.

Cribbage Pro Computer Game Demo on Brutal Level!

Sena and I enjoy cribbage. I sometimes practice using computer games. You might remember my video about Cribbage Classic last year. The other day I did a demonstration of gameplay on another game called Cribbage Pro. The developer is Fuller Systems, Inc.

It has 3 levels of difficulty: Standard (which you might call easy); Challenging; and Brutal. The developer of Cribbage Pro says that the Brutal level makes virtually no mistakes. It’s tough to beat. I won 3 in a row and then lost 2 before winning the 6th game. Fuller Systems, Inc. follows American Cribbage Congress (ACC) rules.

It’s a nice way to learn cribbage, play casual mode, or play against others on line in multiplayer mode, although I’ve never done the latter.

You can learn a lot about cribbage from playing Cribbage Pro. It has a tutorial and numerous other teaching resources for learning how to play either just for fun or with the goal of playing in tournaments.

It has a Muggins Rule Mode, which lets you count your scores manually and challenge the computer if it makes an error in its own scoring. Then you pick up the difference in score yourself. I’ve read that some cribbage experts say Muggins is mainly for people who like to argue. I’ve tried to play Muggins on Cribbage Pro, but frankly could never understand the procedure. However, among the numerous settings available you can count manually without activating the Muggins Rule.

Cribbage Pro is available for many platforms. It’s free if you can put up with ads. I paid $5 to get rid of ads. But the game itself has popups to remind you to either register to play in multiplayer mode or to rate the game. I’ve given it a favorable rating.

Snow Day!

I wrote this post yesterday because I didn’t know whether or not we’d have a power outage because of high winds (up to nearly 50 mph) predicted for the Arctic Blast this week.

When we’re not outside scooping our walkway and driveway, we’ll probably be playing cribbage or, God forbid, Scrabble (which I always lose).

We’ve heard about the renewed interest in board games, one of them being Scrabble. We recently found an old Scrabble game at Old Capitol Town Center (formerly Old Capitol Mall). It’s Super Scrabble and it was on sale for $50 at a hole-in-the-wall shop lacking an entrance sign. The high price is because it’s a collectible relic from the past, although a quick internet search revealed it was made in 2004—hardly an antique. You can find them on eBay for $30. On the other hand, you can find them going for as much as $179 at an on-line store called Mercari.

We’ll also probably take a break by munching on our Christmas cookies.

I’m all set for the freezing weather. I’ve got my thermal underwear out and sweats out, along with my heavy gloves.

The wind will probably make shoveling pointless at times. We’ll probably bag it and then I’ll practice the juggling behind the back trick—another pointless activity.

Blockbuster Sasquatch Cribbage Game Antics!

Brace yourselves! Sena and I are going to break the internet with the never-before-seen YouTube video of our antic-filled cribbage game on our Sasquatch cribbage board—and playing with the Sasquatch cribbage cards!

This had an extremely rare outcome. Wait’ll you see what it is.

I also shared a few nuggets of knowledge about Sasquatch that I learned from the internet. One of them is that the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) credits the state of Iowa with 76 reports of Bigfoot encounters (not necessarily sighting per se, but so what?).

Announcements!

Today, I almost got a 29-hand playing cribbage with Sena. Almost is kind of like a fish story about the one that got away. I got dealt a Jack of hearts, and 3 fives, the heart, club, and diamond. If the Jack of heart had been in my hand and the 5 of hearts had been the starter card, and the other 5 in my hand had been the spade, I could have been a lucky guy, indeed. As it was, the hand was worth only 20 points. You can get better hands without all those fives, frankly. But it was still exciting. We both won a game and I finally won best two out of three. That’s rare.

There are definitely going to be 4 blossoms on the Amaryllis. They will make a great-looking bouquet. By the way, Sena has been to stores where the bulb kits are sold—some of the plants burst right through the boxes! That means you don’t have to do much to get them to grow—my kind of houseplant.

Sasquatch Cribbage Board Game!

Today was the inaugural game on our new Sasquatch cribbage board. It’s a very handsome item, made of walnut by the maker, David Sprouse, in Ferndale, Washington. His website is 3MoonsMakerSpace and he markets the boards on Etsy. It was delivered only a couple of weeks ago. It came with pegs and deck of cards. It has a hole in the back for hanging on a wall, if you want.

We played the game to 61 just for the sake of brevity since the point was to show off the board itself.

I don’t know really what to make of Bigfoot stories. Many claim to have spotted the creature way out in places like Washington state and elsewhere. There are reports of a few sightings even in Iowa.

I wonder why you never find corpses or even fossils of Sasquatch? Probably because extraterrestrials beam them up too quickly in order to harvest the fur for throw rugs for their space ships. The usual problem, of course, is getting the smell of beef jerky out of them.

Earth Shaking Announcements!

I have announcements that you don’t want to miss! We got our Sasquatch cribbage board and it is gorgeous. We hope to have a YouTube video of us playing a game in a day or two.

The Amaryllis Star of Holland continues to open, almost before our eyes. It’ll probably be in full bloom before Christmas.

I have been working so hard on my juggling practice, trying to get so I can do a behind the back throw—I got a bruise on my right wrist without even realizing it. I must have got smacked by the ball. More on the agony and the steady but slow progress coming soon!

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.

Chicago Cribbage Rematch 2022!

Since it has been almost a year since we last played Chicago Cribbage, we decided it was high time to break the laws of cribbage again. Short story—I won this year. Sena won last year, so we’re even.

We played to 61 because the game can take an eternity to play using the Chicago cards: Deal Again, Cut Again, No Fifteens, Trade Hands, and Reverse Count. Each player gets 7, two each of the Deal Again and Cut Again. See the web page for the full rules.

 The Chicago Cribbage 7 is now your license to cheat. You can demand to deal again and cut again at will if you don’t like your cards. The other Chicago cards are even more brutal.

You can deal again and cut again all you want, but you’re screwed if Reverse Count is played. However, the damage you cause for your opponent by playing the Reverse Count, while cruel, be mitigated by your opponent playing the No Fifteens card. If you can’t count fifteens, you can’t count backwards. Playing the Trade Hands card can backfire in a big way, trust me. You win by being merciless.

The artwork on the cards fits the criminal theme of the gameplay. There are pictures of gangsters and gun molls.

By the way, a few words about the background picture of Crystal Gardens in the video. It is or maybe it’s more accurate to say it was at Navy Pier. When we vacationed in Chicago in 2007, we went to Navy Pier, but neither of us can recall actually going to the Crystal Gardens.

When we searched the web, we discovered that we had missed what many Chicagoans felt was a Chicago icon. Thousands signed a petition protesting the plan to close Crystal Gardens as described in a web article in 2021. The plan is to replace it with something called the “Digital Entertainment Experience.”

That sounds like something anybody who has a smartphone can get these days.

We have a lot of fun playing Chicago Cribbage—although it can be a little frustrating. Give it a try for a change of pace!