The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (141 page)

winning them. This does not count as a capture – so, even if you do

winning them. This does not count as a capture – so, even if you do

it in your own turn, you stil must make a matching capture or else

‘lay down’. You can also win pairs by spot ing other players’

oversights. For example:

If the table cards include a mournival and the dealer fails to

take it, whoever claims it first wins al four cards.

If they include a prial and a player captures only one such

card instead of al three, whoever claims it first wins the

unclaimed pair.

If a player lays down, and his cards include a pair that he

should have added to his winnings when the corresponding

pair was taken, whoever claims that pair first wins it.

Spot ing oversights does not count as capturing by matching,

which you are stil required to do on your next turn.

EndingPlay continues til al but one player have laid (or lain)

down. The last player left with cards in hand adds them to the cards

left untaken on the table and wins 5p from the pot. Al untaken

table cards are added to the dealer’s won cards.

Pay-of Whoever captured fewer than eight cards pays into the pot

1p for every two cards short of the eight he started with, and

whoever who took more than eight takes from the pot 1p for every

two cards he won in excess of that eight. This exactly disposes of

the 6p left in the pot after 5p has been paid to the last player left

in.

VariantsWil ughby suggests that four players make a pot of 9p (3-2-

2-2), then deal 10 each and 12 to the table. Last in hand wins 3p

from the pot and the others win or lose 1p for every two cards

taken above or below ten. I prefer to make a pot of 13 (4-3-3-3)

and win 7p for being the last in. Similarly, three players can make

a pot of 10p (4-3-3), deal 13 each and 13 to the table. Last in hand

wins 5p from the pot and the others win or lose 1p for every two

wins 5p from the pot and the others win or lose 1p for every two

cards taken above or below fourteen. Six can make a pot of 13p (3-

2-2-2-2-2), deal 7 each and 10 to the table. Last in hand wins 5p

from the pot and the others win or lose 1p for every two cards

taken above or below six.

Don’t forget…

Play to the left (clockwise) unless otherwise stated.

Eldest or Forehand means the player to the left of the dealer

in left-handed games, to the right in right-handed games.

T = Ten, p = players, pp = in fixed partnerships, c = cards,

† = trump,

= Joker.

16 Cribbage and other adders

Adders appropriately describes those arithmetical games where

each in turn plays a card to the table and announces the total value

of al cards so far played. Such games are popular in eastern

Europe, but have percolated through to the West only towards the

end of the twentieth century. The process is the same as that part of

Cribbage where the cards are played and counted up to thirty-one,

so Cribbage itself can be regarded as an adder with added

at ractions.

Cribbage (Six-card Cribbage)

2 players, 52 cards

Uncle Mort – Hey up, Lil, I’m sorry your Bob’s snuf ed it. Mr

Brandon – You’l have to look for a new Crib partner now, won’t

you? Auntie Lil – There’l never be another one to equal my Bob.

I’l never forget the way he used to add up the cards in his box.

’Fifteen 2, fifteen 4, 2 for me pair of Sevens and 1 for his nob.’ Ooh,

there was poetry and magic in them words, Mort.

Uncle Mort – Mebbe, Lil. But he’d got a bloody awful hand, hadn’t

he?

Peter Tinniswood, I Didn’t Know You Cared

(BBC-TV, 1975)

Britain’s national card game is, by any reckoning, one of the world’s

great games, albeit restricted to the English-speaking nations. First

recorded in 1630, the invention of Cribbage is traditional y ascribed

to Sir John Suckling (1609-42) – poet, playwright, soldier, wit,

courtier, eventual rebel and probable suicide – though it obviously

derives from a sixteenth-century game cal ed Noddy. Throughout

the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Cribbage enjoyed the

patronage of royalty and the aristocracy, which, however, it

subsequently lost to the chal enge of Whist and Bridge. It currently

enjoys the status of being the only game legal y playable on

licensed premises (pubs and clubs) without special permission from

the local authorities, and boasts an estimated minimum of two

mil ion tournament players, in addition to an unknown, but hardly

smal er, number of domestic players.

A distinctive feature of the game is its associated scoring

equipment.

The Cribbage board is a handy device, as old as the game itself, and

designed to keep simple but accurate track of the respective scores

which are made in dribs and drabs as play proceeds. The basic

model contains 60 holes on each side and an extra one at each end.

Each player sticks a coloured peg (or a plain old match-stick) in the

end-hole nearest himself, and throughout the game advances it one

hole per point scored, up the outside line and back down the

inside, returning to the end-hole for a winning count of 61. When

the game is played up to 121, the peg travels ‘twice round the

board’ before returning to the end-hole, though 121- and even 181-

hole boards are also obtainable. Each player uses two pegs, and,

upon scoring one or more points, takes out the trailing peg and

replaces it ahead of the former leading peg by the appropriate

amount. This serves as a double-check on accuracy, otherwise one

could easily take a lone peg out, do the calculation, and then forget

where it came from. The posher boards contain storage

compartments for the pegs, and some sport additional holes in

which to record the number of games won.

which to record the number of games won.

Described first is Six-card Cribbage, the standard modern game

for two players.

Cribbage board designed for play up to 61, or 121 if played twice

round. Scores are recorded up the outside and down the inside row

of holes on one side of the board for each player. In this il ustration

‘black’ stands at 8 points and is about to increase his score to 16 by

transferring his back peg 8 holes in front of his leader, while ‘white’

stands at 10 points made on one deal, as can be seen from the fact

that his back peg has not yet moved from the ‘0/61’ position. The

two-peg system guards against inaccurate scoring.

PreliminariesTwo play, using a 52-card pack ranking A23456789

TJQK.

Object To be the first to score 121 over as many deals as necessary.

Scores are recorded by moving pegs round a Cribbage board

(‘pegging’).

Deal The player cut ing the lower card deals first (Ace lowest), after

which the deal alternates. (That’s the traditional rule. Modern

players corrupted by Bridge tend to declare, ‘Ace high, high card

deals.’) Deal six cards each in ones, starting with non-dealer.

The discard Each player discards two cards face down to form a

‘crib’ of four cards. Their aim in discarding is to keep a hand of four

‘crib’ of four cards. Their aim in discarding is to keep a hand of four

cards which form scoring combinations. The four crib cards belong

to the dealer. He may not turn them up yet, but any scoring

combinations they may contain wil eventual y be added to his

total.

CombinationsThe combinations and their scores are:

1. Fifteen (2). Two or more cards total ing 15, counting Ace 1,

numerals at face value, courts 10 each.

2. 2. Pair (2). Two cards of the same rank.

3. Prial (Pair Royal) (6). Three of the same rank.

4. Double Pair Royal (12). Four of the same rank.

5. Run (1 per card). Three or more cards in ranking order.

6. Flush (4 or 5). Four cards of the same suit in one hand.

StarterNon-dealer lifts the top half of the undealt pack, the dealer

removes the top card of the bot om half and sets it face up on top

as the starter. If it is a Jack the dealer pegs 2 ‘for his heels’,

provided that he remembers to claim it before any card is played.

Play Starting with non-dealer, each in turn plays a card face up to

the table in front of himself and announces the total face value of

al cards so far played by both.

For making the total exactly 15, peg 2 points. For making exactly

31, peg 2 points. You may not bring the total beyond 31, but must

play if you can do so without reaching or exceeding 31. If you can’t

play without going over 31, you say‘Go’. The other then adds as

many more cards as possible without exceeding 31, scoring 2 for

making 31 exactly, or 1 for anything less (not both). If any cards

remain in hand, the cards played so far are turned face down, and

the next in turn to play begins a new series. When one player runs

out of cards, the other continues alone.

Points are also pegged for pairs and runs made by cards laid out

successively in the play. A card matching the rank of the previous

one played scores 2 for the pair; if the next played also matches, it

one played scores 2 for the pair; if the next played also matches, it

scores 6; and the fourth, if it matches, 12.

If a card just played completes an uninterrupted run of three or

more in conjunction with the cards played in immediately

preceding succession, the run is scored at the rate of 1 per card.

Example: Annie plays 5, Benny 7, Annie 6 and pegs 3 for the run. If Benny then

plays 4 or 8 he pegs 4. If instead he played 3 he would peg nothing, having

broken the sequence; but Annie could then play 4 and reconstitute it for 5

points.

A Flushes are ignored in the play to 31. Some wrongly believe that runs also

don’t count in the two-hand game. They may be confused by the fact that a run is broken by the interruption of a paired card. For example, in the consecutive play of 6 7 7 8, the second Seven breaks the run, which therefore doesn’t count.

The show Each player, starting with non-dealer, picks up his four

hand cards and spreads them face up. Counting these and the starter

as a five-card hand, he then scores for any and al combinations it

may contain – fifteens, pairs, prials, runs and flushes. A given card

may be used in more than one combination, and more than once in

the same combination, provided that at least one other associated