Transcription
I had a friend approached me the other day and they said, "Hey friend, I know you love cribbage and I'd like to learn. Is there any way you can help me? Because the videos I found online are kind of confusing." So after I taught her how to play the game, I watched the videos and I found that she was right. Um, I decided to fix this and by doing so, I am going to make the best beginner cribbage video ever.
CL: This video is not validated by anybody in the field of is same pinion. Furthermore, the author of this video makes no cl to be M player, simply a huge n. Play simply game, 15 and take piece of jump.
Hey, hey, hey everyone, Zor here from Huddle Around Games. I make videos of Cribbage games and tutorials here on the channel, and I have a weekly release schedule. I've been playing and teaching this game of Cribbage for 30 years. Learned when I was 5 years old. So let me help you get started in this fun game.
What do you need to play cribbage? It's simple. All you need is a cribbage board and a deck of playing cards. That's it. And you know, cribbage dos are come pretty cheap too. Although some are absolutely stunning. Most boards have 121 holes to keep track of scores. Some have 61. If you have a 61 hole board, you need to go around twice to play a single game of Cribbage. To win the game, you need to be the first one to reach the 121st hole. Whoever gets their first wins, no matter where you are in each round, even if it cuts off someone's turn. The first one to get to the game hole wins.
In mind and the lot of them, they come together at the end here to form One Singular game hole. That way, you know that it cannot be tied. Also on the board, if by some miracle you wi and your opponent is behind the skunk line, which sits at whole 90, a lot of them have a little skunk on there. You've skunked them, which means that you beat them so badly, you have now technically won two games. There's also a double skunk line at the whole 60, which is not official, but a lot of people play that way and it depends on who you're playing. Sometimes that means you win by three games and sometimes that means that you just win the match.
Game rubbage has three phases per round or hand. During these phases, you'll be scoring points by making 15s, pairs, runs, flushes, goes, and 31s. And yes, yes, that sounds complicated. You're right. Hang in there. Scoring is tough. It might be the toughest part of Cribbage, which is why I have something guaranteed to help. But I'll get into that after I go through the phases. So just hold on for a second. Just trust me.
First, you take your standard deck of playing cards and after you Shuffle, have one person cut the deck looking at the bottom card. Then have the other person cut the deck looking at the bottom card. And the lowest card deals first. Aces are low, kings are high. So in this case, the second person who cut would deal first. If there's a tie, shuffle the deck again and recut until you have someone who is clearly going first.
The dealer takes the deck and shuffles well, at least four times if you're doing the standard ripple shuffle, or seven times if you're doing the overhand. Then you deal six cards alternating to each person. The rest of the cards are placed in the middle of the main play area. Once everyone has their hand of six cards, you now move into the discard phase. You need to get rid of two cards to make up your four card hand. These extra cards go into what's called a crib. The crib is the extra hand that the dealer gets to count at the end of the whole hand or round. Once you have placed Two Cards into the crib, put it into the crib.
Um, now we need to cut the deck. So the non-dealer cuts the deck. They take the top part off. The dealer flips over the card without looking at the other one run and places it back on top of the rest of the deck. And this is called the cut card or starter card. This will be used later. Here, there is a special rule called nibs or his heels. If a Jack is cut, then the dealer gets to peg two points right then and there.
All right, so this is the player pegging phase of the game. For some, this is the most complicated part of the game, and it is where the most strategy comes into play. For new players, just trust your instincts and then go check out my playlist of videos on pegging traps and tricks later on. During this phase, players alternate laying down cards and starting with the non-dealer. As they do so, they announce the total score by adding the value of the cards. Aces are one, numbered cards are worth face value, and all face cards are worth 10. If you make 15s, pairs, or runs, you get points for those. Remember more specifics on points later. The play can go only up to 31 and it can't go over. If you can't play without going over, you say the word "go." The other player plays what they can until they don't have other cards to play over 31. Either then they get one point for "go." Play starts over at zero with the person who did not play the last card. We continue until all the cards have been played. Yes, the person who played the very last card also gets one point for "last card." It's like a "go." And if you happen to land right on the number 31 with count, the person who plays that card gets two points.
All right, after you're pegging, you pick up your cards. The non-dealer counts the points in their hand. Okay, we're about 1 minute away from us talking about the specifics, including a free thing to help you out. So just, just hold on, hold on. The dealer then counts their hand and pegs, and then the dealer counts their crib. Um, remember this whole time that cut card is available for use by any of those hands.
All right, then everyone collects the cards. The non-dealer becomes the dealer. They shuffle the deck. We begin the whole hand or round over again. Only this time, the other player gets the deal. That means they get that special crib at the end. We continue until the first player gets to 121 on the cribbage board. And again, it doesn't matter where you are in the hand or the round. If, as soon as someone gets 21, they win.
As promised, we are now here to talk about how we get those points during the pegging and during the counting part of the game. Here's a very brief breakdown on how we do it. I do have more videos on this on my beginner cribbage player playlist. So if you need more specifics, go check out this video. That video, it's one of the more popular ones on my channel.
First, if you can add up two or more cards that add up to 15, you get two points for every instance of where that happens. Cards can be reused as long as it isn't the exact same card combination. So if you had a five and a 10 and another 10 here, you could replace it with that other 10. Still works.
Second, if you have a pair, you get two points. Two points there. Three of a kind is worth six points, and four of a kind is worth 12 points. That's because they add up that way. And I have another video on pairs if you want to dig into the details on that.
Thirdly, runs. If you have three or more cards in a sequence, suits don't count here, unlike in Ry games. You get one point per card. So here I have a 9, 10, Jack. I get one, two, three points for that. That all of these points I just mentioned are available both during the pegging and the counting phases of the game.
Now let's go into some specifics. During the pegging phase, you also get one point for "go" and one point for "last card." That's when no one can play without going over 31. That's what a "go" is. You get two points if you land on right on 31. You can never get both points for a "go" or "last card" and 31. If you get 31, you get the two points and be happy you got two instead of one. These two are only available during the pegging phase of the game.
Now there are two other ways of getting points that are only an option during the show or counting phases at the end of each round. And first is knobs. If you have a Jack that matches the suit of the cut card, you get one point for a rule called knobs. It's kind of funny. It's like the opposite of the his heels one when the Jack came up during the cut.
Next come flushes. Flushes are a little tricky in this game. If you have a hand where all four cards of the same suits, called a flush, you get four points. One, two, three, four. If the starter card or cut card is also in the same suit, then you get a fifth point for that. But the the real tricky part is that in the crib, you have to have all five for it to count. I don't know why. That's just the way the rules are. Doesn't make much sense to me, but rules are rules.
And finally, there is one super crazy way that you can actually win the game right from the yet go and nothing else matters. And it's right here. Are you listening? Are you listening? This is insane. Okay, you win the game instantly if and only if you like this video.
All the scoring is clear as mud, right? Scoring and counting, scorting, scoring and counting is tough for new players, which is why I made this cheat sheet for beginners, um, with all the information on counting and scoring your hands. And it also has the faces of the game on the back side of the paper. You can get it by clicking the link in the description below. It is completely free. You don't even actually have to go to my website and sit through the ads. I put the download R link right there for you because it's like, whatever, just get it. I want you to play. So go play. So download that and either have it with you or print it off and have it with you. That's okay too.
And like I mentioned before, I have a beginner cribbage player playlist that will be at the end of this video, also linked in the description below, that will go into detail on things like scoring and other, other ways that can help you to watch and go through. At this point, if you feel like you've kind of got a grasp of the game, just go for it and play it. Otherwise, I'm here to show you an example of a round of Cribbage to demonstrate the flow of the game. We won't go through a whole game. I have plenty of game videos on my channel, so go check those out. For today, we are going to go through one uh round of Cribbage and flow. We're going to do it on Crib Cribbage Pro.
All right, here we are. I'm playing on Cribbage Pro. I'm playing their bot, their easy level bot, which you can play. And it says chew from the deck. The lowest card deals. So I'm going to click. I draw seven and they cut a four. They have the low cards, so they are the dealer first. I'm going to get my hand of six cards, which show up right here. And it automatically puts it in order for me. I suggest you put it in order for yourself. So I'm looking for things like 15s or runs or pairs. Now I do know because I've been playing a lot, I can quickly see that an Ace, 6, 8 will add up to 15. Ace + 6 is 7, 7 + 8 is 15. So I am going to throw this pair of twos and keep an Ace, Ace, 6, 8.
Now I am the non-dealer. I get to cut the deck. So, did you notice the two cards went into the other player's crib? They are the dealer. They have that little D up there. Okay. I'm going to cut and I cut a Jack. Well, well, that's a bad for me, but a great for an example of this video. Remember when you cut the deal, um, when you cut a Jack, the dealer gets two points right then and there. And if you look over at the cribbage board, you'll see the red player, that's the computer, took their back peg and they went up two holes. You always take the back bag and jump over the front one.
All right, I now we're in the pegging phase of the game. So we're taking turns playing cards, taking turns playing cards. I'm going to play the Ace. They play a 10. No points for that. I'm going to play a six. No points for that, cuz it's 17. Oh, I wish I had another six, but I don't. And I can't go over 31. The count is 25. Otherwise, I would play their eight. So I'm going to play the Ace and take, take my no points again. They play Four. They're at 30. I have to say "go." I don't have a card. I can't go over 31. I say "go." They're going to get one point unless they have a card. They got to go for one. And now I have to play because I was the, I was, they were the last player to play. I play eight. They play Jack and they get one point for last card. If at any point we made a 15 or got pairs or a run in there, we could have gotten points from that.
Now it's the counting phase of the game, starting with the non-dealer, that's me. So now I need to count. I've got Ace, 6, 8 is 15, two. The other Ace of Diamonds, 6, 8 is 15, four. I don't. And then I have an Ace. Ace is a pair for two more. So now we're up to six. I have no runs. I have no flushes. I have no, um, knobs because there's the Jacks and The Cut card. So I'm going to score my, my points. And now I go to six. Okay, they show me theirs. They got two. All right, they got a pair with the Jacks. Remember, they can use a starter card too. So they had a pair of Jacks for two points. And in there, they got four, except they didn't get four. They scored it wrong. Sometimes the bot will do that. Let me tell you the right answer. 2 + 4 is 6 + 9 is 15, for two. Then if you take the two of Spades with the four and the nine, that's 15 for four. And then they have a pair of twos as 15 for six. So the bot miscounted. And I do know that when you play on the easiest bot, it does miscount sometimes on purpose. When you play manual scoring.
All right, you can even choose to reshuffle on this if you don't believe the shuffling was fair, which, I mean, it always is. So now we're going to play one more with me as the dealer, which means it's my crib. Okay, so I need to pick some cards. Looking for 15s and pairs and runs. And I see if I look at this 3, 7, getting that and putting it into my crib, I'll have a pretty good hand because all these face cards are worth 10. So I can use this five to make 15 three times. And I can get a run between the 10, Jack, Queens. So we're going to discard the 7, 3. The computer cut a Queen for us. Oh, this is going to be a good hand. I, I bet we would win if we played this whole thing.
All right, so let's, let's, I'm not going to, I wouldn't normally do this, but let's play a 10 on their eight. So the count is now 18. But I didn't get any points. They played a seven. It's at 25. I played a five, taking it to 30. No points still. But they can't go over 31. They say "go." I say "go" because I don't have any cards. But I was the last one to play. So I get a point. Yes.
Ooh, a Queen. You know what to do here. We're going to play a Queen and we're going to pair it to get two points because pairs are worth two. They have a three. I have to say "go" because the count is at 23. Queen, Queen, three, 10, 10, three, that's 23. I can't play. So they're going to get a point, but I'm going to get a point for last card. As you can see down at the last card at the top, they scored their hand. They have 7 + 8 is 15 for two and a pair of Queens for four. They counted it right this time. What did we get? We got 5, 10, 15, two. Five, Jack, 15, four. Now I'm saying 15, four. We didn't get four points for it. I'm just counting up by twos. Five, Queen, another two. And then five of clubs with the Queen of Clubs for the starter card or cut card is eight. And now this is going, this is where it gets tricky. So what should we count next? Pairs or runs? It doesn't matter as long as we do it the same way every time. I'm going to count my runs next. So I have down in my hand the 10, Jack, Queen of Hearts. That's three points because there's three cards. But I can reuse the 10 of Hearts, the Jack of Diamonds with the Queen of Clubs for another three points, taking me to 14. And finally, I have a pair of Queens, taking me to 16. That's a good hand.
All right, in my crib, I can still use that Queen, but it's not going to help me because I have no 15s and no runs and no paars and no fleshes and just, just nothing. So I guess we got that 16 hand and got us a great big cup of nothing. But and now the deal goes back to the computer and we keep playing. The current score is 15 to 26. I'm up. And if you look at the cribbage board as the cribbage board was going, you'll notice you always move the back peg in front of the front peg and just keep counting whenever you get points. So we would continue in this way until one of us got to 121.