So, I hear you're a cribbage player?

From Boof's BergBlog:

"...I turned around and there was the grandma holding a deck of cards eagerly to talk and play a round with me.
"yes, absolutely" I said and we sat down and shuffled the deck.

Me and the Grandma played about 8 games of cribbage before a cousin whispered in my ear,
"you know, you don't have to play with her if you don't want." I laughed it off because this was indeed a blessing.

I love cribbage. Me and my old roommate played about 700 games of cribbage (in which case I think I won most :0), some of my best father/son memories are playing cribbage with my dad, and I have indeed double skunked someone in my past. I find cribbage to be the absolute best conversation game ever and me and the Grandma were engaged in a pretty interesting conversation. I asked her about the family, her travels, and the history. I loved it..."
Read more...

Wine barrell stave cribbage board...

From LumberJocks.com:

"I made this for my brother for a Christmas gift. He plays cribbage and I thought it would be fun. I found a paper pattern on the internet, printed it out, taped it to the barrel stave and started drilling free hand with my drill press. Needless to say, there is a reason they make templates for this job. It took me several tries and it still did not come out perfect. I used a Sharpey fine point to draw in the numbers and track. I finished it with polyurethane. I made the game pieces from pop-rivets..."

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Cribbage: redefined...

From Waking Ambrose:

"CRIBBAGE, n. A substitute for conversation among those to whom nature has denied ideas. See EUCHRE, PEDRO, SEVEN-UP, etc.

2009 Update: A card game for those rich in virtue, poor in friends and in possession of pen or peg."

Read full post with many clever comments and additional definitions of cribbage.

Two past Siberia and wax on the cribbage board...

From Two Stops Past Siberia:

"Cribbage by Candlelight

So, the way it goes really is that I write letters on my computer at home, and then when I get to the internet, I post them. Consequently, some things happen in the mean time.

One of those things was a few nights ago. I taught my homestay siblings Cribbage. I have a board out here (Thanks Tif!) and they just love to play. The other night, we got a game going, with the three of us, and the power went out. This meant that we brought out a candle, and set it right on the board..."

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57 countries...

Somewhere along the line we added a bunch of new countries to the list of Cribbaholics. A while ago I moved the country tracker to the bottom right of the page.... which means to see it I have to scroll ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL the way down to the bottom of the page. Not a problem, really, but since then I have not kept as close of an eye on when new countries were added to our fan-base.

Anyway, now you know. There are 57 countries on the list now!!!! That's serious Cribbaholism. (?)

Cheers all,
Joe

Spending time with Chippewa Valley Cribbage Club...

From WEAU 13 News:

"It's a game where a skunk or a double skunk will earn you points, where "pegs" are key and "29" is king.

And it's a game where you can make friends.

In this Wandering Wisconsin report, we spend some time with the Chippewa Valley Cribbage Club.

Every Wednesday night cribbage competitors come to get in on a deal.

"We'll be playing 9 games all together."
"I have 2,4, and 3... that's 7."
"You go one game and you move so you don't play the same person all the time."

Cal Carter says, "best 2 handed game you can find. Can't play poker two handed."

In amongst the sea of cards, cribbage boards and cans, is the creator of the club.

"We just have a grand old time," says Terry Pederson. He picked the game up more than 50 years ago.

Just as clearly as he sees the cards, he saw a need, so he founded this club 8 years ago.

Pederson continues, "I've always had a flair for cards. It's mathematically oriented it's based on odds you play the odds 80/20 rule, 80% of the time something should happen only you have to worry about the 20% of the time when something happens."

He says 100% of the time, they have a good time..."

Full story here.

The lowly math of cribbage...

From The Lowly Mathematician:

"Today, I want to talk about card games… On a recent trip home, I had an opportunity to teach my fiance how to play one of my favorite card games. Cribbage. If you are unaware, cribbage is a game in which each player (or team, as the case may be) attempts to score the most points during several rounds. The goal is to be the first team to 121 points. The scoring system and play are somewhat complex, so I’ll just direct you to the wikipedia entry [1] for cribbage, but suffice to say that the game is quite fun. I’ll assume that the reader understands the scoring rules for cribbage for the rest of this post.

While we were playing, we came across several hands which were very difficult to count. For instance, consider the hand:

A-H 2-H 3-H 4-H (5-H)

where - is a card in the hand, and (X-Y) is the cut-card. This hand has the peculiar — and at first unnoticed — property of being worth 12 points. Though it’s not necessarily apparent. The obvious run and flush give 10 points easily, but the sum of all the cards is fifteen, something that is not readily seen, since there are so many cards involved in the sum. This and other odd hands led me to realize that it was probably best for me — especially since we play at night, when my brain is not at its finest — to leave the tedious task of counting these “weird” hands to a computer. The issue was — where to get such a program. Certainly such things exist. But that requires reconnaissance and time, time that I could be spending doing something more interesting.

Like writing my own.

Therefore, I present to you, in only around 200 lines of Haskell, a full library for playing card-like structures, complete with shuffling, dealing, and permutation-irrelevant equality, as well as a cribbage score counter which uses this library for counting cribbage scores…"

Read full post here.

Stanley's picture of cribbage board...

From Stanley's Pictures:

Atlas Pegged: Who is John Galt?

Not many people realize it, but Ayn Rand's fictional hero in the novel "Atlas Shrugged" would probably have enjoyed a good game of cribbage. Ok, you can say this is speculation, but let's look at the facts:

Cribbage is a game of skill that requires thinking - John Galt is a man of the mind.

There! What else do you need to convince you? As it turns out, I myself am a huge Ayn Rand fan and have been for many years. My real purpose in writing this particular post is to highlight a new campaign to send copies of Atlas Shrugged to government officials in order to educate them. And if they refuse to read perhaps they will at least get the idea that there are many of us out here not happy with the current direction of the government's policies.

If you have not read Atlas Shrugged, or are unfamiliar with Ayn Rand now is the time to read. It may be your own life you save.

In order to facilitate your ability to read AS and play cribbage at the same time (two things that obviously go together) I will for a limited time (Until April 30, 2009) send a free copy of Atlas Shrugged to anyone who orders two Crash Cribbage boards from www.crashcribbage.com. That's right!!! Free! Just mention that you want to "Play cribbage with John Galt" and you will get the boards and the book right in your mail box.

Now, let's play cribbage, John!

Cheers,
Joe Kane

Detecting good cribbage hands...

From Computer Detective:

"CRIBBAGE BASICS
The best cards to be dealt are fives, because they form fifteens with 10s, Js, Qs, and Ks. The best possible cribbage hand, in fact, is mostly fives: 5 5 5 5 J (worth 28, or 29 if the jack is nobs).starter card will add four points to its value and a 2, 3, or K starter will be worth six more points.crib, try to help yourself by putting something good there–fives are good, pairs, or cards that touch (to form a run). But never break up your hand in hopes of getting a good crib. Your hand is where you need to score most of your points; high-scoring cribs are unusual and require luck or an opponent’s mistake.Double runs should almost always be kept; chances of a quadruple or triple run are high enough to warrant keeping a double run even if you must help your opponent’s crib a bit. An exception would be a hand like 5 5 10 10 9 8, when the best play is to throw the 9 8. Back to Topcrib is a good idea if it doesn’t do much in your hand. The opponent is likely to throw at least one 10 card into your crib on most deals..."

Read full post...

2009 CRIBBAGE TOURNAMENT

From Cauliflower Alley Club:

"Come out and play against some of pro wrestling’s greatest stars! Past players have included Percival A. Friend, Ox Baker, Pat Patterson, Larry Hennig, J.J. Dillon, Paul Vachon, Maurice Vachon and many others!

Cribbage Lessons will be offered Monday from 11:00 AM through 4:00 PM and Tuesday from 10:00 AM through 12:00 PM.

To register, purchase your banquet ticket now and then send an e-mail to this year’s tournament organizer, Al Friend, at ajf0645@juno.com.

Upon arrival, there will be a $20 entrance fee, 100% of which goes to the CAC Benevolent Fund. Registration is open to anybody with a current CAC membership. Please show your 2009 banquet badge when you sign up for the tourney.

Please try to bring a cribbage board and deck of cards with you!

Registration: Monday, April 13, 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM and Tuesday, April 14, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Games: Tuesday, April 14, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM and Wednesday, April 15, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Tournament is single elimination, best of three falls and matches will not be stopped due to bloodshed. Muggins rules WILL NOT be played unless agreed to by BOTH players in advance."

Full post.

Hand made cribbage board...

Here is the board that one of my shipmates brought in to work one day. His dad made it! Pretty cool.
:o)

Choice: playing a game or pulling out your organs through your throat?

From Savanvleck:

"...Confession time: I do concede to play Dominoes and Cribbage. My brother, David and I played Cribbage and Chess by the campfire and it is all good memories to me. I’m so rusty on Chess that I would need a new teacher but I whomped Gaffer at Cribbage the other day and Army Boy and I are trying to figure out how to play Cribbage between Indiana and Kuwait..."

Full post here.

Russ Howell: Pegged Out...

From The Hillsboro Argus:

'Russ' Howell, 89,

FOREST GROVE - Russell "Russ" Howell, 89, Forest Grove, died March 10, 2009, at his home.

A life celebration will be 2 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at the lodge at Homestead Park in Forest Grove.

Mr. Howell was born July 26, 1919, in Sand Springs, Okla., a son of Attaberry and Bessie Howell. He was raised and educated in California and graduated from Manual Arts High School in 1937.

He served in the U.S. Navy from March 1942 to October 1945 as an aviation radio technician. After his honorable discharge he worked in the sheet metal industry in California and for Pacific Title in Hollywood. He retired from that in 1965.

He married Leatrice Archer in 1964 in Las Vegas.

The couple owned and operated Mammoth Building Materials in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., from 1965 to 1974. He then worked in the hardware business until 1997, when he moved to Forest Grove.

For the last 20 years he made and sold cribbage boards. He enjoyed gardening, fishing and playing cards.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Leatrice, in 2001, and a son, Richard D. Howell in 1992.

Survivors include his sons, John R. Howell and Tom Howell; stepdaughters, Melanie Hart, Jennifer Heywood and a stepson, Mel Archer; and 10 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Remembrances: Hospice of Washington County, 900 SE Oak St. Suite 202, Hillsboro, OR 97123.

Arrangements: Tualatin Valley Funeral Alternatives, Hillsboro.


Original post here.

Picture of cribbage...

From Pitch Perfect Picture:






Full post here.:

Killer's victim was cribbage player...

From the Nashua Telegraph:

"...Growing up in Nashua in the 1960s and early 1970s, Lindovski was a mischievous child who liked to walk on his hands and played a mean game of cribbage. He made friends easily, joked around a lot and survived respiratory ailments that hospitalized him 15 times..."

Read full story

eCribbage through a roaring lens...

I know that's a cryptic title, but you have to check out this page by Roar:

http://www.kolotv.com/news/headlines/41239707.html

Senior Center may close...

From KoloTV.com:

"When told the senior center in Sparks could close because of budget cuts within Washoe County Dorothy Canton had few words to express herself, but they were enough.

"Oh, what will I do now." says Dorothy

The 93-year-old says she's been coming to the senior center for 20 years now. This afternoon she's enjoying lunch with her friends and later she'll play a game of bridge or cribbage. it's a habit with her, one she is not willing to give up lightly..."


Read more...

24 at F-Troop

Today I scored a 24 hand while playing Crash Cribbage with BBGunner and Mickey at F-Troop CPO club... cool!

:o) Thanks Mickey for taking the photo with your iphone and emailing to me!! Love technology!

Cheers,
Joe

eCribbage.com update...