# Help settle an argument where I KNOW I'm right, but am not believed (about Cribbage scoring) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 13, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-settle-an-argument-where-i-know-im-right-but-am-not-believed-about-cribbage-scoring/774587 "2016-12-13T03:58:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-settle-an-argument-where-i-know-im-right-but-am-not-believed-about-cribbage-scoring/774587/41 "2016-12-13T23:51:09Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Which brings up a question I’ve occasionally wondered: why isn’t a 4-card run scored as two overlapping 3-card runs (for 6 points rather than 4), and similarly, why isn’t a 5-card run scored as 3 overlapping 3-card runs (for 9 points rather than 5)? > > Not that I expect anybody to change the rules - or that it would even be a good idea. But given the way everything else in cribbage is scored, this has always seemed anomalous to me. You know, I’ve never thought about that, but it does seem pretty sensible. I guess I’d have to see a table of probabilities to see what a purely mathematical mapping of chances of getting a certain card combination to how it scores looks like, but it does seem to me that a four-card run should be worth more than just one point extra than a three-card run. But, then again, changing the scoring of these things would change the strategy and play (as you note when you say it might not even be a good idea). I like games with these sorts of idiosyncrasies. But no idea why three and four of a kind got scored by breaking them down to the basic unit of constituent pairs but runs and flushes didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-settle-an-argument-where-i-know-im-right-but-am-not-believed-about-cribbage-scoring/774587/42 "2016-12-13T23:52:15Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Muggins! It has six pairs. > > (Yes, you had the points right so I don’t actually get any.) :smack: I should give you the four points for screwing that up, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-settle-an-argument-where-i-know-im-right-but-am-not-believed-about-cribbage-scoring/774587/43 "2016-12-14T00:00:24Z")
6 points, no more, no less. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-settle-an-argument-where-i-know-im-right-but-am-not-believed-about-cribbage-scoring/774587/44 "2016-12-14T00:04:38Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Sure! I didn’t want to complicate the matter by introducing the 15s. Just the 22 points for the 5 card straight. And you could have a lot of fun with a five-card flush! Five points for the five card flush and then four points for all the four-card flushes within it for a total of 25 points plus any additional 15s or knobs. Heck, a good hand and a good crib and you can win on the first deal. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-settle-an-argument-where-i-know-im-right-but-am-not-believed-about-cribbage-scoring/774587/45 "2016-12-14T01:44:30Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > You know, I’ve never thought about that, but it does seem pretty sensible. I guess I’d have to see a table of probabilities to see what a purely mathematical mapping of chances of getting a certain card combination to how it scores looks like, but it does seem to me that a four-card run should be worth more than just one point extra than a three-card run. But, then again, changing the scoring of these things would change the strategy and play (as you note when you say it might not even be a good idea). I like games with these sorts of idiosyncrasies. But no idea why three and four of a kind got scored by breaking them down to the basic unit of constituent pairs but runs and flushes didn’t. Flushes, I can understand, because if you scored a five-card flush as five four-card flushes, you’d be up to 20 points even before you considered 15s and runs. I think 29 would still be the max, but if I’m counting right, it would add about a hundred ways to get there - flushes of 2-3-4-5-6 through 6-7-8-9-10 in each suit. And that’s if we score runs of 5 in the standard way. But if we scored runs of 5 as triple runs of 3 as well, we’d raise the max to 33, I think. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-settle-an-argument-where-i-know-im-right-but-am-not-believed-about-cribbage-scoring/774587/46 "2016-12-14T03:12:14Z")
Only rule variation my wife and I added–for about a year, then took it out–was we used to score flushes as double points. A 4-card was worth 8, a 5-card worth 10. Flushes seem to come up so rarely that this made it more interesting to keep one when it did come up. But we got rid of the rule so if we played with others we wouldn’t get all confused. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-settle-an-argument-where-i-know-im-right-but-am-not-believed-about-cribbage-scoring/774587.md?page=2)