This thread caused me to get out my cribbage software and play a few hands.
I thought having two sixes, three fives, and one four in my hand was good [cribbed a six and a five, to my Crib, IIRC]
Untill I got 4 sevens, Ace and an eight. [Cribbed the Ace and Eight to his crib] – The Up card on the deck was an 8 for that hand. Pegged 20 points on the show (or whatever it is called)
Why would you crib an Ace and 8 with that rather than an A and 7?
Four 7’s gets you 12 points.
3 7’s and an 8 gets you 12 points, with a better chance of improvement.
Granted with an 8 as the cut card, you get 20 points either way. But a 6 or 9 cut would have given you 21 points instead of the 12 you still get with 4 7’s.
An Ace cut gives you 18 vs. 22 (a bit worse)
A 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, or Face Card is a wash, like the 8.
Granted the 8 cut with a dropped 7 would have given the dealer 2 points, but without actually running the numbers, I think the better play is drop the 7 instead of the 8. After all, you’ve already given him an odd number in the crib with the Ace regardless, so trying for an all even crib to avoid him scoring 15 on anything is out at that point.
It’s the classic, classiest card game ever. It is true that the most numerous segment of bridge fans (the sociable ladies bridge clubs) are amongst the (perhaps) dying away-- like me, I’m almost 90. I play twice a week – but the game still lives. I Could play every day of the week if I chose, so popular is the game where I live in Florida. And my Friday AM club has four members who look young enough to be my daughters – probably in the 55-60 age group.
Serious bridge (as opposed to my kind of sociable bridge) will never completely die off because it has the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) to keep it alive. Sociable bridge depends on our boomer daughters taking it up. Truly, though, BOTH kinds–sociable and serious–have been in Retro since the 90s. Part of boomer nostalgia for pop culture icons of their parents’ world of the 50s like martinis. Bridge was a way of life in the 50s.
Reality Chuck mentions playing it avidly at college – he would have to have attended in the 50s or early 60s. Once the campus erupted and there came many social changes, playing bridge was banished as fit only for little old ladies. No longer PC for the boomer generation. But boomer moms went right on playing unto today.
As to whist? That is ancient classic game. Whist-like games were played as early as the 1500s, George Washington played whist, and so did Edgar Allen Poe. Over time it evolved into (1880s) bridge-whist, then auction bridge at turn of century, then contract bridge we play today invented by a Vanderbilt in1925.
How do I know so much about bridge?? Have written a book about it, natch! Not how-to of course (I’m a casual non-serious player) but pop culture/history from a woman’s viewpoint.
I loved reading about all those other games! I’m old enough to remember the Great Depression, and it was THAT event that led to universal game-playing. We played pinochle every weekend with other families who were really hit by the depression–couldn’t afford going out any place. Information about Rook was knew to me–that it was a game for the religious who objected to card playing.
My family played Rook but also Pit which would get really boisterous, as I remember, with chairs falling over, etc., etc. Cribbage? My new husband and I (in1948) played a game after dinner every night with our coffee, and he invariably beat me at it. Then I had a son, who when he reached 11 or so took me on and we played one nightly game after dinner and HE beat me!! We played Mille Borne too – near as I can remember that was big game sold Christmas of about 1965 or so???
There WAS religious bias against card playing. In fact there’s a new book out (The Devil’s Tickets) and name is reference to puritan’s term for playing cards–devil’s tickets, the ticket to hell! The book, however, is about a famous 1929 murder when Mrs. Bennett shot Mr. Bennett over a bridge game in Kansas City. The trial made national newspaper headlines and in the end Myrtle was not only acquitted but collected her husband’s insurance!! Has the makings of a movie – a period piece. A combination of hard times, and that Bennett trial helped made bridge into one of the frenzied fads of that era. Gary Pomerantz’ book is a great evocation and has all the makings of a period movie.
For any of you who are youngsters of 50-60 or so, one last bit of support for a renaissance in bridge. Scientists are saying it’s an antidote to dementia – Google for a NYT article of last May on the topic. Made their front page–about a group of 90-year old women in California who play killer bridge (not the nice sociable game I play) and drink Red Bull.
I don’t know how old you are Ellen Cherry, but wouldn’t YOU want to still be dementia-free and spunky enough to be playing competitive bridge and drinking Red Bull at 92???
My family doesn’t have any religious objections to card games, but we’ve been playing Rook for as long as I can remember, and I’m 52. It’s a cheap way to spend time with the family. We also play Uno, which is a great game for kids as well as adults. We used to have a card game that had a playing field made of plastic, like a tablecloth, and it required that everyone put chips on various hand combinations. The first person who got a particular combination won the chips. I can’t remember what this was called, I think it was some sort of rummy. We played Mille Bornes, of course. We also played a card game called Water Works, I believe. This one consisted of a variety of cards that showed pipes in various configurations, and offensive cards that showed leaks in the pipes, and counter cards that showed a wrench (to fix the pipe) or copper piping, which wouldn’t leak.
Could you be talking about Tripoley or Tripoli?
My 8-year old son holds his own with me at cribbage and rummy, beats me at mancala, and is progressing well at go. I probably sound like a doting parent, hunh?
I’ve been a game player all my life starting from age 10 when Granma came to visit sister, Mom and me. We were playing Go Fish; Granma (a bridge lifemaster) said “There’s four of us. Why aren’t we playing bridge?!”
I hope it’s not untactful to mention that a (double-solitaire type) game of this name was once popular among the iintelligent patients in the Mental Ward of a certain California County Hospital. That’s how I learned it … er, I mean, I learned it from one of the inmates.
Upon Googling it, it looks like it was based on Tripoli, but it had more options in it. Ah, a link to Royal Rummy…THAT’S what it was!
My source (Oxford Dictionary of Card Games) says Cribbage derives from a game called Noddy. The game Costly Colours is described as a relative of Cribbage, first mentioned in Cotton’s Compleat Gamester (1674). Cribbage seems to pre-date that. Noddy, on the other hand, is described as a 16th century ancestor of cribbage (and apparently still played in parts of Lancashire.)
I agree. Ace - 7 would be a better crib to give. Add to that it gives you a little more flexibility in the table play, having 7s and an 8, rather than all 7s to play with.
Apparently we have some cribbage players here. My mom was a longtime cribbage player and nearly every game. Nearly every time we played, someone would always get a “19” hand (or crib).
A count of 19 is impossible in a cribbage hand
Is this commonplace to call this hand a “19”, or was it an idiosyncrasy of my beloved Mother.
My son and I certainly call it “19”. I wonder if it’s ever carried over into non-Cribbage life. (“What’s 6 take away 6?” “19!”)
More famous, though much rarer, than 19-point hand is 29-point hand. Have any of you ever seen one? I stacked the deck to give my son one once and he didn’t seem surprised by it. Several days later I told him I’d set it up – didn’t want him getting wrong intuitions about probabilities!
Commonplace enough that my cribbage rulebook mentions it as the preferred nomenclature for no points. Something about avoiding embarrassment.
No, I haven’t seen a 29 pointer. Its actually been years since I played cribbage routinely and I not even sure I ever saw a 28 pointer.
In this small midwest town, I have yet to meet anyone who knows how to play cribbage. At my previous location in rural Mississippi, I knew one person, and he was a transplant from Northern Ohio. I lived in the South/Midwest for 30 yrs, and he is the only person I have met who knew how to play cribbage.
The social/gambling game of choice where I live now is Gin Rummy. In Tennessee, it was Tonk. In Mississippi, it was Booray. Of course, Texas Hold’m is the big fad now, and I enjoy all these games, especially Booray.
Curious, as much as I love to play cards, I never learned how to play Bridge. For some reason, Mom would not teach me how to play.
I’d love to find people willing to play Canasta. It’s too boring with only 2 players. Ideally you need four to have a lively game.
I’ve heard Canasta was as popular as Bridge in the 1950’s. I was still in my crib then. 
I’ve seen 28 at least once, but don’t remember 29. According to this, the odds are 1 in 216,580. A 28 is one in 15,028.
As for 19-means-0, I think it’s well-known among people who play cribbage.
Welcome to the Dope, maggy90! I enjoyed your post and hope you hang around to give the perspective of a well spoken nongenerian to our community.
missred
I played Canasta about the same time I learned cribbage, in the early 70’s. I never liked it too much although I would be willing to try it again, almost 40 yrs later.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, IMO the stereo-typical canasta players are little old ladies that weren’t smart enough to play bridge.
In college, I played a lot of hearts and spades.
ditto maggy90, I really wish I knew how to play bridge. Somehow, I missed your post earlier. I think you and my Mom would have two peas in a pod and she would have enjoyed your book. She loved to play social bridge and drink her Jack Daniels. She claimed she was an excellent player.
My son and I live in Thailand. Odds are good we’re the only players in the Province, perhaps the whole region.
Tonk! I’ve not heard the word for 40 years! 5-card melding game, right?
In the coffeeshop where I misspent much of my misspent youth, the Blacks played Tonk in booths while whites and Asians played bridge, poker, hearts, backgammon and Klabberjass. I invited myself to kibitz the Tonk games once or twice. “Just don’t let it get to be a habit,” was the pseudo-gruff response by the spadey dude with his fancy clothes!
Cribbage is believed to have been invented by the Bishonen-like and sillily-named John Suckling, who was also a soldier of fortune, bowler, and served as the basis for every male character in Japanese anime.
ETA - someone beat me to it.
Whist, as Daniel Day-Lewis says in Gangs of New York, is a “gentleman’s game.”
