My dad, who passed away in January this year, played Cribbage in a local league. My wife taught me how to play only shortly before he died after she taught herself (in order to be able to bond with her own dad (another avid player)). My father and I never had much in common other than a love of tabletop games, albeit very different games. I wish I had had the chance to play this with him but he was too sick by the time I learnt. And here's the lesson I guess; don't miss the chance to learn "someone else's game" and then play it with them. There are some real gems out there but most importantly don't miss the opportunity to actually sit down and play with friends and family.

A cribbage reference card, or crib sheet if you will.

A zero point crib is called "19" because a 19 point hand is impossible to get. There is no combination of cards that will result in a 19 point hand, 18 yes, 20 yes, but not 19. Just a fluke of the math. So saying you have 19 points when you flip over a pointless crib is a way of lying about your score that any savy cribbage player knows is certainly untrue.

During the height of the pandemic, my parents and I would start a fire in the pit on the back deck, put on episodes of Whose Line Is It Anyway, and play cribbage. It was the happiest time in my life. Last year, my mother passed away, and when she couldn't move around, we played cribbage every single day until she couldn't stay awake anymore. You will forget a lot of moments in your life. You won't forget playing this with your loved ones. The comebacks. The clever combinations. The points you didn't see. You'll wish you could go back.

Cribbage is the Mario Party of card games. It's like 15 different mini-games, each scored differently.

It’s good, but it’s no crokinole

I was given a notification for this which listed the title as “Cribbage 2” and I got strangely excited.

He's not wearing the shirt!

They forgot to mention the Skunk line optional rule! If you're playing multiple games of cribbage and you reach 121 points before your opponent reaches 91 points then you have "skunked" them, and you earn 2 match points instead of 1. It's also just fun to say you've skunked people

You got a run of three on that first 31. Extra points, baby!

I can only imagine how insane this game must sound to someone who didn’t grow up with it.

In Canada, Kylie's abbreviated rule page is literally called a crib note.

Absolutely love Cribbage. I live in Brazil and had to go through quite a process to import a decent Cribbage set, and it was so worth it! I love introducing people to this game.

You only score a point on a ‘go’ if you are the closest to 31, not anytime the opponent says go. You also must play if you can. So if it’s 23 and they say ‘go’ and you have a 5, you must play that and, assuming you have no cards 3 or less, you score a point. This game is huge in WI, USA and MN, USA.

I've played cribbage my entire life and never realized how utterly strange it is until this moment.

My step dad did a 4-year hitch in the navy, and said that in their down time at sea they'd play cribbage literally for hours and hours and hours. Taught it to me as a kid, and I still think it is the absolutely perfect 2-player card game. It's a beautiful thing.

Would really love to see Euchre on here. Honestly one of my all time favourite tabletop games of any kind.

My old man play cribbage religiously on the ship during his naval career not just for fun but for keeping up mental capability. I simply didn't get it when I was young but as I've gotten older I've found playing a game like this during a conversation with him or friends is not only enjoyable but a fun way to keep yourself sharp. A couple of drinks and some pleasant conversation with a game like this really makes for an enjoyable weekend. Quinn, you've become my favorite conventional game youtuber not just because of your content, but because I believe you'd completely fit it with the veterans group I play with.

My friend and I created a fun chaotic version of the game called "Super Cribbage" where we deal eight cards to each person and we both get a crib, so you discard two to your crib and two to your opponents's crib. It just makes it a lot higher scoring and faster. We'd also do elaborate "cutting the cards" rituals. Robes and candles and incantations would often be involved. Sometimes one of us would cut the cards by actually building an entire house of cards until it fell, sometimes we'd only displace one card in the cut. It was always nerve-wracking and exciting to see what the other person was going to do on their cut. Cutting the cards would sometimes take as long as five minutes. Try it!

As a Canadian girl who grew up on the Prairies, I've been playing this game since I was a wee lass. Eventually, all the cheap plastic pegs would end up broken and we had to use matchsticks. Children. With. Match. Sticks.

Slight correction, the term “19” for a non scoring hand is not because 19 isn’t worth anything, it’s more mathematically interesting, 19 is an impossible score, you can get a hand that scores less, or more, but never 19. Also “proper” cribbage pegs always get lost and broken or are a bit crap...swap them for matches! Centuries of pub based play means missing parts are not a problem. :)

I learned Cribbage from my parents and grandparents as a child and it has been my go to card game for years. Great game. Just a few things for you: Last card is only scored for the very last card played in the hand, i.e. when no one has any cards remaining in their hand, not just for the last card played in a set. Don't know if I missed it, but a flush in the crib requires all 5 cards to be the same suit (unlike the hand, which only requires the 4 cards in the hand and not the cut card). 19 is used for a 0 point hand because no combination of 5 cards can give 19 points (25,26,and 27 are also impossible hands to score). Finally, cribbage can be played with 3 or 4 people as well. For 4 people, it is played in teams, with teammates sitting opposite each other and each person is dealt 5 cards, with one being discarded to the crib. Teammates share points. For 3 player, everyone gets 5 cards and the dealer deals one card to the crib (you can even find cribbage boards with 3 tracks instead of 2 to allow for score keeping of 3 player games).

Love this game, glad y'all gave it a proper video! I've always played that the non-dealer is the one who cuts the card, and they're also the one who gets the points for cutting to a Jack. Also of note in scoring, the game ends immediately after someone crosses the 121 point threshold. I've had games where I've won or lost on the play, and not infrequently been in spots where not being the dealer at the end has let one player eke out a win before the dealer crushes in with a 20 point hand.

Crib is a simple game and lots of fun. My kids' teachers asked us to intro it to them early (primary school) to help develop math skills. Maybe that's a Canadian thing

I think you have a rule screwed up there. Your opponent does get a point for a "go" but not an additional point for last card unless they scored points such as reaching 31, playing a pair or run. Your scoring counts a "go" twice.

This series has confirmed for me that I should never try to get into card games, but I sure do enjoy seeing you guys enjoying them.

Cribbage was a big game with my father and grandmother (his mother-in-law). I learned it at an early age of like 7 or 8. I was told that when I was 4, I would say in a sing-song voic, "15 2 15 4 15 6 and a run of three makes 9" apparently scoring the hand 5, J, Q, K. I had no idea what that meant at the time. We called the first phase of the hand (alternate play to score) "pegging". This is where my dad would just clobber me. Thanks for featuring this game, it brought back lots of great memories.

We got so bored on a graveyard shift we printed off the rules and learned to play. We used written scores in little note books as no one had a cribbage board at the time. That was 17 years ago and I've played it ever since.

This feels like clavin ball of tabletop games. So many random, crazy rules; most of which benefit the dealer (ie. The person most likely to be teaching/making up the game)

Thanks, SUSD! This is one of my mom’s favourite games. Not even a week ago I was thinking I should really try to remember/figure out the scoring so I can play with her, and here you are to do all the demystifying for me! 👍🏻

That is absolutely not enough shuffling, what are you doing Quinns

Finally you covered my favorite game, and this was an awesome episode! When teaching crib you should always have the LEARNER deal first, not the teacher. This way you play the first card and also score your hand first, so you can show them how it works. To explain a couple details: 1) for the turn up card, non-dealer lifts the top half of the deck and dealer flips the exposed card over, placing it on top of the whole deck after non-dealer replaces it. 2) three-of-a-kind is 6 because there are three different ways to make a pair for 2 in it, and four-of-a-kind is 12 because there are six different ways to make a pair. You can summarize scoring as "15s, pairs, and runs" when teaching the first hand and then add flushes and jacks later. 3) a 0-point hand is called "nineteen" because it's a total score you can't possibly make in one hand. The other impossible hand scores are 25, 26, and 27, and the highest possible hand is 29 (thus lots of boards shaped like the number 29).

Teaching tip - start with how to score a hand. THEN go to scoring pegging, since then you're just adding the 31/go rule to "things that score in a hand"

'.. fifteen two, fifteen four, pair for six and one for his nob ..' ah, takes me back to when I used to play with friends centuries ago

13 bits of errata in this video: 1. Offering non-dealer the cut allows them to steal the deal. 2. Non-dealer always cuts for the dealer to reveal the turn-up card. 3. Forcing a “go” is not always advantageous to the player that does it. 4. When Quinns hit 31 in that first round of hand play, he should have scored 5: 3 for the run, plus 2 for 31. Alternately, Kylie could have called muggins on the run and gotten the three points. 5. The game has changed slightly in the past 400 years. Players were originally only dealt five cards, discard 2 the crib for 3-card hand, and gane was to 61 points. Expanding to a 6-card deal/4-card hand increased the number of points per round and so the game went up to 121 points. People still do play 61- or 31-point variants. 6. Three of a kind in cribbage is called a “pair royale” because it is actually 3 pairs when parsed out as every possible combination of pairs. Similarly, 4 of a kind is a “double pair royale” yielding 6 possible combinations of pairs and therefore scores 12 points. 7. In the example 6-7-8-9 run during handplay the cards have totaled 30. Kylie could therefore not play a 5 or 10 to add to the run because that would exceed the count total past 31. Once reaching or nearing 31 and resetting the count, all cumulative scoring combinations are reset as well. 8.While it tends to produces the greatest number of points in the game, scoring what’s in the hand is not the only “real scoring” of Cribbage. If both players are equally skilled, the key to winning Cribbage (barring luck) is in the interactive handplay. 9. When scoring a hand or the crib, 15’s are always counted first. So Kylie would say, “I’ve got 15 for 2 and a run makes 5,” not the other way round. 10. Discarding to the crib is not pure gambling. while there might be a good bit of chance based on the interactions of both players’ cards (plus the turn-up), it takes skill to assess which duo of cards to discard to the crib. 11. The crib is not “usually bad” and will mostly give the dealer a minimum of 5 points. 12. in explaining “19,” what Quinns probably meant to say is that no hand or crib combination can ever total 19 points. Thus, “I’ve got 19,” means, “I’ve got nothing.” 13. Cribbage is not a dumb game. Thanks for the video and all that you do!

“Dumb but with artistry” is so on brand for me and why I love this game. Also my family has a house rule where you have to rhyme when you score? Like “Fifteen for two, the rest won’t do!” Which I’m starting to think is a rule my father made up...

When my grandpa was getting old he couldn't see or hear well but his mind was still super sharp. We'd play this with giant old person playing cards. He'd laugh in my face when he won. Good times. I actually think it was a great game to learn as a kid. Pattern recognition, quick math, and a surprising amount of strategy and probability. A skilled player will certainly win.

As a side note - if you play Cribbage a lot, you will also gain an instinct to know what numbers combine with any given number to make 15.

My dad is an amazing card player. He attributes it to growing up on a farm with a low capacity water heater when he was a kid. He and his siblings would play a game a Cribbage to see who got the hottest shower in the morning. He said that he learned to get good really quickly. Then he picked up bridge and started to hustle it when he was in the military in Vietnam and after he got home. He would act like a rube and go to Bridge clubs that were popular back then and play somewhat poorly, but (full of confidence) asked if the players wanted to play for money (for points). Then, no matter who he was paired with, he'd go on to win again and again and rack up some impressive pots. I wonder if Quinns is going to cover Bridge at any point? I always feel like it is a big accomplishment if I can beat my dad at Cribbage or any card game really. It would also be great if the SUSD crew covered playing Cribbage with four people. It is a really fun way to play as well.

I adore Cribbage, it has 3 and 4 player variants both are fun. I think I have 3 or 4 different cribbage boards in my house.

My grandpa who taught me this game as a kid loved it and I spent a lot of time when I was older but still living nearby, driving over there just to play it with him and grandma. They're both gone and I'm rusty but it's a fun game and one of the few things I wanted to keep from the house was the main cribbage board and deck of cards we used to play with. It's great to see you guys talk about this classic game.

I looked through the comments and I haven't seen anyone mention the best crib variant: Black Hole Crib! Take a jiffy marker and draw a black circle around the 5 holes before every multiple of 30 (25-30, 55-60, 85-90, 115-120). If you land in a black hole at the end of pegging, you don't get to count your hand (or your crib). Sounds crazy? Wait 'till you get the hang of it. The first time you see the hole coming, throw away points from your good hand, and land in just front of the hole so you can clear it on the next turn you will feel like a genius. Unless of course, your opponent forces you to take to many points in the pegging round. It adds so much turn to turn variety. Highly recommended for experienced players looking to spice up one of their favorite classic games.

"It's not enormously important in Cribbage etiquette" You're killing me.

I really love cribbage, used to play it with my dad all the time growing up. I know there are as many different sets of rules as there are cribbage boards but the rules I learnt meant never shuffling the deck. You just put the cards on the bottom and start from there. It means that the cut really determines where those cards are going to end up and you can predict where certain cards are in the deck. If your last hand had all aces you're not getting any this time round probably.

I love Cribbage, and it regularly drives me crazy. It is one of several games that is guaranteed to hit our game table multiple times a month.

Okay I will hop on a soapbox here and actually rave about cribbage a second. It's a game that doesn't look like it has much strategy. The more you play it, however, the more you realize just how much there is. What you put to the crib matters - should you put that pair in? That combination of 15? These choices are subtle but they make a big impact. Similarly, when you are playing the first "counting" phase of the game, things get really tactical. You start trying to figure out what your opponent kept; you try to set up runs or pairs with 15s. Figuring out if you try to get close to 31 or stay far away. This game is actually absurdly tactical and there is a LOT of strategy behind it.

BRING THIS SERIES BACK!

My parents used to play Cribbage ALL. THE. TIME. They had their travel board for when we went out to eat, and a big wooden board on the coffee table at home. They tried to teach me and my sister, but we never really liked the game. Cribbage with Grandpa, though, is really, really good. Thank you for the recommendation. I now want to study up on the game so I can destroy my parents when I see them next. (And who do we have to beg for Mahjohng with Grandma?)

My grandfather, a US Navy veteran, learned the game while he was serving, and he taught me cribbage at a young age. It is strange to hear the scoring described as arcane considering that I have been playing cribbage since I was in grade school. It does explain the glazed look on the faces of adult gamers i try to teach it to.

I love seeing cribbage mentioned online by others in the UK it seems that it has become almost forgotten here. Also like seeing someone else talk about how difficult actually teaching crib is... "So you deal six cards to each....ok so now you have to understand the scoring to do this properly....but now forget about that but also kind of remember it for scoring this part .... don't play too high to start but also don't play too low"

I love cribbage. My grandparents spent evenings playing cribbage because they didn't have cable or anything else to do. My parents played cribbage as a result and I guess that's where I learnt it (they had a little bit more to do, but not enough to not play cribbage). The rules aren't as hard as they make them out to seem; a couple games in and you'll get the hang of it. I remember hearing of one of my grandmother's friends, who got the ever so hard to achieve max of 29, and getting her picture in the local newspaper because of it; good times! I'm sure there were massively sounding high fives and legendary statuses doled out on individuals because of this... Typing all of this out kind of makes me seem like someone who's never seen the internet. Cribbage is good.

I've been playing since I was in elementary school and this is my favorite card game. Some of my relatives play cutthroat where if you miscount your points, they take the points you missed.

Made a decision to learn cribbage nearly thirty years ago as an excuse to own a fancy cribbage board, and I made the right choice! It's some sort of living fossil of card games. Lucky enough to play casually but deep enough to reward thought and experience. I also wound up with an enormous Drueke tournament board that you could iron shirts on, and got some giant clown cards to go with it. It's not as practical for a late night with coffee in a diner, but still feels worthwhile.

Worth noting that to make a flush in the crib, the cut card must also match whereas in your regular hand you can score just the 4 cards.

My grandfather taught me this when I was only 9 years old. He was in the navy and could not bring much on the ship with him so his little cribbage set provided him with endless entertainment. I thank you for sharing with other people how fantastic this game really is.

QUINNS, you threw away a double run??? Shame!! Throw 9-6 and keep that juicy 10-10-9-8

Always wanted to learn how to play Cribbage thank you!

I am 29 years old now, when i was 15-18 years old this game was my regular game over tea and music after school work, I even made my own cribbage board in shop class that had wood burned decals and drilled all 121 x 2 lanes using like a surgeon . Make your own board!

Learnt this from my granddad, and it is pure nostalgia goodness. There are a lot of rhymes about how to win extra points and stuff that I don't really remember. "27 four is heaven" etc. And the counting of hands at the end is hypnotic. There is a banter to it. "15 two, 15 four. Pair's 2. And one for his knob." And so on. I got pretty good at discarding the right cards at the start, but granddad would always win because he could rack up points on the playing cards phase. It looks like a game of chance at first. But the more you play, the better your 'luck' gets.

I have played this game in restaurants, on trains, on a plane, at work, basically everywhere I can. It’s the perfect two player game

I learnt a variant of cribbage where you "warm the deck", meaning you do not shuffle the deck but randomish put the played hands at the bottom. I would recommend because you can somewhat anticipate the cards your opponent might have and play accordingly, which adds another layer of depth, however the frequent cutting gives the deck enough variation to not become properly predicatble or stale.

Oh man it is WEIRD knowing a game better than Quinns. Great game though. Highly recommend. It's very popular in Canada where I am.

I am bound and determined to learn this game since I have not opened my cribbage set box that I received last Christmas from my sister...have not even taken the plastic wrapping off and feel so bad about it ! lol My grandfather and uncles would sit all night long drinking and smoking and playing this classy ( difficult looking) old English game of Cribbage ...I know it has to be very fun to play and addicting once you learn! Thanks for this educational video...cheers from Alabama,USA!

Just to add something here, each player is dealt six cards each, whoever got the lowest card first gets to go first. Each player discards two cards into what's called a "crib" (whoever's turn it is, that crib is like a bonus at the end of their turn). Then the deck is cut (not like bugs bunny did that one time, lol) and the card that is on top of the cut deck comes out and goes on the very top of the deck. All cards like in other card games are like this: Royals: all count as ten point(s) Aces: count as one point. If you reveal a Jack (of any suite) after cutting the deck, you score two points on the cribbage board.

What is this, Card Games that Don't Suck? Oh. Yeah. That's exactly what it is. Enjoying the series. Growing up I played Cribbage with my grandfather. What good memories.

I was taught cribbage in about 2 minutes, next thing I heard was "15 for 2, 15 for 2, run for 3, I got the nob that's one point"...points were flying all over, my grandmother in law stole points from me and I got skunked. Having a 90 year old woman sit across the table from you stealing your points is very intimidating. I always go back to that memory whenever I see someone struggling with a boardgame on their first play. It took all day to figure out how to play halfway decently for me.

I love Cribbage, I play it against my mum and she's waaaay better than me! Another excellent video! The only additional point I felt you missed was the importance of that fact the dealer scores second. Often a close game can come down to the turn order at the end, with the dealer scoring second they can be beaten to the line before they have a chance to add their final score, even more so if they had a strong hand pegging just before. There's a good reason Cribbage has survived a long time, there is a massive element of body-language-esk sorts of play, that kind of reminds me of poker. There's a four player version too, which i don't know so another video would be appreciated! xD

Without a doubt, hands down my favourite card game. I’ve been playing it for about 37 year now. This is a 10/10 game for me - I will always play it no matter what the circumstances. In fact my love of cribbage impacts my ability to play my second favourite card game : Texas hold ‘em. I end up wanting to bet heavy on cards that total 15 :/ thanks for covering it 😊😊😊

I actually love Crib. I used to play with my parents a lot. We used to play a 3 player version where everyone got 5 cards instead and one card from the deck was dealt into the dealers extra hand

Really enjoyign this series! I was wondering, will we see and 1 player card games?

This has been my family’s go to game for like 14 years. Also, you can do teams (deal 5, each person puts one in the crib, opposite players score on same track).

3:32 If you look closely, quins would have actually gotten 5 points for that 8, because it also gave him a run of 3 (6-7-8 played in a row) worth 3 points

Played it a lot in my childhood, including 4-player (2 teams of 2) where each player gets 5 cards and puts 1 in the dealer's crib. Now I'm going to have to find my board, then find someone to play.

When you look down at your cards at 1:50 and get excited, then realize how badly you messed up at 2:59.

"Two for his heels and one for his knob..."

I have wanted to learn Cribbage for years. This is a great start, but good gravy that's rough to learn. I would love to see a playthrough, even if it was only a few rounds. I'm going to look into the app you suggested, that is what I did with Gin Rummy :)

Cribbage was a right of passage growing up in rural in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Played across generations and passed to the next. I would not call "Muggins" or "Cut-Throat" a variant, you leave points out and your foe catches, that's on you. You can play "Teams" as well. Also some Cribbage boards are works of art. Random Cribbage fact: It is impossible to get point scores of 27, 26, 25 and 19 for a cribbage hand. There is no possible combination of 5 cards that will produce the above point totals. Sometimes a Cribbage player will score zero points for their hand if they claim that they have a "19 hand".

I have a set of Cribbage from my Great Grandfather. I never could be bothered to figure out the rules but this video has inspired me to dig it out and give it a go!

Gin rummy is fine. Not a game I am particularly thrilled to play, but it's fine, and with the right friends can be a good time. Cribbage is a game I've never played, and partly because it seems so haphazardly tossed together. Particularly the bit about the dealer just getting an extra chance to score points for no reason. Also the need for an extra scoring mechanism has always turned me off from it. Also, the sorts who play cribbage (traditionally senior citizens) tend to be rather d*ckish about it. The "muggins" variant, for instance. It does seem like a classic card game that's ripe for improvements, or at the very least some "house rules".

So happy to see this. I love it and have been playing since I was a kid

Grew up with Cribbage, thanks to my uncle and cousins who learnt it during their time in Greece. It's a fun intermission between other games.

Imagine how many more rules there will be in another 400 years...

I’ve played a *lot* of hours of card games with my family, but there’s something so compulsively satisfying about Cribbage. Now I want to play a few hands.

You missed a great opportunity to cover the rules for double runs when you had the 7,8,8,9 hand :)

Cribbage! What a great game. I remember playing this with my grandad. He made several of his own boards and had a few four player ones.

I've always wanted to know about Cribbage after having to play it with the hermit in Quest for Glory 1. Thank you.

I've been playing cribbage so long I actually forget how to teach it to people. This video will be handy.

It's interesting how close this is to the version that made it to Australia and was taught to me by my grandmother. The biggest difference is that one for his nobs wasn't scored in the crib.

I'm still laughing at "What is this, 'Card Games that DO Suck?'"

Never had either a good cribbage app or a granpa, now I have both. Awesome!

Another great choice for Card Games that don't suck. Also you can definitely play Cribbage with 4 people (in that version I've never played with Go points and you deal 5 cards each)

I host family/friend cribbage tournaments once a year at my place. We love it! I've won twice in a row, which is crazy considering that in my family I'm not the best cribbage player, I'd say I'm definitely up there but winning these two tournaments has certainly not been easy!

"You don't need a cribbage board to play." Yes. Yes you do. You need it. I tried playing without one once. I don't like talking about it.

Great game. I’m from Florida. My wife from Wisconsin. I had never heard of the game until I met her and began playing her and her family. Since they have played for ages, they can score hands in seconds. It’s pretty impressive but after awhile you will get the hang of it. It’s fun game and an awesome way to pass 30-40 mins while socializing and playing. We are usually on vacation when we play and it’s great. Especially when you beat someone that has been playing forever. To help you learn, pick up a cribbage game on your smart phone as it can help you learn the basics and the scoring.

If you're in Seattle, Quinns, I will school you at cribbage. I love the game and am glad that you shared it.

You know that's 31 for 5 there... right? The run of 3 gets 3 points, 2 points for getting 31

When scoring your hand, always score the 15s first.

Yay! Shut Up finally covered my absolute favourite card game. I've been playing this with my family (especially my grandfather) for as long as I can remember 🙂 On thing Quinns forgot to mention is that there are also 3 and 4 player variants for cribbage. I personally don't care for the 3 player variant but 4 players (the team game) is a lot of fun

Love Crib. BTW its called the Box or Crib, not the "dealers additional hand" 😂. Also you can quite easily play with 3 and 4 players. Great vid. Spread the word of Cribbage! 👍👍👍

For a 3 player game, deal each player 5 cards, and deal one into the crib. Then each player discards 1 card to the crib, making the 4 card crib that is required. For a 4 player game deal 5 cards to each player, and each player discards 1 card to the crib.