Cribbage - Aug 2024

I played cribbage tonight for the first time in a while. My most notable hand was my last hand of the night. I was dealt A-J-J-Q-K. I discarded the A. The turn card was the 5 of Diamonds. I was holding the J of Diamonds. I scored 17 points. It wasn't the highest scoring hand I've ever had but it was kind of unusual.

We had to stop at this point because Nando's was closing. I don't recall who was ahead in that game. We were playing with 5 people and two boards, one of which was shaped like the state of Minnesota.

Cribbage Board Coffee Table

I found this on Etsy today. It is way too pricey for me but I love the look of it.

Cribbage @ Middle East Cuisine - Apr 3, 2014

This was a short, small unofficial meetup. David and I ate and played for an hour. We only managed to play a single game. We used one of the travel boards that Joel gave me at the Crystal City meetup a couple weeks ago.

David said he was going to let me win. He jumped out to a big lead early in the game. I came back and took the lead down the stretch. Just before the last hand he offered to pay for my meal, because (as he jokingly suggested) he was going to win.

We were within 3 points of one another at the beginning of the final hand. He dealt and I was one point shy of having enough points in my hand to win. I scored a couple points on a 15 thus giving me the extra points I needed to win. The next to last card David played was a 5. All I had left was a 5. I played it and scored a couple more points. I was still short of 121. Then he played his final card, another 5 and scored six points, enough to put him across the finish line. I never got a chance to count the points in my hand. *sigh*

If I had played anything other than a 5, he would not have won the game on that play.

Cribbage @ Ghana Café - Jan 16, 2014

I arrived late and stayed late. There was a fairly big turnout, 11 people; a few of them were new to the group, a couple others were joining us for just the second time.

I played 4 games. The first two were 4-player games. Mandy and I were paired against Bryan and Rebecca. We won both games although B&R led for the first 2/3 of the first game.

After that a few people left and the group shrunk from 11 to 7. I played a 3-player game with Mandy and Ted which I won without much trouble. I think Mandy might have got skunked.

After that a few more people left and the group shrunk from 7 to 3. Joey, Ted, and I played one final game. I won that one too, again without much trouble. Once again someone got skunked, I think this time it was Joey. It was 10 by then. We all had work he next day so we packed up and left.

As good as I did I didn't have any phenomenal hands. I think my highest scoring hand was 12 points; no double-double or triple-double runs for me. I just got consistently good cards.

For dinner I had chicken with "stew" and black beans and rice. The food was good but a little pricey. I paid about $17, including tax and tip for the food. 

Cribbage @ Nando's Peri-peri - Dec 5, 2013

There wasn't a very big turnout last night at the Cribbage Meet up I organized. It was just me plus two others: David (a regular) and Mandy (new to the group but not to cribbage). We played 3 games, David won all three of them. I had my best shot of winning in the first game where I was ahead heading down the final stretch but David had some really great hands and pulled ahead of me. I had a shot of winning it on the final hand because I counted first but I just didn't have good enough cards to close the deal The numbers don't reflect it but it was a successful event in my book.

Cribbage @ Marx Cafe - May 13, 2012

Game 1 (Teams: Joel & Charles, Ann & Me; Winners: Joel & Charles)

Game 2 (Teams: Joel & Charles, Ann & Me; Winners: Joel & Charles)

My highest hand of the night was a double-double run for 16 points in the first game.

Worst moment of the night (for me) happened in the first game. I played an ace, the third in a row after both Ann and Charles. I was feeling rather confident so I made a snide remark, something along the lines of, "oh that's too bad". My moment of glory was shattered seconds later when Joel played the 4th ace. I wasn't expecting that. It hurt but I earned it. Karma.

We got skunked in the second game.

More people had arrived by the time game 2 ended. We broke things up. I played Joel while Ann and Charles played a game.

Game 3 (Players: Joel, Me; Winner: Joel)

After our game Joel had to go. I watched Ann and Charles finish up their game, which Ann won.

Game 4 (Players: David, Ann, Me; Winner: David)

David joined us after Charles left. I was in 3rd place for the entire game and just barely avoided getting skunked.

The weirdest moment of the night happened during this game. It was David's turn to count his points. He threw down his cards and said he had two pair for 4 points. His cards were Q-Q-5-5. Ann and I looked at the cards, then at one another then back at the cards then at David. She looked as confused as I felt. David looked back at us. He still hadn't put 2 and 2 together. I dunno how he missed seeing that many points but once we pointed out his mistake the veil was lifted, he understood confused facial expressions, and took the additional 8 points he had in his hand.

Including me, a total of 8 people came to this event; none of them were new to the group. We got the waitress to take a picture of us which came out quite nicely. We were there for about 5 hrs.

Cribbage Meetup @ Thai at Corner - Apr 18, 2012

This was a meetup that almost didn't happen. Even though I announced it there wasn't much response positive or negative. Only one other person showed up and he didn't RSVP until an hour or two beforehand.

That said, I had a lot of fun. The food was great, as usual; I had the Tilapia Basil and a Sam Adams. Eric and I played three close games. I won the first one by a single point and the next one by two. I won the final game by 13 points.

I had my best hand of the night in the first game. I was dealt 5-J-Q-K of spades. I discarded the other two cards, whatever they were. The turn card was another face card. I scored 20 = 8 (4 x 15) + 8 (double run) + 4 (flush).

Eric's best hand scored 24 points, which may have included a triple run. I know he had a triple run at some point I just can't remember if it was during that hand or not.

Cribbage @ Old City Cafe of Jerusalem - Feb 9, 2012

I can't remember ever getting skunked in back to back games, let alone three times in a row, but it happened tonight.

Game 1 - Opponents: David, Eric; Outcome: I got skunked

Game 2 - Teams: David & Eric, Steve and Me; Outcome: We got double skunked

Game 3 - Opponents: David, Steve; Outcome: I got skunked

Game 4 - Opponents: David, Ann; Outcome: I won

I won game 4 in style. I had the lead for most of the game. Towards the end Ann caught up to me. She almost won on the last hand but didn't have enough points in her hand to close the deal. I didn't have enough points in my hand to  win, but the crib was mine. I only needed four points to win, before counting the crib. It was possibly my best crib ever: 7-8-9-9-9; a triple run plus a 15 for a total of 17 points.

Despite getting skunked as many times as I did tonight I really enjoyed myself. The food was very good and I had fun chatting with the people with whom I played.

Cribbage Meetup @ Soho Tea and Coffee - Jan 11, 2012

I had to sneak out of the office early to make it to this meetup but it was worth it. We had a good turn out. At one point we had three games going at the same time. One was a 2-player, one was a 3-player, and one was a 4-player.

A total of 9 people showed up to play, 3 of them were new to the group. 1 of the new people was Miriam's sister who was visiting from Ohio. The other two 2 newbies, Maria and Jules, live in the DC area. In addition to myself the non-newbies were Joey, Miriam, Leilani, Ann, and Charles.

Game 1 - Teams: Maria & Joey, Jules & Me; Winners: Jules & Me

Game 2 - Teams: Joey & Jules, Maria & Me; Winners: Joey & Jules

Jules left after G2.

Game 3 - Players: Joey, Maria, Me; Winner: ?

Joey, Maria, and I sat around and chatted for 15-20 minutes after G3, until another game ended. At that point we were going to play a five-hander with Leilani and Miriam but at the last second Joey ditched us to join the other group: Charles, Ann, and Miriam's sister.

Game 4 - Teams: Leilani & Maria, Miriam & Me; Winners: Leilani & Maria

G4 was close. I'm not sure if we had a shot at winning it but I know that I made a couple bad plays that cost me a few points and helped Leilani to score some points. I had my best hand of the night in this game: 4-4-4-7-7. The turn card was a 4, which converted my hand from an 8- point hand to a 20-point hand.

Game 5 - Players: Joey, Me; Winner: ?

In the end it was just Ann, Joey, and I. Everyone else left before we started G5. Ann watched and chatted with us while we played. It took us about an hour to finish the game, mostly because we kept stopping to chat.

It was pouring rain the whole afternoon and evening. I got soaked between walking from Foggy Bottom to Soho (8 blocks) and then walking from Soho to 16th & P (8 blocks).

I wasn't hungry when I arrived at Soho. I was planning on grabbing a bite to eat at a kabob place just up the street from Soho on my way home. That didn't work out because I stayed later than I thought I would. By the time I left Soho at 10:30 the kabob place had been closed for a half-hour. I suppose that I could have said something and we could have moved the final game down the street but I was enjoying myself, I wasn't too hungry, and I didn't want to break the spell.

I had good bus luck on the way home. I made it to 16th & P just in time to catch the S4. I only had to wait a couple minutes at Silver Spring before the 15 showed up.

Cribbage @ DC Bread & Brew - Dec 30, 2011

I had a lot of fun playing cribbage last night. The two pints of Old Rasputin Imperial Stout that I drank figure prominently in my memory of the evening.

As far as the games go I started and ended the meetup with a loss but was on the winning side in the two games between the bookends.

Game 1 [Teams: Hawaii (Leighlani & Joel), Rasputin (Ann & Me); Winner: Hawaii]

Game 2 [Teams: Hawaii (Leighlani & Joel), Rasputin (Ann & Me); Winner: Rasputin]

Game 3 [Teams: Hawaii (Leighlani & Joel), Rasputin (Ann & Me); Winner: Rasputin]

Game 4 [Players: Leighlani, Joel, Me; Winner: Joel]

All three of the team games were won by large margins, but there were no skunks. We talked about changing teams after game 2, switching it up with some of the other people at the meetup, but Team Hawaii insisted on a third game. I was flying high between the big wins and the beer and didn't mind finishing third in Game 4. For dinner I had Spinach & Walnut Ravioli, which was quite good.

Cribbage Pro - Nov 26, 2011

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate
Winner: Cribbage Pro
Score: 121-120

Before the last hand the score was 115-115. I thought I had it when I was dealt 4-5-5-6-8-Q. Naturally I discarded 8-Q. It was CP's crib so I opened by playing 4. CP also played a 4, thus scoring two points. The score was now 117-115, and the count was 8. I played 6, making the count 14. CP played 7, making the count 21. All I had left was 5-5, so I played one of them scoring 4 points for the 4-5-6-7 run. The score was now 117-119 and the count was 25. CP plays 4 which should have ended the game, but instead of counting 4 points for the 4-5-6-7 run it counted 3, so the score was 120-119 and the count was 29. I called muggins and picked up the point that CP missed. It was now all tied up at 120-120 and the count was still 29. It was my turn but all I had was a 5 so I had to say GO. CP scored a point for the GO and won the game 121-120.

Looking back on it now if I had held on to the Q then I might have won the game.

Cribbage Pro - Nov 23, 2011

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate 
Winner: Me
Score: 121-120

The next to last hand ended with me ahead 118-117. Cribbage Pro dealt the final hand so I knew I would get to count first.

I was dealt A-5-6-8-8-K. I considered discarding 5-K; doing so would have insured that I had 6 points in my hand but I was concerned that CP might score enough points to win before I got a chance to count my points. Instead I discarded 8-8 which was also kind of risky.

In the end it all worked out in my favor. During the play I scored 2 points and CP scored 3 points, tying the game at 120-120. I counted first and had 2 points in my hand 5-K, which won me the game. 

Cribbage Pro - Nov 18, 2011

I just lost 121-103 playing Cribbage Pro against the machine. I was in the lead but the machine scored 14, 14, and 16 points in the last three hands to secure the win; and that's not counting the points in it's two cribs or the points it scored when cards were being played in those three hands.

Cribbage @ Thai at Corner - Nov 15, 2011

This cribbage meetup was a bit weird. Most of the people at this meetup were new and everyone that said they would be there actually showed up; not a single no show. I can't remember the last time that happened.

It was a little uncomfortable at first. One of the new joins was acting like he was in charge. I didn't like it but what was I supposed to do? I didn't want to make a scene or be rude. It probably didn't help that I sat down next to him and wound up playing with him.

He also bought a plate full of appetizers. I ended up dining on them and some food that Vivian offered me from her plate. The only thing I bought was a Thai Iced Tea. At the end of the night he tried to pick up the tab for everyone but we insisted on chipping in. I contributed 5 dollars, which is probably less than I should have paid.

Game 1 [Teams: Marika & Clyde, Vivian & Me; Winners: Marika & Clyde]

We lost this one by a fairly large margin. We barely avoided getting skunked. Vivian was new to the game. Her mother wasn't but it had been a long time since Marika last played.

Game 2 [Teams: Marika & Clyde, Vivian & Me; Winners: Vivian & Me]

This game went right down to the wire. We had the lead early in the game only to get overtaken by the others in the middle. Towards the end we regained the lead. With one hand to go we were ahead by about 10 points and needed just 7 to win. In the end we won by a point, 121-120; Vivian didn't have any points in her hand and I had just 2 in mine. If it weren't for the fact that we got to count first we would have lost the game.