80. Cribbage
The game of Cribbage differs from all other games by its immense variety of chances. It is played with the full pack of cards, often by four persons, but it is a better game for two. There are also different modes of playing—with five, six, or eight cards; but the best games use those with five or six cards.
Night is not Dark to the Good.
81. Terms Used in Cribbage
- Crib.—The crib is composed of the cards thrown out by each player, and the dealer is entitled to score whatever points are made by them.
- Pairs are two similar cards, as two aces or two kings. Whether in hand or play they reckon for two points.
- Pairs-Royal are three similar cards, and reckon for six points, whether in hand or play.
- Double Pairs-Royal are four similar cards and reckon for twelve points, whether in hand or play. The points gained by pairs, pairs-royal, and double pairs-royal, in playing, are thus effected:—Your adversary having played a seven and you another, constitutes a pair, and entitles you to score two points; your antagonist then playing a third seven, makes a pair-royal, and he marks six; and your playing a fourth is a double pair-royal, and entitles you to twelve points.
- Fifteens.—Every fifteen reckons for two points, whether in hand or play. In hand they are formed either by two cards—as a five and any tenth card, a six and a nine, a seven and an eight, or by three cards, as a two, a five, and an eight, two sixes and a three. If in play, such cards as together make fifteen are played, the player whose card completes that number, scores two points.