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turbo cribbage
May. 7th, 2009 10:34 pmI've been playing a lot of cribbage recently. I'd never even played it before a few months ago, but it's an excellent two-handed card game, and it's popular among the local gaming group that I've been hanging out with lately.
Recently we've been playing what I'm calling "turbo cribbage". Shuffle together six decks of cards, cut (or flip or RPS) for deal, then play best of five games to 61. Loser of each game has first deal in the next game. No shuffling between hands - all played cards and starter cards go into a discard pile.
Compared to regular cribbage, this variant has some clear advantages:
+: The game moves much faster. Ratio of time spent playing to time spent shuffling is radically increased. You can play best-of-five-to-61 in about the same amount of time usually spent playing first-to-121.
+: Much more of the play is spent in the endgame, the most strategically interesting phase of play.
It also has some differences of unclear merit:
?: Card removal is almost eliminated. In single-deck cribbage, if you lead a three and your opponent responds with six for two, you can feel pretty safe playing nine for six with only one three left in the deck. Not so when there are 21 threes left in the shoe!
?: Certain inferences about the opponent's hand, like "he seems to have a flush and the 8s is gone so he doesn't have an eight", go away.
?: Huge hands, and huge runs of pegging, become more common - though the "several short races to 61" format helps prevent these from dominating scoring strategy, as endgame point values are nonlinear.
?: Card counting becomes a possibility. I have no idea how much it'd help, but feel free to keep a running five count and find out. :) Adding another potential element of skill to the game hardly seems like a bad thing.
And one negative:
-: You need six decks of cards. But we live in Vegas. This is what casino gift shops are for. $0.25/deck at South Point.
Anyway, I came up with this on a whim, but I'm really pleased with how it worked out.
Next up: Heads-up holdem from a six-deck shoe. Because if there were ever a game that desperately needed to be rescued from a tediously low play:shuffle ratio, live heads-up holdem would be it... and besides, haven't you ever wanted to be dealt suited aces, and not have it be a misdeal?
Recently we've been playing what I'm calling "turbo cribbage". Shuffle together six decks of cards, cut (or flip or RPS) for deal, then play best of five games to 61. Loser of each game has first deal in the next game. No shuffling between hands - all played cards and starter cards go into a discard pile.
Compared to regular cribbage, this variant has some clear advantages:
+: The game moves much faster. Ratio of time spent playing to time spent shuffling is radically increased. You can play best-of-five-to-61 in about the same amount of time usually spent playing first-to-121.
+: Much more of the play is spent in the endgame, the most strategically interesting phase of play.
It also has some differences of unclear merit:
?: Card removal is almost eliminated. In single-deck cribbage, if you lead a three and your opponent responds with six for two, you can feel pretty safe playing nine for six with only one three left in the deck. Not so when there are 21 threes left in the shoe!
?: Certain inferences about the opponent's hand, like "he seems to have a flush and the 8s is gone so he doesn't have an eight", go away.
?: Huge hands, and huge runs of pegging, become more common - though the "several short races to 61" format helps prevent these from dominating scoring strategy, as endgame point values are nonlinear.
?: Card counting becomes a possibility. I have no idea how much it'd help, but feel free to keep a running five count and find out. :) Adding another potential element of skill to the game hardly seems like a bad thing.
And one negative:
-: You need six decks of cards. But we live in Vegas. This is what casino gift shops are for. $0.25/deck at South Point.
Anyway, I came up with this on a whim, but I'm really pleased with how it worked out.
Next up: Heads-up holdem from a six-deck shoe. Because if there were ever a game that desperately needed to be rescued from a tediously low play:shuffle ratio, live heads-up holdem would be it... and besides, haven't you ever wanted to be dealt suited aces, and not have it be a misdeal?
