Readers' stories of the 29 cribbage hands they've received.

Joyce Knowlton

Joyce writes:

Playing cribbage was a pastime practiced by my mother's family and my father's family.

I don't remember how old I was when my maternal grandfather taught me how to play, but I was about fourteen or fifteen-years-old (this would have been in 1968 or 1969) when I had a perfect hand. To be honest, I don't think I realized it, either. Grandpa shouted as I laid my last card and wanted us to put deck away and not use them again and to call the newspapers. I consented to not using that deck of cards again, but didn't want him to call the papers.

This past week I taught my twelve-year-old niece to play and gave her all the wisdom that her great-grandfather gave me. Which most especially was, "Keep your count!"

Unfortunately, I don't know what happened to that deck of cards.

James Gilly

There is a fine tradition of cribbage playing in the US Navy and especially the submarine service. James Gilly writes:

In 1991, whilst under way on USS Simon Lake (AS 33), I was playing in the R-10 division office with one of the nucs; as I recall, I dealt, and after making my discard said something along the lines of "Go ahead - cut me a five. I dare you." And he did...

My camera was locked in my rack at the time, so we noted the score and the hands and then finished the game. I went and got the camera, and we set up the board and cards for pictures - except that I miscounted when placing my rear peg so the photos look like I cheated and pegged 30.

My second 29 came in 2000 or 2001. I was under way again, this time on USS Providence (SSN 719), and was playing on the mess decks with one of the sonar techs. I honestly can't remember which of us dealt that hand. This time, though, I happened to have my camera in my pocket, so we were able to take pictures immediately and then finish the game.

Dale and Helen Moeller

Dale Moeller and his wife Helen were returning from their 50th wedding anniversary vacation when they decided to play a game of cribbage in their hotel. Helen writes:

My husband calmly said, "Helen, I think I have a perfect hand!" What made it even more exciting was the fact that during our initial card-playing, we were surrounded by a group of friendly Shriners from Kansas, there for a golf tournament, and many of them had stopped at our table to introduce themselves and comment on the game of cribbage. One gentleman in particular, a dentist from Wichita, said that he played on-line 3 times a day and was director of the Shriners' cribbage tournaments. He had never even seen a perfect hand before. My husband's great fortune and luck could have happened at our kitchen table in Wisner, NE, but being amid people who really appreciated and understood the odds of a perfect cribbage hand made it even more awesome!

As an added note, Dale won that game by only one peg -- even with THE hand!! We are very competitive and enjoy cribbage very much. It was my idea to get the board & deck of cards from the car (while he enjoyed his beer) -- he said I didn't have to bother, but I did anyway!! Sometimes this wife of 50 years has a good idea!

Barry McCormack

Barry McCormack of London, Ontario, recently received a cribbage 29 hand in a friendly game with his son. As his daughter Tiffany wrote to me, it was "the first 29 hand he had ever had or seen in over 40 years of playing the game".

What's your story?

Have you ever scored a perfect hand in cribbage? We'd love to hear your perfect hand stories. Why not contact us and share the story?

Go to the main 29 hand page

Dennis writes:

Can you break down the count of 29 as it is supposed to be counted?  It seems you are not allowing the Jack to be counted with the 4 5's for another 8 points which would give 36 points.
Please help me with my confusion over this.
Kind Regards.
Newbie

Dennis,

The 29 cribbage hand page does not explain how the score is broken down, so here goes!

We score the 29 hand in the same way as any other: taking 15s first, then pairs, runs, flushes and nobs.

First count 15s. The Jack makes 15 with each of the 5s, that's 4 15s. Also, there are 4 ways of choosing three different 5s to make additional 15s. That's 8 in total, for 16 points.

Then pairs: there are 6 different pairs of 5s, for another 12 points. That's 28 so far.

There are no runs or flushes, so the Jack of nobs gives us a final point for 29.

I hope this helps!

Cribbage boards have been used for hundreds of years, and the traditional design of the board probably predates the game itself. Similar boards have been used to score whist and other card games since before the origins of cribbage in the 1630s. A game scoring board with rows of holes which looks very like a modern cribbage board has even been found in the pyramids of Ancient Egypt. Nowadays, antique cribbage boards can be valuable collector's items.

If you want to find out more about cribbage, we'll show you the rules, teach you the strategy you need to win, and even tell you how to organise your own tournaments. There are hundreds of questions being asked and answered on the Cribbage Corner Forum if there's anything that you want to ask about, or just settle an argument!