CRIBBAGE(6) | Games Manual | CRIBBAGE(6)

# NAME

`cribbage` — the card game cribbage

# SYNOPSIS

`cribbage` | [`-emqr`]

# DESCRIPTION

`cribbage` plays the card game cribbage, with the program playing one hand and the user the other. The program will initially ask the user if the rules of the game are needed – if so, it will print out the appropriate section from According to Hoyle.

`cribbage` options include:

`-e`
  When players make a mistake scoring their hand or crib, provide an explanation of the correct score. (This is especially useful for beginning players.)
`-m`
  “Muggins” – if a player mistakenly scores less than is due, the opponent may claim the overlooked points. (Of course, the computer never miscalculates!)
`-q`
  Print a shorter form of all messages – this is only recommended for users who have played the game without specifying this option.
`-r`
  Instead of asking players to cut the deck, the program will randomly cut the deck.

`cribbage` first asks whether to play a short game (“once around”, to 61) or a long game (“twice around”, to 121). A response of ‘`s`’ or ‘`S`’ will result in a short game; any other response will play a long game.

At the start of the first game, the program asks the player to cut the deck to determine who gets the first crib. The user should respond with a number between 4 and 48, indicating how many cards down the deck is to be cut. The player who cuts the lower ranked card gets the first crib. If more than one game is played, the loser of the previous game gets the first crib in the current game.

For each hand, the program first prints the player's hand and whose crib it is, and then asks the player to discard two cards into the crib. The cards are prompted for one per line, and are entered as explained below.

After discarding, the program cuts the deck (if it is the player's crib) or asks the player to cut the deck (if it's its crib); in the latter case, the appropriate response is a number from 4 to 36 indicating how far down the remaining 40 cards are to be cut.

After the deck is cut, play starts with the non-dealer (the person who doesn't have the crib) leading the first card. Play continues until all cards are exhausted. The program keeps track of the scoring of all points and the total of the cards on the table.

After play, the hands are scored. The program requests players to score their hand (and the crib, if it is theirs) by printing out the appropriate cards. Play continues until one player reaches the game limit (61 or 121).

A carriage return when a numeric input is expected is equivalent to typing the lowest legal value; when cutting the deck this is equivalent to cutting after the fourth card.

Cards are specified as rank followed by suit, with letters case insensitive. The ranks may be specified as one of: ‘a’, ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘4’, ‘5’, ‘6’, ‘7’, ‘8’, ‘9’, ‘t’, ‘j’, ‘q’, and ‘k’, or alternatively, one of: ‘ace’, ‘two’, ‘three’, ‘four’, ‘five’, ‘six’, ‘seven’, ‘eight’, ‘nine’, ‘ten’, ‘jack’, ‘queen’, and ‘king’. Suits may be specified as: ‘s’, ‘h’, ‘d’, and ‘c’, or alternatively as: ‘spades’, ‘hearts’, ‘diamonds’, and ‘clubs’. A card may be specified as: “rank suit”, or: “rank of suit”. If the single letter rank and suit designations are used, the space separating the suit and rank may be left out. Also, if only one card of the desired rank is playable, typing the rank is sufficient. For example, if your hand was “2H, 4D, 5C, 6H, JC, and KD” and it was desired to discard the king of diamonds, any of the following could be typed: ‘k’, ‘king’, ‘kd’, ‘k d’, ‘k of d’, ‘king d’, ‘king of d’, ‘k diamonds’, ‘k of diamonds’, ‘king diamonds’, ‘king of diamonds’.

# FILES

/usr/share/games/cribbage.instr
  instructions

# AUTHORS

Earl T. Cohen wrote the logic. Ken Arnold added the screen-oriented interface.

February 18, 2022 | Debian