The number 19 gets a lot of ironic love in the game of Cribbage. The counting for this one goes like this:Īs you can see, it’s the same as a 29-hand, without the nobs.

In all my playing, I’ve gotten it once! My grandpa (whose gotten a 29 hand) wasn’t so impressed! The fives can be in all in the hand or three in the hand and one in the cut card.Īs such, the odds are higher of getting this, though it’s still tough. It’s much (much) easier to get this hand.Īll you need is ANY combination of 4 fives and a ten-value card. The second-highest hand is very similar to the highest, just without the nobs. If you want more details on the counting, check out my 29 hand counting guide. The Jack must NOT be the same suit as the fives in your hand. It requires a very specific set of circumstances. Some people go their whole lives without ever getting it! The odds of getting this are 1 in around 200,000. The top hand is, of course, the illusive 29-hand.

Seven-Seven-Eight-Eight-Nine The 29 Hand: The Best There Is.

The final five must be the same suit as the jack. “For some reason, employers don’t give the rest of the day off when it happens!”Ī perfect cribbage hand is 29 points, and it happens when a player holds three fives and a jack, then obtains the other five when the “cut” card is turned over. “I can’t say for sure, but I’ve been playing crib for 40 years and it feels like I’ve played over 200,000 hands. The first was a family member well over 10 years ago (in this card player’s obituary is mention of his perfect 29-hand) and the second is Ron’s coworker Mark, in 2015. “This morning, in our coffee break game, in the second hand of the game, it happened again! This time, I was on the right side of it.”īesides himself, Ron says he knows only two others that got the perfect 29-hand in the game. “About five and a half years ago, my coworker Mark MacAulay called you to let you know he got a 29-hand in a game of crib. It happened once around six years ago during a coffee break at ATCO Wood Products, and it happened again last week, on Wednesday Jan. The odds of getting a 29-hand in the game of crib is 1 in 216,580. Whether it’s sheer luck, albeit with a good dose of patience and determination, or something in the water out there, but another person at the Fruitvale lumber yard has produced a perfect hand of cribbage.

Perfect cribbage hand