There are a lot of web sites that give you cribbage rules. There are small variations here and there and even the "official" source reads ambiguously to me.
To narrow my question, let's talk about scoring rules after "the play / pegging", when the dealer and the pone score their respective hands and the crib.
Is there are precise summary of the scoring rules, that I can use as a reference? I would prefer the actual rules wording to examples. Examples are very useful for illustrating a rule, but they are not as good for defining rules.
Now, to the source of my confusion. In one source I read this:
Counting the Hands. When play ends, the three hands are counted <...> The basic scoring formations are as follows:
Combination Counts
Fifteen. Each combination of cards that totals 15 2
Pair. Each pair of cards of the same rank 2
Run. Each combination of three or more 1cards in sequence (for each card in the sequence)
Flush. Four cards of the same suit in hand 4 (excluding the crib, and the starter)
Four cards in hand or crib of the same 5 suit as the starter (There is no count for four-flush in the crib that isnot of same suit as the starter)
His Nobs. Jack of the same suit as starter in hand or crib 1
Combinations. In the above table, the word combination is used in the strict technical sense. Each and every combination of two cards that make a pair, of two or more cards that make 15, or of three or more cards that make a run, count separately.
The emphasis in the last paragraph is mine.
The source goes ahead and gives the following example:
Example: A hand (including the starter) comprised of 8, 7, 7, 6, 2 scores 8 points for four combinations that total 15: the 8 with one 7, and the 8 with the other 7; the 6, 2 with each of the two 7s. The same hand also scores 2 for a pair, and 6 for two runs of three (8, 7, 6 using each of the two 7s). The total score is 16. An experienced player computes the hand thus: "Fifteen 2, fifteen 4, fifteen 6, fifteen 8, and 8 for double run is 16."
This example makes perfect sense to me. Now following the same logic, let's assume we have 2, 2, 3, 4, 5. According to the "strict technical sense", I can see the following scoring combinations:
- 2, 3, 4 x2
- 2, 3, 4, 5 x2
- 3, 4, 5
- 2, 2
Which gives us 6 + 8 + 3 + 2 = 19
But everyone knows that 19 is impossible, and in the same source a little bit further we read:
D. A run of four, with one card duplicated, counts 10.
Now, I understand why. That's because only the longest 4 cards sequence counts. The two 3 card sequences it contains do not. So it's just 8 + 2. 6 and 3 do not count.
What I cannot find is an authoritative source that properly words this rule. Because as per rules as written in the source, my calculation would be correct. The American Cribbage Congress rules do not address this ambiguity at all, it looks like they are assuming, that everyone knows this anyway.
So can some one either sum up the actual hand scoring rules for me, or point me anywhere, where it's already done - clearly and unambiguously?
