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O’Brien pulls up perfect hand in cribbage |
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Wednesday, 12 December 2007 |
 PERFECT HAND – Dan O’Brien shows off his rare, but perfect cribbage hand. Photo Courtesy of Linda O’Brien
It would be like getting a hole-in-one at golf, knocking down all the pins for a 300 game in bowling. It’s just something you don’t see very often, if at all.
However, the five of hearts, diamonds, clubs and a jack of spades were in Dan O’Brien’s hand when a five of spades turned up last Sunday night in a game of cribbage.
What is that? In cribbage, a perfect hand scores you 29 points. More than 50 percent of all possible cribbage hands score four or less points and 10 or more points is considered a good hand.
Dan is the 13-year-old son of Mike and Linda O’Brien. He has been playing cribbage for about five years.
“In all the years I’ve been playing cribbage, I have never seen the perfect hand,” commented Doug Isanhart, a family friend visiting from Arkansas. The 62-year-old friend of the family was Dan’s opponent in the Sunday evening cribbage game.
Mike and Linda, both who have been playing cribbage for about 40 years, have never been dealt or seen the “perfect hand.”
In two-handed cribbage, each player is dealt six cards. The player discards two into a “crib” which the dealer counts to add to his score. The player opposite the dealer cuts the deck and the dealer turns up a card on the split.
This card is counted along with the cards adding up to 15, runs of three or four, pairs, all one suit, or Jack of the card turned up.
O’Brien was trailing in his game by 29 points when he dealt himself the perfect hand. He tied Isanhart and pulled ahead with his nine-point crib and then won the game with the next round of play.
“This is the first perfect hand we have ever had in our family,” says Mike O’Brien. “We couldn’t believe it so we took a picture for proof.”
Dan is a seventh grade student at Utterback Middle School.
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