By Sarah MacMillan
Gloria Gartner is a card playing Barriere resident who is looking forward to the B.C. Seniors Games being held in Kamloops.
“We certainly plan on (participating),” said Gartner, “especially when it is in our own back yard.
Gartner is the zone eight event co-ordinator for the card game of cribbage, and she became interested in the game when she and her husband lived in Northern Canada.
“When we lived up North, before the time of televisions, cribbage became our entertainment,” she said.
Cribbage is a card game that can be played with different amounts of players, but within the Seniors Games, it’s played with two pairs of two. It is played with a standard 52 card deck. The games are divided into flights and set up in a triple round robin format, meaning each pair will compete against one another three separate times. The objective of a crib game is to score more points than the other team. When the cards are first dealt, each player receives five cards, and selects four they wish to keep and one that they wish to put face down into the ‘crib’ or a pile that is later used by the dealer. The player to the dealers left then cuts the deck and reveals the starter card. Each player then lays a card down in front of themselves, saying the total value of the placed cards out loud. For example, if the first person lays a five, they say “five”, and the next person lays an eight, they say “13”. The cards are played until the cumulative value nears or hits 31 without going over. This continues until all cards in the players’ hands have been played.
Points are than calculated in each players hand by using the held cards to create different card combinations that total 15. Points are also given for having runs and having pairs.
Though there are many things to remember in the game, Gartner says she does not find the game mentally demanding in any way but that may be because of her outlook. “One must remember it is a GAME and in all games someone will win and someone will lose,” said Gartner.
For Gartner though, it’s not the winning that makes the game enjoyable, but instead it is the unpredictability of the cards and therefore the game. “I can honestly say that no two games are the same. It helps to get good cards but it is also what you do with what you are dealt.”
For more information on cribbage and to participate in the B.C. Seniors Games, please contact Gloria Gartner at 250-672-5239 or by email at gegartner@xplornet.com. More information is also available on the B.C. Seniors Games website, www.bcseniorsgames.org.
Article written for Kamloops this Week.