Cribbage is a classic two-player game of cards. It only takes a standard deck of cards. There's a customary scoring board which is easy to find online or at just about any thrift store, but it's optional (and I share a scoring app below).

It's a race: First to 121 points wins. It's also a bit of a dance, and it features an addictive and ever-shifting balance of luck and skill.

Cribbage is played over a series of hands. You get six cards every hand, but you put two of them in the crib. The owner of the crib changes every turn — it's yours now, but next turn it's mine. So when it's your crib you want to put good cards in there, and when it's mine you want to put bad ones. This is trickier than it sounds, because there's one more card in play - the so-called "turn-n up card", which is the top card in the deck. Both players use this card when scoring their hands, and you only turn it face-up after you decide what goes in the crib. This sometimes makes for moments of intense and instant regret.

Every hand has two phases, the Play and the Show. In the Play, we each play a card at a time and call out the running total. You can score some points here by getting to exactly 15 or 31, or by building a run of cards (2-3-4 for example, but 4-2-3 would also be a run).

Then after the Play you have the Show, which is where we each show our hand and score the hand again. Whichever one of us has the crib in this turn also scores their crib.

Then we put the cards back into the deck, shuffle, and deal another hand. The other player now gets to own the crib.

This might read like a dry (or even complicated) set of rules, but when you start playing, Cribbage sings. It flows. There are moments of drama, regret, and triumph. You never know if you're winning a given game because luck is on your side or because you're simply better than the other player, but skill does play a role. This becomes evident when two players face off again and again over many games (in the hundreds of Cribbage games I've played with my wife a clear winner emerges, which, unfortunately, is not me).

Because you keep score using a physical board (or an app) over a series of rounds, it is easy to pause the game or even scrap a hand if you need to suddenly stop in the middle, and then pick it back up a few moments or a few days later. You don't have to keep track of the state of cards between hands, because each hand starts with a whole deck, freshly shuffled.

The two main barriers in bringing Cribbage to the table are the rules, which seem complicated at first glance, and feeling like you need a scoreboard. This is where my two app recommendation come in.

For learning: Cribbage with Grandpas

I've recommended this mobile game in the newsletter before, and it's still just as great.

You create your very own virtual grandpa, choosing their looks, apparel, etc. You then specify how grumpy or chatty the grandpa is, is he a sore loser, and so on.

And then... you play Cribbage with your grandpa.

The thing is, you don't have to know any of the rules. You just start playing, and grandpa explains things along the way. Whenever you miss a scoring rule (there are quite a few of these) grandpa shows you what you missed.

Within two or three games, you'll know exactly how to play Cribbage and you won't forget the rules. This is how I learned, and how my wife and son learned. It's an amazing approach because you don't feel like you're learning anything, yet after two or three games with grandpa, ta-da — you're ready for your first real game with a physical deck of cards and a human. You're also left with a perfectly functional mobile game you can play anytime, of course. It costs a few dollars but the experience is clean and well worth it.

For scoring on the go: Cribtastic

The other barrier to playing Cribbage is the customary scoreboard, especially if you want to play a spontaneous game outside. As I mentioned, this board is completely optional — you can just use a pen and paper to score and you'll be just fine. It's also quite easy to find in thrift stores and online.

We do have a board, but it's at home — and of course, we have a random deck of cards in the car (you should really have a deck of cards in your glove compartment!). If the occasion arises to play a game of Cribbage outside, we use Cribtastic for scoring.

There are many cribbage scoreboard or "pegboard" apps, but Cribtastic is by far the most elegant one I've found. It's easy and fun to mark your points, and it's made so that each player uses one side of the phone, so you can each easily mark your points without passing the phone around or making mistakes.

The surprise

The biggest surprise is that yesterday I actually won a game of Cribbage against my wife. Celebrate with me!

Seriously though, to me the fact that Cribbage is actually good was a surprise. I enjoy board games and have played quite a few "modern" games over the years. When people would mention Cribbage in the past I always thought the rules were complicated and confusing (I still think they're confusing if you just read them). I also thought, yes, it's good, but "good for a game of cards". In other words, I thought it's probably way less fun than Azul, Splendor, Vale of Eternity, or many of the other games we enjoy.

The thing is, it's not. We have all of these games on the shelf, and yet we reach for Cribbage again and again. It's got an elegant rhythm to it, and its balance of "drama" versus "chill" is hard to beat. Such a great game.