Club 29
Did you hit a 29 in a game with HALSCRIB? I'd love to have a screen shot to include here!
29 points is the most points possible in one Cribbage hand. The only way to gain entry to Club 29 is to keep 4 cards in your hand being 5-5-5-J, each of a different suit. Example: J♥ 5♠ 5♦ 5♣. Additionally, the starter card that is turned up must be the remaining 5 - which will be the same suit as the J that you've kept in your hand - the 5♥. Having a 5 and a J of the same suit in your hand will prevent you from scoring "1 for his heels", yielding a 28-point hand.
There have been 12 reported 29-hands in HALSCRIB history, in reverse chronological order:
REX as dealer scored his first 29-hand ever on December 21, 2011. HALSCRIB and REX users can replicate this hand in MODE CUSTOM using the following scores *53 51 and "Legacy" seed numbers 6658.24713.22224.
We congratulate George Elmer 'Ras' Rasmussen, a HALSCRIB/REX user since 2004, for scoring the first 29-hand crib on October 21, 2011. HAL and REX owners can replicate this hand. First set OPTIONS-GENERATOR-LEGACY. Then enter the following MODE-CUSTOM settings - HAL/REX at 106, you the dealer at 112, with LEGACY SEED values 21536.30177.3228. Here's the screen shot!
Hank Carle, of Anchorage, AL got the first 29-hand of the decade on January 6. HAL was dealing from hole 102 and Hank at 105. "Legacy" SEED numbers were 22688.4316.16774.
Connie Ewka, a long-time HALSCRIB user, reported his first 29 hand on February 25, 2009, cutting the 5 of diamonds. Unlike Jeff Shimp, he had to wait until the following day to get his 28-hand.
Jeff Shimp, director of Potawatomi Peggers Pow-wow tournament, reported his first 29 hand on September 16, 2006, cutting 5♠. However, Jeff won the game by getting a 28-hand on the very next deal! Remarkably, the starter was 5♠ again! On April 28, 2008 he duplicated Jim Hatch's feat of a second 29 hand, with same SEED numbers to boot!
Jim Hatch of Salem, NH makes history as the first HALSCRIB user to report two 29-hands! His second occurred on March 28, 2007 when playing a TRAINING mode game and provided a screen-shot of this rare event!
The "Legacy" SEED numbers; 22417, 16562, 18740, that generated this particular hand was first reported in 2003.
The following screen-shot is of his first 29 hand obtained on November 18, 2006, cutting 5♠ in MATCH Mode.
Michael Schell, host of Cribbage Forum, a must-see cribbage web-site, reported our fourth 29-hand playing a training mode game on July 20, 2006. HAL was dealer at hole 71 and Michael at hole 66 - "Legacy" SEED numbers 5444.17532.16119. You can replay his entire game by setting "Legacy" SEED numbers to 19714.17802.23366 in MODE-CUSTOM, with HAL as initial dealer.
Pat Cox of Colorado played a 29-hand as part of his second session duplicate cribbage WEB Match on May 31, 2004 on the second hand of the first game. You can replay his entire game by setting "Legacy" SEED numbers to 1.531.2004 with you as first dealer. To generate the hand itself, use 17194.14884.14793 and HAL as dealer.
Joe Savage of New Jersey obtained the second 29-hand in mid-October, 2003. HAL was at hole 109 and Joe counted his hand dealing from hole 113! His "Legacy" SEED numbers were 3412.4946.4331.
The first 29-hand was in a TRAINING MODE game played by Hal Mueller on July 7, 2003. "Legacy" SEED numbers were 22417.16562.18740. You can replay my entire game by setting "Legacy" SEED numbers 29544.11159.12789 in MODE-CUSTOM.
Of the 10 trillion different sequences of random hands that can be "dealt" via one of HALSCRIB's random-number generators "Legacy", "Robust", or "Twist" about 23 million will be 29-hands (0.00023%).