Cripple Mr Onion

The Hands

Cripple Mr Onion revolves around forming groups of cards which either sum exactly to twenty-one (an onion) or come close to this total without exceeding it; in the usual fashion, a picture card (P) is worth ten, an Ace (A) is worth one or eleven, and other cards are worth their face value: a ten (T) is worth ten, a nine is worth nine, and so on. Since groups of cards which sum exactly to twenty-one can be formed in various ways, they are ranked in a particular order according to their composition, along with a few other groups which do not give twenty-one in total but which are of some interest; these special hands, described below, are worth more than any other valid combinations of cards and usually dominate the play.

There are thirteen categories of winning hands and in increasing order of worth are:

1. Bagel: this is a combination of two cards which totals exactly twenty; it is, therefore, one of TT, TP, PP or 9A.

2. two-card onion: this is a combination of two cards which totals exactly twenty-one; it is, therefore, either TA or PA.

3. Broken Flush: this is a group of at least three cards, summing to at least sixteen (but not more than twenty-one) with all of the cards except for one in the same suit-pair.

4. three-card onion: this is a group of three cards which totals twenty-one exactly; examples are ATT, 56T, and 579.

5. Flush: this is a group of at least three cards, summing to at least sixteen (but not more than twenty-one) with all of the cards in the same suit-pair.

6. four-card onion: ... four cards which total twenty-one; for example, A55T, 2469, and 3378.

7. Broken Royal: this is a special case of a three-card onion where the three cards are specifically 678 (of any suit-pairs).

8. five-card onion: ... five cards ... e.g. A235T, 23466, and 33348.

9. Royal: this is another special three-card onion being 777.

10. six-card onion: ... six cards ... e.g. A2233T and A23456.

11. (Wild Royal: this is a combination that may only be played when eights are wild — see the modifiers for details — since it consists of three wild eights.)

12. seven-card onion: ... seven cards ... e.g. A223445.

13. Onion: an Onion (capitalised letter ‘o’) is a two card combination of a picture card and an Ace; however, PA on its own is just a two-card onion (place two above), since to occupy this exalted position, the group must consist of two Onions, PAPA or Double Onion, or three Onions, PAPAPA or 3[PA] or Triple Onion, or four Onions, 4[PA] or Lesser Onion, or even five Onions, 5[PA] or Great Onion. The Onions themselves are arranged according to their worth, with Double Onion the lowest and Great Onion the highest.

Notice that the maximum number of cards making up an onion is seven (there is no eight-card onion) and that for PA to be of any real value, the player must hold at least two picture cards and two Aces. Also, if a player should be unlucky enough to receive multiple bagels, the qualifiers “double”, “triple”, “lesser” and “great” (with small initials) are used.

Since each player is ultimately in possession of ten cards, a number of groups, most of them usually winning hands, can be formed; the objective of any individual player is therefore to form the ten cards into the best possible set of groups, with each of the ten cards taking part in only one of the groups. For example, representing Clubs and Tridents by ‘C’, Spades and Axes by ‘S’, Hearts and Roses by ‘H’ and Diamonds and Doves by ‘D’, the hand:

is best split into:

• Double Onion — JS AH QH AD
• five-card onion — 3C 3S 4S 4D 7H
• a six — 6D

whereas the hand:

is best split into:

• four-card onion — AD 4S 7D 9C
• double bagel — QS KS JH TD
• a fourteen — 4H KD.

From this list of winning hands, it follows that some cards are intrinsically more valuable than others: tens, for example, are only useful in bagels and small-card onions whereas twos and threes are necessary for constructing many-card onions; Aces and picture cards are obviously of great value. However, a player’s strategy in selecting cards for replacement (see the game descriptions and certain of the modifiers) should also be influenced by the number of players, and whether eights are wild or not, since these factors influence the relative likelihood of each hand winning the round.