Cribbage Squares
Cribbage Squares, occasionally Cribbage Square, is a patience or card solitaire based on Cribbage which can be played using a deck of playing cards. This game works the same way as Poker Squares, but with cribbage scoring. Seventeen cards are used, although there are variants that increase the level of strategy by dealing extra cards so that players have more choice of what to use. History. The first rules for Cribbage Squares appear around 1950 in America as one of three Cribbage solitaire variants. The game has been implemented in several software collections of solitaire games. Rules. First , sixteen cards are dealt one at a time in a 4x4 grid, provided that card must touch horizontally, vertically, or diagonally to any of those already in the grid. However, once a card is placed on the grid, it cannot be moved. After these sixteen cards are put into place, a seventeenth card, the starter, is turned face-up. Points are scored according to how the hands formed horizontally or vertically are combined with the starter. Horizontally and vertically in this case means that each row and column in the grid is scored as a cribbage hand. Hands are  scored as in normal cribbage and the combinations below may occur more than once in just one hand: The object of this game is to reach the highest score possible using the sixteen cards. According to "The Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games", the player is considered to "win" if the total score is at least 61. Solutions. Two candidate solutions for maximum possible scores are as below for 170 and 165 points respectively. Score: 170 Score: 165 Variations. To increase the skill element of the game, one variation involves using one or two 'reserve' piles, each of which  can hold up to 5 cards that can later be played on to the grid. An "open" version of the game increases the amount of strategy by dealing all 17 cards face-up before placing them in the grid.