Cribbage tournaments draw top national players to Valley

SUNNYSIDE -- Small talk, card shuffling and counting by 15s all mix and echo in the banquet hall.

Men and women from across North America hunch, two by two, over peg boards atop cafeteria tables.

Cribbage players, some of the best in the country, are in Sunnyside this weekend.

About 80 enthusiasts of the head-to-head card game that scores players by combinations of 15s, pairs and straights are visiting from as far away as Florida and Alberta for two back-to-back tournaments sanctioned by the American Cribbage Congress.

The two events end and begin the American Cribbage Congress season, during which 7,000 players attend as many events as they can to earn as many points as they can.

The annual Summer Classic began Friday and continues today at the Eagles lodge on Midvale Avenue. It features about 80 competitors. It's the first tournament in the 2009-2010 season.

The Midweek Challenge ran Wednesday and Thursday at the Sunnyside VFW hall across town. It's always the smaller of the two; it had 36 players this year. Most stay for the Summer Classic.

However, the Midweek ended the 2008-2009 season, thereby attracting some of North America's best players -- celebrities among cribbage circles -- clamoring for points in the national title race.

Duane Toll is one of those highlight players.

The Sutherland, Ore., retiree won this year's national championship with 2,662 points, which broke his own record. (He had that before he even arrived. He didn't score at all in the Midweek.)

Toll, a 56-year-old who worked at a Chrysler warehouse, has five national titles, more than anyone else.

Fellow players say he often wins because opponents lose their nerve and make dumb plays.

Toll traveled to 46 tournaments this season, earning back all his traveling expenses and more in prize money. He also reads cribbage books to sharpen his game. Tournament prize money ranges from $200 to $10,000.

The lifetime high points earner, DeLynn Colvert of Missoula, Mont., also is attending the Sunnyside tournaments.

Colvert, 89, has collected 32,500 points during his 28 years in the congress. He is a past president of the group and former publisher of its newsletter.

Two four-time national champions also are in town.

The Yakima Valley has its own cribbage hero.

Jack Mortizky, 69, is currently ranked 27th on the all-time points list in the entire congress and third among Washington players. He placed fifth in the national title hunt in 2005.

The retired general contractor from Mabton didn't accomplish so much this year. He attended only a few tournaments because his wife, Nellie, was ill.

"You got to go to at least 30 to be in the running," said Mortizky.

Besides, most players are in it for the travel and friends as much as the competition. The majority are 60 or older and retired.

"It's a good game to play when you're retired," said Bruce Gentry, 79, of Kennewick. "It keeps you out of trouble."

He competed in only four or five tournaments this year.

Even national champion Toll says, "I get to see the sights a lot."

Toll stays with friends when he travels to tournaments in Los Angeles, Wisconsin and Reno. He reciprocates when they travel up and down the Interstate 5 corridor.

When in Sunnyside, the players bunk with friends, in local hotels or camp in RVs in the parking lot.

Tournaments may attract the travelers, but most cribbage players hone their skills every week among their local chapters, called grass roots clubs.

Sunnyside's group is called the Silver Dollar Cribbage Club, a nod to the Silver Dollar Tavern in Mabton where the club got its start. The 16 members play every Wednesday at the Eagles club.

Yakima does not have a grass roots club.

James Morrow, 37, the tournament organizer, remembers attending cribbage games as a boy with his uncle at the Silver Dollar. He became hooked.

Most players testify to the game's addictive properties.

Morrow, a married father of two, takes vacation from his job as a financial technician for the Yakima County solid waste transfer station in Sunnyside to attend tournaments, including the ones Sunnyside hosts.

He prepares for them in his own time. He spent a month making 20 plaque-mounted varnished and painted cribbage boards as trophies.

But he likes the same thing as everybody else.

"Everybody's real nice," he said.

* Ross Courtney can be reached at 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.