How to Play Cribbage

Cribbage has been a favorite at kitchen tables, in fishing cabins and on long train rides for nearly four hundred years. It looks complicated the first time you see someone count "fifteen two, fifteen four" at lightning speed, but the rules fit on a single page. This guide covers the standard two-player, six-card game to 121, exactly as our free online cribbage game plays it, and shows you how to count a hand with worked examples you can check for yourself.

What You Need

• A standard 52-card deck with no jokers.
• A cribbage board with two pegs for each player. Each player has a track of 120 holes plus a final game hole. Online, the board is drawn for you.
• Two players. (Three- and four-player versions are in rule variations.)

Card Values and Ranks

Cribbage uses cards in two different ways, and it helps to keep them apart from the start:

• Counting value (for fifteens and the running count): ace is 1, two through ten are their face value, and jack, queen and king are each worth 10.
• Rank order (for pairs and runs): ace, 2, 3 … 10, jack, queen, king. A pair must be the same rank, so a king and a queen are not a pair even though both count 10. Aces are always low: queen-king-ace is not a run.

The Deal and the Crib

To decide who deals first, each player cuts the deck and the lower card deals (ace is lowest). In our game the deal number decides the cut, and the opening message tells you who cut what. After the first hand, the deal simply alternates.

The dealer shuffles and deals six cards to each player, one at a time. Each player then chooses two cards to put face down into the crib (sometimes called the box). The crib is a bonus hand that belongs to the dealer and is counted at the very end. So when you deal, you want to put cards in the crib that score well together; when your opponent deals, you want to throw cards that are unlikely to help them.

The Starter Card

With both discards in, the non-dealer cuts the deck and the dealer turns up the top card of the bottom half. This is the starter (or the "cut"). It sits face up on the table and counts as a fifth card in both hands and the crib. If the starter is a jack, the dealer immediately pegs 2 points for His Heels.

Pegging: Playing to 31

Now the play begins. The non-dealer lays down one card face up and says its value out loud. The dealer lays a card and announces the new running total, and so on, back and forth. The count may never go above 31. You score points during the play, moving your front peg along the board each time:

Runs during pegging don't have to be played in order. If the cards go 4, 6, 5, the player of the 5 scores a run of three. If the next card is a 3 or a 7, that player scores a run of four. A run counts the last cards played without a break, so 4, 6, 6, 5 is not a run, because the second 6 interrupts it.

Saying "Go"

If you can't play a card without going over 31, you say "Go". Your opponent then plays as many cards as they can without passing 31. When neither of you can play, the player who laid the last card pegs 1 point for the Go. If they hit 31 exactly, they get the 2 for 31 instead and no extra point. The count then starts again at zero, led by the player who did not play last. Play continues until all eight cards are down, and whoever plays the very last card scores 1 (unless it made 31).

In our game: when you can't play, a big Go button appears. If you have no cards left at all, the game passes for you automatically.

The Show: Counting the Hands

After pegging, everyone picks their own cards back up and the hands are counted, always in this order:

1. The non-dealer's hand (four cards plus the starter).
2. The dealer's hand (four cards plus the starter).
3. The crib, which the dealer scores (four cards plus the starter).

The order matters at the end of a close game: the non-dealer counts first, so they can reach 121 and win before the dealer gets to count at all. The game ends the moment anyone reaches 121, even in the middle of pegging.

Cribbage Scoring Table

This is how to count cribbage hands. Every combination is scored separately, and the same card can be used in more than one combination.

Note that the run combinations above already include the pairs: a double run of three is 3 + 3 for the two runs plus 2 for the pair, which is where the familiar "double run is eight" comes from. Fifteens are counted on top of these.

Worked Example Hands

The easy way to count is always in the same order: fifteens first, then pairs, then runs, then flush and nobs. Say the running total out loud as you go, just like our game does on screen.

Example 1: 7-8-8-9 with a king starter

Hand 7♣ 8♦ 8♠ 9♥, starter K♣.

• Fifteens: 7 + 8♦ and 7 + 8♠. "Fifteen two, fifteen four."
• Pair: the two 8s. "A pair is six."
• Runs: 7-8-9 can be made with either 8, so there are two runs of three. "A run of three is nine, and another run of three is twelve."

Total: 12.

Example 2: 5-5-J-K with a 5 starter

Hand 5♥ 5♠ J♣ K♦, starter 5♣.

• Fifteens with a ten-card: each of the three 5s with the jack, and each with the king, is six fifteens (12 points). The three 5s together make one more (14).
• Three of a kind: the three 5s are 6 more (20).
• His nobs: the jack of clubs matches the club starter (21).

Total: 21.

Example 3: the 29 hand

The highest possible hand is 5♣ 5♦ 5♠ J♥ with the 5♥ as the starter. Each of the four 5s makes fifteen with the jack (4 fifteens), and any three of the four 5s also make fifteen (4 more fifteens): 16 points. Four of a kind adds 12 for 28, and the jack matches the starter's suit for His Nobs: 29. Many players go a lifetime without holding one.

Example 4: a flush in the hand and in the crib

Hand 2♥ 6♥ 9♥ Q♥ with the K♠ as starter scores a 4-point flush (plus 6 + 9 for fifteen, so 6 in all). The same four cards in the crib would score no flush at all, because a crib flush needs the starter to match as well.

Example 5: the "nineteen" hand

Hand 2♣ 4♦ 6♠ 8♥ with a king starter has no fifteens, pairs or runs, so it scores zero. No hand can ever score exactly 19, so cribbage players jokingly call a worthless hand "nineteen".

Winning the Game

A standard game is played to 121, twice around a traditional board. Each time you score, you move your back peg ahead of your front peg by the number of points, so the gap between your two pegs always shows your last score. That makes it easy for your opponent to check your counting. If the loser hasn't reached 91 when the game ends, they are skunked, and many families count that as two games. Below 61 is a double skunk. Shorter games to 61 are popular too; see rule variations.

Muggins (Optional)

In some homes, if you miss points when counting your hand, your opponent can call "muggins" and take them for themselves. Our game counts for you by default. Switch on Count my own hands in Settings to practice: you type in your total, and the computer claims anything you missed. Want to get better at the play itself? Read our cribbage strategy guide. If you also enjoy trick-taking games, Hearts and Spades are on the site too.