🔢 How to Play Cribbage

Cribbage is really a counting game with a scoreboard built in. You win by being first to 121 points — traditionally "twice around and home" on a cribbage board, where each player advances two pegs, hole by hole.

• You don't need a board to learn — pencil and paper works fine — but the board is half the fun and makes scoring quick.
• Card values for counting: Ace = 1, number cards their face value, and Jack, Queen, King all count as 10. (Aces are always low.)

The dealer deals six cards to each player (in a two-hand game). Each player then chooses two cards to lay face-down into a spare hand called the crib, which belongs to the dealer.

• So you keep four cards and the crib holds four (two from each player).
• The crib scores for the dealer at the end of the hand, so what you throw into it matters — help your own crib, starve your opponent's.
• The deal alternates each hand, so the crib advantage passes back and forth.

After the crib is set, the non-dealer cuts the deck and the dealer turns up the top card of the lower half — the starter (also called the "cut" or "turn-up"). It's set on top of the deck and used later by everyone when counting.

Now players take turns laying cards face-up in front of themselves, announcing a running total as they go. The non-dealer plays first.

• The total cannot go above 31. If you can't play without busting 31, you say "Go," and the other player keeps laying cards while they can.
• The last player able to play at or under 31 pegs 1 for the "go" (or 2 for hitting exactly 31).
• When play stops, the count resets to zero and continues with the remaining cards until everyone is out.

As cards go down, you peg points for combinations made with the most recently played cards (the running sequence, not your hand as a whole):

• Fifteen — bringing the running total to exactly 15: 2 points.
• Thirty-one — hitting exactly 31: 2 points.
• Pair — playing a card of the same rank as the one just played: 2. A third of a kind ("pair royal") = 6; a fourth = 12.
• Run — completing a run of three or more consecutive ranks played in a row (any order): 1 point per card in the run.
• Go / last card — 1 point, as in the previous step.

This is the heart of cribbage. Each player picks their four cards back up and counts them together with the starter (so five cards). The non-dealer counts first, then the dealer's hand, then the dealer counts the crib. You score every combination that adds up:

• Fifteens — every distinct group of cards totaling 15: 2 points each.
• Pairs — each pair: 2. Three of a kind = 6; four of a kind = 12.
• Runs — each run of 3+ consecutive ranks: 1 point per card (a "double run" from a duplicated card scores both ways).
• Flush — all four hand cards the same suit = 4; if the starter matches too = 5. (In the crib, only a 5-card flush counts.)
• Nobs — holding the Jack of the same suit as the starter = 1 point.

Play continues, hand after hand, until someone pegs their way to 121. You must hit it exactly or pass it — first one there wins, even mid-count.

• If the winner reaches 121 before the loser passes 91, it's a "skunk" — a double win by tradition (and 61 back is a "double skunk").
• Muggins (optional): if you overlook points in your own count, an alert opponent may call "muggins" and peg them. Many friendly games skip this rule — we'll tell you if a table is playing it.