Cribbage Rules

Cribbage is a card game for two players (three or four can play too) in which you score by making fifteens, pairs and runs, and keep track on a wooden pegging board. The first to 121 points wins. It is said to have been invented by the English poet Sir John Suckling in the early 1600s. It is still a pub favourite in England, and a tradition among US submariners. This guide covers the cribbage rules step by step: the deal and the crib, pegging, counting your hand, winning and skunks, versions for three and four players, and exact odds for every hand you can hold.

Cribbage Rules at a Glance

How to Play Cribbage

1. Cut for the deal. Each player cuts the pack; the lower card deals first. After that the deal alternates.
2. Deal six cards each, one at a time, starting with the non-dealer.
3. Make the crib. Each player chooses two cards to put face down in the crib. The crib is counted for the dealer at the end of the hand, so the dealer throws in cards that might score and the non-dealer throws in cards that won’t.
4. Turn the starter. The non-dealer cuts the pack and the dealer turns up the top card of the lower half. If it is a Jack, the dealer pegs 2 for his heels.
5. The play. Starting with the non-dealer, players take turns laying one card face up in front of themselves and calling the running total (“nine”, “fifteen for two”). The total can never go over 31.
6. Say “go”. If you can’t play without passing 31, say “go”. Your opponent plays any cards they can, then scores 1 for the last card, or 2 for exactly 31. The count then starts again from zero with the cards left.
7. The show. When all the cards have been played, each player picks up their four cards and counts them with the starter. The non-dealer counts first, then the dealer, then the dealer counts the crib.
8. Peg your points as you go, and play hands until someone reaches 121. The game ends the moment a player reaches it, even in the middle of a hand.

Scoring During the Play (Pegging)

A run in play must be unbroken: 9, 6, 8, 7 is a run of four, but 8, 7, 7, 6 is not, because the second 7 gets in the way. Picture cards only pair with the same rank, so a Jack pairs with a Jack but not a Queen.

Counting the Hand (The Show)

Each hand is your four cards plus the starter. Count every combination separately:

In the crib, a flush only counts if all four crib cards and the starter are the same suit, for 5. A pair inside a run doubles it: the hand 8, 7, 7, 6, 2 scores 16 (four fifteens 8, the pair of 7s 2, and two runs of 8-7-6, 6). Experienced players learn these shortcuts:

Winning: 121, Skunks and Muggins

A standard board has four rows of 30 holes, two for each player, so a game to 121 is “twice round” plus one. Each player has two pegs and leapfrogs the back peg past the front one each time they score, so the gap shows the last score. For a shorter game, play to 61.

• Skunk. If the loser has fewer than 91 points, the winner scores a double game. Below 61 is a double skunk, worth triple or quadruple. In an older convention, a loser on 60 or fewer is “lurched” and pays double.
• Muggins. When a player counts their hand and misses points, the opponent can call “muggins” and peg them instead. It is standard in competitive play.
• Counting out. Because the non-dealer counts first, a player close to 121 can win before the dealer counts their hand or crib.

Cribbage for Three and Four Players

• Three players: deal five cards each and one card straight into the crib. Each player then adds one card, so the crib still has four.
• Four players: deal five cards each, and each player puts one card in the crib. Play as two partnerships (partners opposite) or as individuals.

Everything else, from the play to 31 to the counting, works the same way.

Cribbage Strategy

• Choose your discards carefully. As dealer, put cards that score well together in your own crib. As non-dealer, avoid giving away 5s, pairs or cards close in rank; Kings and Aces are usually safer, because they are hard to use in runs.
• Keep the 5s. Sixteen of the 52 cards count 10, so a 5 makes fifteen with almost a third of the pack.
• Lead a 4. No single card makes 15 with it, so it is a safe opening lead. Leading a 5 invites a 10-card for fifteen-two.
• Take the fifteen. If you can score either a pair or a fifteen on your opponent’s card, the fifteen is usually better, because a pair invites a pair royal for 6.
• Avoid leaving 21. Your opponent then plays any 10-card to make 31 for 2.

The discard is where most points are won or lost. Across 4,000 random deals, keeping the four cards with the best average show over every possible starter was worth 8.3 points per hand. Keeping four at random was worth 4.8. That counts the hand only, before the crib or the pegging.

Cribbage Odds

There are 12,994,800 ways to combine a four-card hand with a starter. Counting every one of them gives:

• The average hand is worth 4.77 points. The most common scores are 2 and 4 (22% each), and half of all hands score 4 or less.
• A zero hand comes up 7.8% of the time. Players call it a “nineteen hand”, because 19 is a score you can never make.
• Impossible scores: 19, 25, 26 and 27 can never be counted in a single hand.
• Big hands: 10 points or more 7.4% of the time, 20 or more just 0.12%.
• The perfect 29 (three 5s and the Jack of the starter’s suit, with a 5 turned up) comes once in 3,248,700 hands.
• His heels: the starter is a Jack one time in 13.

More Card Games

If you like Cribbage, try Gin Rummy, Canasta, Spades, Golf and the pub classic Three Card Brag.

Another card game for a games night: Hearts, the game of passing three cards and dodging the Queen of spades.

A quicker game built around 31: 31 (Scat), the draw-and-discard game of three-card hands.

Another counting card game: Scopa, the Italian classic where you capture cards that add up to the one you play.

Another classic for two: Casino, where you capture table cards that match or add up to the card you play.

Cribbage: frequently asked questions