Cribbage rules

What it is

Cribbage is a two-player game of making small numerical combinations — pairs, runs, and sets of cards adding to fifteen — and pegging the points along a board. It is unusual in that you score twice each hand: once by playing cards to a running count, and again by counting up the hand you kept. The dealer also gets a bonus hand, the crib, built from cards both players throw away. It dates to seventeenth-century England and is the pub and porch game of the English-speaking world. This page describes the game as it is played at jpgames.app.

The deck

A standard 52-card deck. Cards have two different values depending on what you are doing with them:

So a King and a Queen both count 10 toward fifteen and thirty-one, but they are different ranks and do not make a pair. For runs, Ace is always low — A-2-3 is a run, Q-K-A is not.

The deal

Six cards each in the standard game. The deal alternates.

Each player then throws two cards face down into the crib, which belongs to the dealer and is counted at the end of the hand as a fifth scoring hand. Choosing what to give away is half the game: you are keeping four cards that score well while trying not to hand the dealer anything useful.

After the discards, the deck is cut and one card turned up — the starter. It belongs to nobody and is counted as a fifth card in both hands and in the crib.

If the starter is a Jack, the dealer immediately pegs 2 — this is called his heels.

Play

Players alternate laying cards face up in front of themselves, adding each card's value to a running count. The count may never exceed 31. You score as you go:

A few things about that table are worth spelling out.

Runs need not be played in order. If 4, 6 and 5 are laid in that sequence, the player of the 5 pegs 3 for the run. A fourth consecutive card extends it and pegs 4, and so on. Any card that does not extend the sequence breaks it.

Pairs ignore suit but respect rank. Two Jacks are a pair. A Queen and a King are not, even though both count 10.

"Go." If you cannot play without going over 31, you say Go, and your opponent pegs 1 and keeps playing until they also cannot. Then the count resets to zero and play continues with whatever cards remain.

Hitting 31 exactly scores 2 and supersedes the Go — you get 2, not 1 plus 2. The same applies to the last card of the hand: if it brings the count to exactly 31, that is 2 rather than the 1 for last card.

Scoring

When all cards are played, each player picks their four cards back up and counts them together with the starter. Non-dealer counts first, then the dealer, then the dealer counts the crib.

Every combination counts separately, and cards are reused freely. Four fives and a Jack — the famous perfect hand — is eight different fifteens for 16, six pairs for 12, and his nobs for 1, which is 29.

Counting first matters. In a close game the non-dealer can peg out before the dealer ever counts.

The crib flush is stricter: all four crib cards and the starter must share a suit. Four matching cards in the crib alone score nothing.

Ending the game

First to the target wins, and the game ends the instant somebody reaches it — mid-pegging, mid-count, whenever. There is no finishing the hand.

The standard target is 121. The short game plays to 61.

Being beaten badly has a name: a skunk is losing while more than 30 short of 121 (or 15 short of 61), and a double skunk is failing to reach half the target. Both are recorded.

Variants we implement

1. Standard — six cards each, discard two, race to 121. The default.
2. Short game — six cards each, discard two, race to 61. Same rules, about half the time.
3. Historic five-card — five cards each, discard two, race to 61. You keep only three cards, and the non-dealer starts each hand with 3 points for "three for last" to offset the dealer's crib advantage. This is the seventeenth- century original.
4. Muggins — off by default. With it on, if you undercount your own hand, your opponent may claim the points you missed. It is switched on at the table, and it changes the game from a friendly count to an exacting one.

Where we differ from the common rules

1. Two players only. The three-handed game and the four-handed partnership game are not implemented. A bot fills the other seat.
2. Muggins applies to the hand and crib counts only, never to pegging. Pegging points are awarded automatically as they occur, so there is nothing to miss and nothing to claim. This matches tournament practice.
3. No match play. Games are scored individually; there is no best-of-N series where skunks multiply.
4. No cut for deal beyond the first — the deal simply alternates.

Ready to play? Start a Cribbage table — a bot fills the other seat, so a game starts whenever you do.

For the wider game, including the three- and four-handed variants above that we do not implement, see Cribbage on Wikipedia.

Common questions

How do you score 15 in cribbage?

Any combination of cards adding to exactly fifteen scores 2 points, and every distinct combination counts. Face cards count 10 and Ace counts 1, so a King and a 5 make fifteen, and so do 7-8, and so do 2-3-4-6.

What is the crib in cribbage?

A fifth hand belonging to the dealer. Both players throw two cards into it at the start of the hand, and the dealer counts it as an extra hand at the end, together with the starter card.

What is the highest possible cribbage hand?

Twenty-nine: four fives and the Jack matching the starter's suit. That is eight fifteens for 16, six pairs for 12, and one for his nobs.

What is his nobs in cribbage?

Holding the Jack of the same suit as the starter card. It is worth 1 point when you count your hand. If the starter itself is a Jack, the dealer instead pegs 2 immediately — that one is called his heels.

How many points do you need to win at cribbage?

121 in the standard game and 61 in the short game. The game ends the moment somebody reaches the target, even in the middle of counting a hand.