How Cribbage works
The goal. Cribbage is a card game, usually for two people. You score
points, and the first player to reach 121 points (or more) wins. More points is better. You keep score
on a small board with pegs, or on paper.
This page. Counting your points is the hardest part for beginners, so this
page practices only that. You get four cards plus one extra card. Your goal here is to type
the exact number of points they score. A bolder goal is to get several hands in a row
exactly right.
What happens, in order (for two players)
- Deal. Each player gets 6 cards. The player who deals is called the
dealer.
- Make the crib. Each player looks at their 6 cards and puts any 2 of
them face down in the middle. These 4 cards are called the crib. It belongs to the dealer,
who counts it later. Each player now holds 4 cards.
- Turn up the starter. One more card from the deck is turned face up. It
is called the starter. Every hand and the crib count it as a fifth card. If the starter is a
jack, the dealer scores 2 points at once. Those points come before any counting, so do not
add them to your total on this page.
- Play. You take turns putting your cards down one at a time. Each time,
you say aloud what all the cards put down so far add up to. That sum may not go past 31.
You score a few points along the way. A sum of exactly 15 scores 2 points. A sum of exactly
31 also scores 2 points. This is separate from the counting in step 5, and this page skips
it. The full rules explain it.
- Count. Each player picks their own 4 cards back up. The player who did
not deal counts first. Work out the points in your 4 cards plus the starter, and mark them
on the board. The dealer counts next, and then counts the crib the same way. This is what
you practice here.
- Deal again. The other player is now the dealer. Keep going until one player reaches 121 or more.
How to count the five cards (step 5 in detail)
You count five cards: your 4 cards plus the starter. Do not add up the numbers on the
cards. When you count, points come only from the five ways below. One card can score in
more than one way, and you add all the points together.
- Fifteens: 2 points for each group. Cards are worth their number. A
jack, queen or king is worth 10, and an ace is worth 1. Any group of cards that adds up to
exactly 15 scores 2 points. Examples: 7 + 8, or 5 + king, or 2 + 3 + queen. The same card
can be in more than one group. For example, 5 + king and 5 + queen are two groups that
share the 5.
- Pairs: 2 points for each pair. Two cards of the same rank, like two 8s
or two kings, are a pair. A king and a queen are both worth 10, but they are not a pair.
Three cards of the same rank, like three 8s, make 3 pairs. Any 2 of them are a pair: the
first and second, the first and third, and the second and third. That is 6 points. Four
cards of the same rank make 6 pairs, which is 12 points.
- Runs: 1 point for each card. A run is 3 or more cards in order by rank
with no gaps, like 4-5-6 or 9-10-jack. Suits do not matter. 4-5-6 scores 3 points, and
4-5-6-7 scores 4. An ace is always low, so ace-2-3 is a run but queen-king-ace is not.
Count only your longest run, not the shorter runs inside it. But if a rank appears twice,
each different run scores. For example, 3-4-4-5 makes 2 runs of 3 (one with each 4), so 6
points.
- Flush: 4 points. All four cards in your hand are the same suit. If the
starter is that suit too, you score 5 points. Three cards of one suit plus the starter do
not count.
- Matching jack: 1 point. You hold a jack that is the same suit as the
starter. Players call this “nobs”. The jack must be one of your four cards. If
the starter itself is a jack, it does not earn this point.
Example. Your four cards are 7, 8, 8 and 9, and the starter is a king.
Fifteens: 7 + 8 makes 15, and you have two 8s, so that is 2 groups and 4 points. Pairs: the
two 8s are 1 pair, so 2 points. Runs: 7-8-9 is a run, and the two 8s make 2 different runs
of 3, so 6 points. There is no flush and no jack. Total: 4 + 2 + 6 = 12 points.
The crib is counted the same way, with one difference. Four cards of one
suit score nothing in the crib. All five cards (the four plus the starter) must be one suit,
and then they score 5 points.
A total of 0. Sometimes none of the five ways applies, and the cards are
worth 0 points. Players jokingly call that a “nineteen hand”. No hand can ever
score exactly 19, so the name just means “nothing”. The most a hand can score
is 29.
How it ends. The game ends the moment one player reaches 121 points or more, even in the middle of counting. That player wins.
