Rules

How to play Cribbage

Updated October 2026 · 2 players · About 30 minutes

Cribbage is two games at once. First, you and your opponent take turns playing cards while a running total goes up toward 31. Then each of you counts the points in your own cards. The first player to get 121 points or more wins. The counting is where beginners lose, and it is the part that rewards practice.

What you need

You need two players, a standard 52-card deck, and a cribbage board. The classic board has two tracks of 60 holes. You go around your track twice, and one last hole, the game hole, is 121. Boards differ: many newer ones are called “continuous,” with one track of 120 holes for each player that you go around once, and often a third track so that three people can play. Each player has two pegs. To score, count the points forward from your front peg and put your back peg in that hole. The gap between your pegs shows your last score, so a miscount can be checked. For example, your front peg is in hole 12 and you score 4: count four holes on from 12 and put your back peg in hole 16. That peg is now your front peg, and the gap of four holes behind it shows the 4 you just scored. Pencil and paper work too, just less pleasantly (see Keeping score without a board).

How the cards count:

• Adding up to 15 or 31: an ace is 1, the cards 2 to 10 are worth their number, and a jack, queen or king is 10.
• Runs: three or more cards in order by rank with no gaps, like 4-5-6 or 10-jack-queen. Suits do not matter. The order is ace, 2, 3 up to 10, then jack, queen, king (11, 12 and 13). Aces are always low: ace-2-3 is a run, but queen-king-ace is not.

Keeping score without a board

The board is only a scorekeeper, so any way of keeping a running total works. With pencil and paper:

• Make two columns, one for each player.
• Write each score as it happens, during the play as well as in the count, and write the new total beside it: “2 → 14.” Scores in the play come quickly, so the player who scores calls out the new total and the other player checks it.
• Writing each score, not just the total, does the job of the board's back peg: if a total looks wrong, you can add the column again.
• The game still ends the moment a total reaches 121, even halfway through a deal. If you play for skunks (see Common variations), the lines are 91 and 61, so circle those numbers at the top of the sheet.

Any running-total method works the same way, such as a phone note or a scoring app, as long as each score is added the moment it is earned.

How a deal starts

Any fair method decides who deals first. Traditionally, both players cut the deck: each lifts off the top part and turns up the bottom card of the part they lifted. The lower card deals. An ace is lowest and a king is highest. If both cards have the same rank, shuffle and cut again. After that, you take turns dealing.

1. Deal. The dealer gives each player six cards, one at a time, face down.
2. Make the crib. Each player puts two of their six cards face down in the middle. These four cards are called the crib. It belongs to the dealer, who counts it at the end of the deal like an extra hand. Each player now holds four cards.
3. Turn up the starter. The other player (the non-dealer) cuts the deck by lifting off the top part and setting it to one side. The dealer turns over the top card of the part left on the table, puts the two parts back together, and lays that card face up on top of the deck. This is the starter. You do not play it. Later it counts as a fifth card for every hand and for the crib. If the starter is a jack, the dealer scores 2 points at once.

If the cards are dealt unevenly, a card is turned face up by mistake, or someone puts the wrong number of cards in the crib, the usual fix at home is a new deal by the same dealer, with no penalty. Tournament rules treat each kind of mistake differently, and some cost points.

The play

Now each player holds four cards. The non-dealer goes first. You take turns playing one card face up in front of you. Each time, say out loud the total of all the cards played so far. The total may never go above 31. For example, you play a 7 and say “seven.” Your opponent plays an 8, says “fifteen,” and scores 2 points.

One card can score in more than one way, and you add the points together. For example, your opponent plays a 5. You play a 5 and score 2 for the pair. Your opponent plays a third 5. The total is now 15, so they score 2 for the fifteen and 6 for three of a rank, 8 points in all.

Only the longest run counts. If the last three cards played were 3, 4 and 5, and you play a 6, you score 4 for the run 3-4-5-6. You do not also score 3 for the run 4-5-6 inside it.

When you cannot play

If you cannot play without taking the total over 31, say “go”. That means “I cannot play.” Your opponent must then keep playing any cards they can, one at a time, and they still score for fifteens, pairs and runs. When they cannot play any more, they score 1 point for the go. If their last card made exactly 31, they score just the 2 for 31, with no extra point. The point for the go belongs to the player who played the last card, not to the player who said “go.” The very last card of the whole play scores the same way: 1 point, or 2 if it made exactly 31.

After the point for a go is scored, or after a card that makes exactly 31, the total goes back to zero. You keep playing with the cards left in your hands. Cards played before the total went back to zero never make a pair or a run with cards played after it. The player who did not play the last card goes first. After a go, that is the player who said go. After a 31, it is the player who did not play the card that made 31. If that player has no cards left, the other player goes first.

When one player runs out of cards, the other keeps playing alone, one card at a time. The same rules still apply. The total cannot go over 31. When the player who still has cards cannot play without going over 31, the 1 point for the go goes to whoever played the last card, which may be the player who just ran out. Then the total goes back to zero and the player with cards plays on. They still score for fifteens, pairs and runs, and for the very last card.

You must play if you can. Saying go while you hold a card you could play is a mistake. Tournament rules give your opponent 2 points for each card you could have played. For example, at a total of 25 you hold an ace, a 5 and a 6, and you say go. Each of the three could have been played, so your opponent scores 6. At home, agree beforehand what it costs. If you are not sure, use the tournament penalty.

The count

When all the cards are played, each player picks their four cards back up and counts the points in them, with the starter as a fifth card. The non-dealer counts first, then the dealer, then the crib. The order matters, because the game ends the moment a player reaches 121 or more.

Do not add up the numbers on the cards. When you count, points come only from the five ways in this table. One card can score in more than one way, and you add all the points together.

Three cards of one suit plus the starter are not a flush. A starter that is a jack never earns the matching jack point. The crib is counted the same way, except that in the crib four cards of one suit score nothing. All five must be one suit, and then they score 5.

Counting a hand out loud

Your hand is 7♣ 8♦ 8♥ 9♠, and the starter is K♣. Count in the same order every time (fifteens, pairs, runs, flush, matching jack) and say your running score as you go:

• Fifteens: 7 + 8♦ and 7 + 8♥ each make 15. Say “fifteen-two, fifteen-four.” (4 points)
• Pairs: the two 8s. Say “and a pair is six.” (2 points)
• Runs: 7-8♦-9 and 7-8♥-9 are two runs of three, one for each 8 (card players call this a double run). Say “and a double run is twelve.” (6 points)
• Flush: no. Matching jack: no jack. Total: 12.

The king scored nothing. The pair and the two runs are counted separately, even though they use the same two 8s.

How the game ends

The first player to reach 121 points or more wins. You do not have to land on 121 exactly: if you are on 119 and score 4, you win. The game ends the instant a player gets there, even in the middle of the play or the count. Ties cannot happen: whoever gets there first has already won, and nothing after that is counted. If nobody has won when the crib has been counted, the deal is over. You play another deal, with the other player dealing. Many players have the loser of a game deal first in the next one.

Practice counting Cribbage hands

Cribbage's real barrier is not the rules, it is counting a hand quickly and exactly while somebody waits. The practice page deals four cards and a starter (the extra card), you type the total, and it shows the full breakdown — including whether you were counting a hand or the crib.

Three things beginners get wrong

Putting cards in the crib without asking whose it is

The crib belongs to the dealer. Putting a 5, or two cards that could help make a run, in your own crib helps you. Putting them in your opponent's crib is careless. A 5 helps because it makes 15 with any 10, jack, queen or king, and there are 16 of those cards in the deck. Choosing your two crib cards is the first decision of every deal. For your own crib, look for cards that work well together: a pair, two cards that add up to 15 (like 6 and 9), or two cards next to each other in rank (like 6 and 7). For your opponent's crib, avoid all of those.

Missing points in the count

Nobody counts your hand for you. Points you fail to claim are lost, unless you play the optional muggins rule (see Common variations), which lets your opponent claim them.

Forgetting who counts first

The non-dealer counts first. Near the end of a game, this decides matches. If the non-dealer can get to 121 or more by counting their hand, the dealer's better hand and crib are never counted.

Questions people ask

What is a 29 hand?

The most points one hand can score is 29. You hold three 5s and a jack, and the starter is the fourth 5, in the same suit as your jack. The four 5s make 6 pairs (12 points) and 8 fifteens (16 points): each 5 with the jack (4), and each set of three 5s (4). The matching jack adds 1. That makes 12 + 16 + 1 = 29.

Why do players call a scoreless hand “a nineteen”?

No Cribbage hand can score exactly 19. No mix of fifteens, pairs, runs, a flush and the matching jack adds up to it (25, 26 and 27 are impossible too). The impossible number became the joke name for a hand that scores nothing at all. “Nineteen” sounds like a score, but it is one nobody can ever get, so saying it means you got nothing.

Can a jack starter win the game outright?

Yes. Points count the instant you earn them. If the dealer needs only 2 more points to get to 121, turning up a jack as the starter ends the game right there, before anyone plays a card.

Does a run in the play keep counting after a card that does not fit?

No. In the play, a run is always made of the most recent cards, one after another, with no other card between them. A card that does not fit ends the run, and the cards before it never count again. For example:

• The cards played are 2, 3, 4: the 4 makes a run of three (3 points).
• Then a 5: a run of four, 2-3-4-5 (4 points). The total is 14.
• Then a 10: the last three cards are 4, 5, 10, which are not in order, so no run. The total is 24.
• Then a 6: the last three cards are 5, 10, 6, still not a run. The 6 would have made 2-3-4-5-6 if the 10 had not come between, but it did, so the 6 scores nothing for a run.

The order the cards arrive in does not matter, only that they come one after another. After 2, 4, the 3 makes a run of three, and a 5 after that makes a run of four. Some players feel a run should carry on past an interruption, and a group can agree to play that way, but under the standard rules it does not.

How do you play Cribbage without a board?

Exactly the same way, keeping the score on paper. See Keeping score without a board for a simple way to do it that catches mistakes the way a board does.

Can more than two people play Cribbage?

Yes. Three-player and four-player games exist. See Common variations below.

Common variations

• Target score: 121 is standard. 61 (once around the board) is a quick game.
• Muggins: an optional rule. When your opponent finishes counting and has missed points, you say “muggins” and score them yourself. Agree beforehand. If you are not sure, play without it.
• Skunk: if the loser has fewer than 91 points (90 or fewer) when the winner reaches 121, the win counts as two wins when you keep score across several games: the usual win plus one extra. Some groups also play a double skunk. If the loser has fewer than 61 points (60 or fewer), the win counts for more. Groups differ: some count three wins (the usual win plus two extra), and others count four (the usual win plus three extra). Agree beforehand. These lines are for a 121-point game; in a 61-point game many players count a skunk when the loser has 30 or fewer.
• Three-player Cribbage: each player gets five cards, plus one extra card dealt face down directly into the crib. Each player then puts one more card in the crib, so everyone holds four. Everyone plays for themselves. The player to the dealer's left cuts for the starter and goes first, and play goes around the table to the left. When everyone else has said go, the player who is left keeps playing alone and scores the point for the go. The hands are counted around the table to the left, starting with the player to the dealer's left. The dealer counts last, with the crib.
• Four-player Cribbage: you play as two teams of two partners, who sit opposite each other. Each player gets five cards and puts just one card in the crib instead of two. Partners share one score, and they may not tell each other what they hold. Playing and counting go the same way as in the three-player game.

Cribbage is better with a board, which is the one extra thing you need. Boards worth buying are further up this page. See our two-player guide to compare it with other games for two.