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Cribbage Rules: How to Play Cribbage, Step by Step

Cribbage is a two-player card game where you score points by making fifteens, pairs and runs, first while playing cards and then by counting your hand. The first player to reach 121 points wins.

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Cribbage at a glance

Card values

Cards have a counting value, used to make 15 and 31:

• Ace = 1
• 2 through 10 = their number
• Jack, Queen and King = 10 each

For runs (sequences) and pairs, cards keep their rank: Ace is always low, and the order is A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K. So J-Q-K is a run, but Q-K-A is not. A pair has to be the same rank: two Jacks are a pair, a Jack and a Queen are not, even though both count 10.

The deal and the crib

Cutting for the first deal

Each player cuts the deck. The player with the lower card deals first (Ace is lowest). If you tie, cut again. After the first hand, the deal alternates.

Dealing

The dealer shuffles and deals six cards to each player, one at a time, starting with the opponent. The dealer’s opponent is called the pone.

The crib

Each player looks at their six cards and puts two of them face down into the crib. The crib is a bonus hand that belongs to the dealer and is counted at the end of the hand.

This is the most important decision in cribbage. When it’s your crib, throw in cards that might score together, such as a pair or a 5. When it’s your opponent’s crib, avoid giving them 5s, pairs and cards close together like 7-8.

The starter card

After both players have discarded, the pone cuts the remaining deck and the dealer turns up the top card of the bottom half. This is the starter (also called the cut card). It is not played, but it counts as a fifth card in both hands and in the crib during the show.

If the starter is a Jack, the dealer immediately scores 2 points for “his heels”.

The play (pegging to 31)

Now the players take turns laying cards face up in front of themselves, starting with the pone. Each player calls out the running total of all cards played so far. The total may never go over 31.

Points during the play

Runs in the play don’t have to be in order. If the cards played are 4, then 6, then 5, the 5 completes a run of three (and makes the count 15, for 2 more). But nothing may interrupt the run: after 4-6-6-5, there is no run, because the second 6 breaks it.

“Go”

If you can’t play a card without going over 31, you say “Go.” Your opponent then keeps playing as many cards as they can without passing 31. When neither player can play:

• the player who laid the last card scores 1 point for the go (if they hit exactly 31, they score the 2 for 31 instead, not 3);
• the count goes back to zero, and the player who did not play the last card starts the next round.

Play continues until all eight cards are played. Whoever plays the very last card scores 1 for last card (or 2 if it makes exactly 31).

An example

The count starts again at zero, and the pone leads, because the dealer played the last card.

A go example: the count is 27 and the pone holds a 5 and a King. Both would pass 31, so the pone says “Go.” The dealer holds a 3 and a 2, plays the 3 to make 30, and can’t play the 2 (32). Neither player can play, so the dealer scores 1 for the go, and the pone leads the next round.

The show (counting hands)

After the play, each player picks their four cards back up and counts them together with the starter. The order matters:

1. The pone counts first.
2. The dealer counts their hand.
3. The dealer turns over the crib and counts it as a second hand.

What scores in the show

The same card can be used in more than one combination. That is why a hand like 7-8-8-9 scores so well: there are two separate runs of 7-8-9 (one with each 8).

Counting a hand, step by step

Your hand is 7♠︎ 8♥︎ 8♣︎ 9♦︎ and the starter is K♠︎.

• Fifteens: 7 + 8♥ and 7 + 8♣ — fifteen two, fifteen four
• Pair: the two 8s — six
• Runs: 7-8♥-9 and 7-8♣-9 — nine, twelve

Total: 12 points. Players traditionally count out loud: “Fifteen two, fifteen four, a pair is six, and a double run is twelve.”

Another: 5♦︎ 5♣︎ J♣︎ Q♥︎ with a 4♠︎ starter. Each 5 makes 15 with each ten-card, which is four fifteens (8 points), plus the pair of 5s (2): 10 points. The Jack is a club but the starter is a spade, so there is no nobs.

Want to check a hand of your own? Use the cribbage hand counter.

Winning, and what a skunk is

The first player to reach 121 points wins immediately — even in the middle of the play or before the other player has counted their hand. This is why the counting order matters near the end: the pone counts first and can “count out” before the dealer gets to count.

If the loser has fewer than 91 points when the game ends, they are skunked, and many players count that as two games. Fewer than 61 points is a double skunk.

Using a cribbage board

A cribbage board has a track of holes for each player, with two pegs each. To score, move your back peg ahead of your front peg by the number of points you just made. The pegs leapfrog each other, so the gap between them always shows your last score, which makes mistakes easy to spot. A standard board goes twice around a 60-hole track, and the final hole is 121.

The game on this site draws the board for you: the bright peg is your score and the faded peg shows where you were before.

Three and four players

Three players: deal five cards to each player and one card to the crib. Each player discards one card to the crib, so everyone ends with four cards and the crib has four. Play and count as usual, starting with the player to the dealer’s left.

Four players: play as two teams of partners sitting opposite each other. Deal five cards each; each player discards one to the crib. Partners add their scores together.

Cribbage words

Pone

The dealer’s opponent. The pone plays first and counts first.

Crib

The four discarded cards that belong to the dealer.

Starter (cut card)

The card turned up after the discard. It counts in every hand.

His heels (his nibs)

2 points to the dealer when the starter is a Jack.

Nobs (his nobs)

1 point for holding the Jack of the starter’s suit.

Go

What you say when you can’t play without passing 31.

Peg out

Reach 121 and win.

Skunk

Winning before your opponent reaches 91.

Muggins

An optional rule: if a player misses points in their count, the opponent may claim them. The game on this site counts automatically, so nothing is ever missed.

Nineteen

Slang for a hand worth zero. No hand can score exactly 19.

Common questions