Cribbage Rules: How to Play, Score, and Win

Cribbage rules revolve around one small, oddly-shaped board and one borrowed hand: the crib, four cards you never see again until the dealer counts them. Two players deal, discard, play, and then count the same cards twice - once during the play and once after - racing to peg 121 points first. This page covers standard two-player six-card cribbage, the version most home boards and the American Cribbage Congress’s tournament game mean by “cribbage,” and calls out where five-card cribbage and the three- and four-player games change the rules.

Cribbage rules: how to play cribbage in a nutshell

This hub describes standard two-player six-card cribbage played to 121 points, with his heels, the standard skunk lines, and muggins left off by default (muggins is the one rule the American Cribbage Congress leaves to each tournament director to switch on or off). Where five-card cribbage or a three- or four-player game does something differently, that’s called out in the variations section rather than folded in as if it were the only way to play.

Setup: the deck, the deal, and the crib

Cribbage needs one standard 52-card deck and a way to keep score - a cribbage board with two pegs per player is traditional, but paper and a pen work just as well. Cut the deck to decide who deals first (low card deals); dealing then alternates every hand for the rest of the game.

The dealer shuffles, the other player (the pone) cuts the deck, and the dealer deals six cards to each player, one at a time, starting with the pone. Each player looks at their six cards and discards two of them face down into a shared pile called the crib - four cards in total, two from each player. The crib belongs to the dealer and is set aside, untouched, until after the hand is played; it is counted later as an extra hand for the dealer alone.

With the crib set aside, both players now hold four cards each. The pone cuts the remaining deck, and the dealer turns the top card of the lower half face up - that’s the starter (or “cut”) card. If the starter is a jack, the dealer immediately pegs 2 points, called “two for his heels” (sometimes “his heels” is shortened to “nibs,” which gets confused with “nobs” below - they are two different bonuses). The starter is not added to anyone’s hand; it only joins in when hands are scored later.

How a turn works: the play

Starting with the non-dealer, players alternate playing one card at a time, face up, each announcing the new running total of every card played so far. Number cards count at face value, jacks, queens and kings count as 10, and aces count as 1. The running total can never be allowed to exceed 31.

As you play, you peg points immediately for anything your card creates: reaching exactly 15 (2 points), reaching exactly 31 (2 points), pairing the rank of the card just played (2 points, 6 for a third matching card, 12 for a fourth), or extending a run of three or more consecutive ranks regardless of suit or order of play (1 point per card in the run). If you cannot play a card without pushing the total past 31, you say “go,” and your opponent keeps playing if they can. Whoever plays the last card before both hands are empty or nobody can play any further pegs 1 point for “go” - or 2 points instead if that last card brought the total to exactly 31. Once both hands are empty, the play ends and the running total resets to zero for scoring.

Scoring the show: the hand and the crib

With the play over, each player’s four kept cards plus the starter form a five-card hand for counting - the starter counts toward every hand and the crib the same way, even though it was never actually held. Hands are counted in a fixed order: the non-dealer’s hand first, then the dealer’s hand, then the dealer’s crib last, using the starter in all three counts. The dealer counting last is a real advantage, since the dealer gets first crack at any points left on the table if the non-dealer’s count ends the game.

Pegging scoring table (during the play)

What happens	Points
Running total reaches 15	2
Running total reaches 31	2
Pair (card matches the rank just played)	2
Pair royal (a third matching card played in a row)	6
Double pair royal (a fourth matching card played in a row)	12
Run of 3 or more, played in any order	1 per card
“Go” - last card played when the total is under 31	1

Show scoring table (counting the hand or the crib)

Combination	Points
Fifteen (any cards summing to 15)	2 per combination
Pair	2
Pair royal (three of a rank)	6
Double pair royal (four of a rank)	12
Run of 3	3
Run of 4	4
Run of 5	5
Flush: all 4 hand cards one suit	4
Flush: hand flush plus a matching starter	5
Flush in the crib: all 5 cards (crib plus starter) one suit only	5
Nobs: jack in hand matching the starter’s suit	1

A duplicated rank inside a run scores the run once for every way it can be formed - a 4-5-6 run with two different 5s is two separate three-card runs (6 points), not one run plus a pair counted twice. A four-card flush never scores in the crib; the crib needs all five cards, starter included, to match before it scores anything for suit.

Two worked example hands

Hand 1 - the maximum 29-hand. Hand: 5♠ 5♣ 5♦ J♥. Starter: 5♥.

• Fifteens: every three of the four fives sums to 15. With four fives, there are 4 different three-card combinations, each worth 2 = 8 points. The jack (worth 10) plus any one of the four fives is also 15, another 4 combinations = 8 points. Fifteens total: 16.
• Pairs: four fives make six different pairs (5-5 six ways) = 12 points.
• Nobs: the jack of hearts matches the heart starter = 1 point.
• Total: 16 + 12 + 1 = 29 points, the highest score any single hand can reach.

Hand 2 - an ordinary good hand. Hand: 4♣ 5♠ 6♦ 7♣. Starter: 5♥.

• Fifteens: 4+5♠+6=15, and separately 4+5♥(starter)+6=15 - two distinct combinations = 4 points.
• Runs: the five cards in rank order are 4-5-5-6-7. The longest run is four cards (4-5-6-7), and since there are two different 5s, it can be formed two ways: once with 5♠, once with 5♥. That’s two separate four-card runs = 8 points.
• Pair: the two 5s also count as a pair on their own = 2 points.
• No flush (mixed suits) and no jack, so no nobs.
• Total: 4 + 8 + 2 = 14 points.

How the game ends

Hands keep being dealt, played, and counted - dealing alternates each time - until a player’s peg reaches or passes the 121st hole, the game hole. The game ends immediately the moment that happens, even in the middle of counting a hand: if the non-dealer’s count alone takes them past 121, the game is over before the dealer or the crib ever get counted that hand.

Many boards and house rules also track skunks for bragging rights or doubled stakes: winning while your opponent is still short of 91 points is a skunk, and winning while they’re still short of 61 is a double skunk. Neither changes who wins - they just make the margin count for something extra.

The diagram below shows how a traditional board lays out that journey to 121: first street, second street, the skunk line at 90, and the game hole at the far end, plus the two-peg leapfrog method players use to mark their score as they go.

Common variations and house rules

Five-card cribbage. The older two-player version deals five cards each instead of six, and each player discards only one card to the crib instead of two, leaving four cards in hand plus the starter, same as the six-card game. The target score drops to 61 points (once around a 60-hole board) instead of 121, and the play only runs up to 31 once per hand - any cards left unplayed at that point simply don’t score pegging points. Six-card cribbage, described above, is now the far more common game.

Three- and four-player cribbage. With three players, the dealer deals five cards to each player and one extra card face down straight into the crib; each player then discards one more card from their hand, bringing the crib to four cards total. With four players, players often pair into two fixed partnerships, each player contributes one card to the crib, and partners add their two hands together for a combined score. Both variants keep the same play and show scoring as the two-player game.

Muggins. The American Cribbage Congress treats muggins as the only rule its tournaments can switch on, and when a tournament does turn it on, it applies to every player in every round, not just some games. Most casual home games leave muggins off entirely, letting a player keep whatever they count even if they missed points - which is the version this page assumes unless you and your opponent agree otherwise before dealing.

Cribbage’s board and pegging make it an easy next step if you already keep score for euchre or spades - all three reward counting carefully as you play, not just at the end of a hand. If you’d rather lay down runs and sets than peg them, gin rummy scores similar combinations without a board at all. And once you know the scoring tables above, the cribbage scoring calculator checks your count against every fifteen, pair, run, flush, and nobs point automatically - useful while you’re still learning to see combinations at a glance.