the rules of CRIBBAGE

Cribbage is a card game for 2, 3, or 4 players. Most commonly it is played with card (suit is immaterial in pegging), what the player says, and what points they
2 players; the 4-player version is played with teams of 2, with partners sitting receive (if any). The 4-card hands are shown.
across from each other. The goal of cribbage is to be the first player or team to P1 (5 - 6 - 7 - 7) P2 (3 - 3 - 7 - 9) P3 (A - 4 - 4 - K) P4 (2 - 3 - 5 - T)
6 / “6” 9 / “15” / 2 pts K / “25” 3 / “28”
score 121 points via a combination of straights, pairs, flushes, and “15’s”. “go” 3 / “31” / 4 pts 4 / “4” 2 / “6”

DECK / BOARD
Cribbage uses a full 52-card deck. Aces are low (1), Kings are high.
5 / “11”
“go”
3 / “14” / 4 pts
“go”
A / “15” / 7 pts
4 / “29”
[takes 1 pt for “go”]
T / “25”
“go”
5 / “5”
7 / “12” 7 / “19” / 2 pts
A typical cribbage board consists of separate lanes of holes for score-keeping.
7 / “26” / 7 pts
Each player or team receives two pegs. Whenever a player scores, they jump the A few things are worth pointing out:
rear peg over the front one. For example, if player X scores 5 points in their 1. Combinations do not “carry over” across a reset. It may look like P4 completed a run with the 2, but runs
and pairs are not allowed to carry over.
hand, they would jump the rear peg 5 spaces past the front peg. 2. You can score multiple combinations at the same time. P2’s first 3 completed a pair and got the count to

AA fullCOMPLETE HAND
hand of cribbage goes through the same pattern:
31; P3’s Ace completed a run of 5 and got the count to 15; P4’s second 7 completed a 3 of a kind and was
the last card played in that “round” of the peg.
3. P3 doesn’t receive the point for “go” until all players say “go” in that round.
1 DEAL
2 DISCARD 5. SCORE HANDS
Here are the various ways in which one can score points in their hand or crib.
3 CUT
4 PEG After the peg, players score their hands, with the player left of the dealer going
5 SCORE HANDS first (so the dealer goes last).
6 SCORE CRIB RUN1 of 3: 3 points PAIR: 2 points
RUN1 of 4: 4 points 3 of a KIND4: 6 points
1.DealDEAL
rotates after every hand. Determine a dealer for the first hand (however
RUN1 of 5: 5 points 4 of a KIND5: 12 points
4-card FLUSH2: 4 points NOBS6: 1 point
you wish). Each hand, the deal goes as follows: 5-card FLUSH3: 5 points “15”7: 2 points
2 PLAYERS: 6 cards per player NOTE: In any example hand, the cut card will be in parentheses.
3 PLAYERS: 5 cards per player, plus 1 face down on the table 1
Suit does not matter; only count the longest possible run. Runs are considered distinct if
4 PLAYERS: 5 cards per player they differ by at least one card. Thus, a hand of 2-3-3-4-(5) has two runs of 4.

2. DISCARD
2
Must be the 4 cards other than the cut card - i.e., A♦ - 5♦ - 7♦ - T♠ - (3♦) is not a 4-card
flush, but 2♣ - 5♣ - 7♣ - 8♣ - (Q♥) is a 4-card flush. 4-card flushes are not counted in the
Every player discards a certain number of cards into the center of the table: crib.
2 PLAYERS: 2 cards per player 3
Must be the 4 cards in a player’s own hand plus the cut card. These are counted in the crib.
4
3 or 4 PLAYERS: 1 card per player Notice that this is just the value of all 3 pairs contained in a 3 of a kind.
5
Notice that in any case, there are a total of 4 cards left over in the center of the Notice that this is just the value of all 6 pairs contained in a 4 of a kind.
6
table. These 4 cards form the crib, an extra scoring hand that the dealer gets to This means to own the Jack of the same suit as the cut card. Thus, the hand 5♦ - 5♣ - J♣ -
K♥ - (8♣) would score 1 point for nobs.
score after scoring their normal hand. 7
Any combination of cards whose values sum to 15. For summing, Aces count as 1; face cards
3. CUT
After the discard, the player behind the dealer cuts the deck, and the cut card is
all count as 10. Two combinations are considered distinct if they differ by at least one card.
Below are several sample hands, along with the number of 15’s they contain,
placed face up on top of the deck. This card is a part of everybody’s scoring hand. and their overall score:
Therefore, every scoring hand consists of 5 cards, with the cut card being com- 2♣ - 3♣ - T♣ - J♣ - (T♥) 3 15’s / 12 points total
mon to all hands. 2♣ - 5♠ - 6♠ - 7♥ - (7♠) 2 15’s / 12 points totala
If a Jack is cut, the dealer immediately receives 2 points. T♣ - T♥ - J♣ - J♦ - (9♥) 0 15’s / 16 points totalb
3♦ - 3♣ - 4♣ - 6♥ - (5♦) 2 15’s / 14 points totalc
If a player contains the Jack that matches the suit of the cut card (this is called
A♣ - A♦ - 7♦ - 8♠ - (6♥) 4 15’s / 13 points total
nobs), that player will receive 1 extra point when scoring their hand in section 5. 2♥ - 3♠ - 3♣ - 4♥ - (3♦) 1 15 / 17 points totald

4.ThePEG
most complicated portion of the game for newcomers is the peg.
3♦ - 3♥ - 6♦ - 9♠ - (6♣)
5♦ - 5♣ - 5♥ - J♠ - (5♠)
5 15’s / 14 points totale
8 15’s / 29 points totalf
a
Before players score their hands, they play the cards, one at a time, trying this is called a “double run”, since the paired card helps create 2 runs of 3
b
this is called a “quad run” or “double double”, since the two pairs help create 4 runs of 3
to create scoring combinations using their cards as well as their oppo- c
this is called a “double long run”, since there are 2 runs of 4
nents’ cards. d
a “triple run”, which is actually more rare than a quad run
In pegging, players take turns playing their cards, keeping a running e
one of the extremely few hands with exactly five 15’s
f
total of the cards’ values. The total “resets” at 31 - as soon as it hits 31 the highest-scoring hand possible
exactly or when nobody can play without putting the total over 31, the
count resets to 0. This process continues until all players run out of cards.
6.TheSCORE CRIB
dealer turns over the cards in the crib and scores it accordingly. Cribs
Scoring points in the peg can happen as follows: usually are worth fewer points than the average scoring hand, since experienced
adversaries will try to throw “bad” cards into them.
running total hits 15 exactly: 2 points
running total hits 31 exactly:
last card played, if total is < 31 (a “go”):
2 points
1 point
WINNING / SKUNKING
The winning player / team is the first one to score 121 or more points. In close
a card “completes” a RUN of 3: 3 points
games, the order in which the final hands are scored can be critical, as can the
a card “completes” a RUN of 4, 5, 6, or 7: 4, 5, 6, or 7 points
a card “completes” a PAIR: 2 points final peg.
a card “completes” a 3 of a KIND: 6 points The term “skunk” refers to a game in which the loser fails to score more than 90
a card “completes” a 4 of a KIND: 12 points points (three-quarters of a game). Aside from being a benchmark for futility,
To “complete” a set means to complete the last card in a set of consecutive cards. skunks often “count” as two losses. That is, if two players are playing “best of
For example, if the cards A - 4 - 3 - 2 occur in that order, the 2 completes a run of seven”, and P1 skunks P2 twice, then P1 is credited with 4 wins (thus taking the
4, and so playing it is worth 4 points (runs need not occur is ascending or de- match).
scending order). If 8 - 8 - 8 occur in a row, playing the second 8 completes a pair A “double skunk” occurs when the loser fails to score over 60 in a game. A
(2 points), but playing the third 8 completes a 3 of a kind (6 points). double skunk counts as three losses, but is so rare that I have never even one in
Illustrated below is a round of pegging for a 4-player game. Each play lists the the 15-plus years I’ve been playing cribbage.
1. Hands can range in value from 0 to 29 points, except for the following “impossible” scores: 19, 25, 26, and 27. Can you find a 23-point hand?

TRIVIA! 2. The dealer is guaranteed to score at least 1 point in the peg, and it is possible in a 2-player game to out-peg the opponent 21 - 0. Can you figure out how?
3. When hitting “31” in the peg, a player says “31 for 2”, indicating both the running total and the points scored. Completing a run, you might say “9 for 3”. Could a player ever get “15 for 15” ?
4. If given 4 random cards plus a cut card, the scores with a >1% chance of occurrence are, from most likely to least: 4, 2, 6, 8, 0, 7, 5, 3, 10, 9, 12. The least likely scores are, in order: 29, 28, 23, 22.