Cribbage

Overview

A two-player card game with a scoring board. Points come from combinations adding to fifteen, pairs, runs and flushes. First to 121 wins.

Traditionally attributed to the poet Sir John Suckling in the seventeenth century.

This entry is checked against the American Cribbage Congress's Cribbage Tournament Rules, 2025 edition. Rule numbers below are the ACC's. The ACC writes for tournament play, and home games often relax things like muggins.

1. Setup

Use a standard deck and a cribbage board. Each player takes two pegs — the rear peg marks your previous score, so both players can verify each count.

Cut for deal; lowest card deals first.

2. The deal

Deal six cards to each player. Both then discard two face down into the crib, which belongs to the dealer and is scored by them at the end of the hand.

Choosing what to put in the crib is the first real decision: you are either helping your own crib or poisoning your opponent's.

The non-dealer cuts, and the dealer turns the top card of the lower half face up as the starter.

If the starter is a Jack, the dealer immediately pegs 2 — "two for his heels".

3. The play (pegging)

Starting with the non-dealer, players alternate laying cards face up in front of themselves, calling the running total. Face cards count 10, aces count 1.

The total may not exceed 31.

Event	Points
Total reaches exactly 15	2
Total reaches exactly 31	2
Pair	2
Three of a kind	6
Four of a kind	12
Run of three or more	1 per card
Opponent cannot play — "go"	1
Last card played	1

When neither player can play without exceeding 31, the count resets to zero and play continues with the remaining cards.

Flushes do not score during the play. They only count in the show. A run during pegging need not be in order — 5, 7, 6 scores a run of three.

4. The show

Players now count their hands, using the starter as a shared fifth card.

The non-dealer counts first, which matters enormously: they may cross 121 and win before the dealer counts at all.

Combination	Points
Each distinct set of cards totalling 15	2
Each pair	2
Each run of three or more	1 per card
Four-card flush in hand	4
Five-card flush including the starter	5
Jack matching the starter's suit — "his nob"	1

The dealer then counts their hand, then the crib.

Flushes in detail

This trips people up constantly.

• In hand: all four of your own cards the same suit scores 4. If the starter matches too, 5.
• In the crib: only a five-card flush counts. All four crib cards and the starter must match suit, for 5. A four-card crib flush scores nothing.
• During pegging: flushes never score.

5. Muggins — can you steal points?

Yes, if you are playing muggins.

If a player pegs fewer points than they're entitled to, in the play or in a hand or crib, the opponent may call "Muggins for X points" and peg the missed points themselves.

Under ACC rules (Rule 10):

• Muggins is "the only optional rule". A tournament must announce it in advance, and when it's on, everyone plays it. It can't be one-sided.
• It doesn't apply to a dealer who forgets to peg 2 for his heels, to missed penalties, or to points lost by pegging backward.
• There are time limits on calling it: during the play, before the scorer pegs again; for a hand or crib, before the cards are mixed back in.

Pegging too many points isn't muggins. It's simply corrected, and the corrections aren't penalties.

6. Winning

First to 121, which is twice around a standard board plus the finishing hole.

The ACC defines a skunk as winning by 31 or more points, so the loser is on 90 or below. In ACC tournament scoring a win counts 2 and a skunk 3. Hole 90 is the "stink hole", one short of avoiding a skunk. A double skunk, with the loser under 61, isn't in the ACC rules.

The game ends the instant someone pegs the winning point. There is no finishing the count.

7. The best hand

The maximum possible is 29: three fives and the Jack of the starter's suit, with the fourth five as the starter.

That breaks down as sixteen points of fifteens, twelve for four of a kind, and one for his nob.

8. Three and four players

Three players — deal five cards each, one directly to the crib, each player discards one. Play is individual.

Four players — two partnerships, deal five each, each discards one to the dealer's crib. Partners combine scores on one peg line.

Commonly argued

• A four-card flush scores in hand but not in the crib. The crib needs all five.
• Flushes never score during pegging.
• The non-dealer counts first, and can win before the dealer counts.
• Muggins is optional and must be agreed beforehand. When it's on, it applies to everyone.
• A skunk is a win by 31 or more, worth 3 game points to 2 in tournaments.
• Forgetting his heels can't be mugginsed.
• His heels is 2 for the dealer on cutting a Jack; his nob is 1 for holding the Jack of the starter's suit.
• A run during play need not be laid in order.