Cribbage Rules — How to Play and Keep Score
Cribbage is a card game with a board bolted on: you count points into combinations worth fifteen, into pairs, into runs, and you march pegs round a track of 121 holes. It is unusually well suited to an app because the arithmetic is fiddly, the counting order matters, and the game ends the instant somebody arrives rather than at the end of the deal.
Overview
Cribbage is a card game with a board bolted on: you count points into combinations worth fifteen, into pairs, into runs, and you march pegs round a track of 121 holes. It is unusually well suited to an app because the arithmetic is fiddly, the counting order matters, and the game ends the instant somebody arrives rather than at the end of the deal.
Setup
Two players, one standard deck, no jokers. Cut for the deal; low card deals first. Deal six cards each. Both players discard two face down to form the crib, which belongs to the dealer. The non-dealer cuts, the dealer turns the top card of the lower half, and that card is the starter. If the starter is a jack, the dealer immediately pegs two.
How to play
The non-dealer lays a card face up, calling its value. The dealer follows, and so on, each player adding to a running count that may not pass 31. Face cards count ten, aces count one. A player who cannot play without exceeding 31 says "go" and the other continues until they too are stuck. The count then resets to zero and play continues with the remaining cards.
Once all cards are played, hands are counted in a fixed order: non-dealer first, then dealer's hand, then the crib. That order is the reason the non-dealer can win a game they were losing on paper.
Scoring
During play (pegging). Bringing the count to exactly 15 scores 2. Bringing it to exactly 31 scores 2. Playing a card matching the previous one scores 2, a third of the same rank scores 6, a fourth scores 12. Completing a run of three or more with the most recent cards, in any order, scores one point per card in the run. The last card played in each sequence scores 1 unless it made exactly 31, which already paid 2.
Counting a hand. Take the four cards plus the starter and score:
- 2 points for every distinct combination of cards adding to fifteen, face cards counting ten.
- 2 points for every pair; a triple is three pairs and scores 6, four of a kind is six pairs and scores 12.
- 1 point per card for every distinct run of three, four or five.
- 4 points for four cards of the same suit in hand, or 5 if the starter matches too. A crib only scores a flush if all five cards share a suit.
- 1 point for holding the jack of the starter's suit.
The best possible hand is 29: three fives and the jack of the fourth suit, with the starter being the fifth of that jack's suit. That is eight fifteens for 16, four of a kind for 12, and one for the jack. There is no hand worth 19, which is why "nineteen" is the traditional joke for a worthless hand.
Enter one number per deal per side: pegging plus hand, and for the dealer plus the crib.
Ending the game
The first side to reach 121 wins the moment they get there, even in the middle of counting a hand. Nothing after that counts. If the loser is still under 91 it is a skunk; under 61 is a double skunk.
Common variations
Muggins is the most commonly argued-about option and should be settled before dealing. Five-card crib shortens everything and gives the non-dealer three points for last. Some clubs play a fixed number of deals instead of a target and simply compare totals.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | First to target |
|---|---|
| Played to | 121 points by default |
| Score sheet | One number per player per round, with a running total |
| Typical round score | 0 – 29 |
| Negative scores | Never — scores only go up |
| Worth knowing | Enter what a side scored across the whole deal — pegging during play, then the hand, plus the crib for the dealer. A single hand can never exceed 29, but a dealer's full deal can reach the high thirties. |
Cribbage — score sheet
Worked example
Settings: default — targetScore: 121, dealSize: sixCard, gamesPerMatch: 1.
Two players: Anna and Ben. One number per side per deal — pegging, then the hand,
plus the crib for whoever dealt.
| Deal | Anna | Ben | Anna total | Ben total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 | 9 | 16 | 9 |
| 2 | 8 | 14 | 24 | 23 |
| 3 | 21 | 6 | 45 | 29 |
| 4 | 11 | 17 | 56 | 46 |
| 5 | 19 | 8 | 75 | 54 |
| 6 | 10 | 12 | 85 | 66 |
| 7 | 24 | 7 | 109 | 73 |
| 8 | 7 | 15 | 116 | 88 |
| 9 | 5 | 0 | 121 | 88 |
Expected standings: Anna 121, rank 1 — winner; Ben 88, rank 2.
finished: true. One deal earlier Anna is on 116 and the game is still live.
Three things this is built to catch:
The last entry lands on 121, not past it. Anna started deal 9 on 116 and pegged five to get home. Her hand and her crib were worth more than that, and none of it counts — the game ended the moment the peg went into the last hole, mid-count. A sheet whose winning entry is the whole deal's value overshoots the target, and while the app still ends the game correctly, the holes-remaining row goes negative, which is the tell that the table recorded a deal the game never finished.
Ben's 0 in deal 9 is a real entry. He pegged nothing during play and never got to count, because Anna went out first. An empty cell would mean the deal has not been recorded yet; a 0 means it has, and it was worth nothing. Cribbage produces more genuine zeros than most games in the catalogue, because the non-dealer counts first and the game can end before the other side speaks.
A skunk is a reading of the totals, not a score of its own. Ben finished on 88, under the 91 line, so Anna took it by a skunk — normally worth two games in a series. There is no skunk column and no skunk points: there is a final number and a threshold the table agreed beforehand.
The target is the whole ending. Set it to 61 — once round the board instead of twice — and this identical sheet finishes at deal 5, with Anna on 75.
Under gamesPerMatch: 3 the totals row changes meaning: playing this game twice
gives Anna a total of 2, which is games won, not holes pegged.
House rules and settings
Every table plays Cribbage a little differently. These are the 9 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Play to: what is the default in Cribbage?
The number of holes on the board. 121 is twice round a standard board and is the normal game; 61 is once round and takes about half as long.
Default: 121. Adjustable from 31 to 181 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Play to”.
Cards dealt: what are the options in Cribbage?
Six-card is the modern standard: six cards each, two discarded to the crib, four kept. Five-card is the older English game with three cards kept and a shorter target.
Default: Six-card crib. Two options:
In the app: “Cards dealt”.
Three for last: on or off in Cribbage?
In five-card crib only, the non-dealer is given three points at the very start of the game to offset the dealer's advantage. Ignored in six-card play.
Default: on.
In the app: “Three for last”.
Muggins: on or off in Cribbage?
If a player counts their own hand short and misses points, an opponent may claim the missed points for themselves. It must be agreed before the first deal, and it makes the game noticeably sharper.
Default: off.
In the app: “Muggins”.
Partnerships: on or off in Cribbage?
With four players, sit in two pairs facing each other and keep one score per pair rather than per person.
Default: off.
In the app: “Partnerships”.
Track skunks: on or off in Cribbage?
Records how badly the loser was beaten. Useful when a session is scored as a series of games rather than one.
Default: on.
In the app: “Track skunks”.
Skunk if loser is under: what is the default in Cribbage?
Finishing while the opponent is still below this figure counts as a skunk, normally worth two games instead of one.
Default: 91. Adjustable from 0 to 180 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Skunk if loser is under”.
Double skunk if loser is under: what is the default in Cribbage?
An even heavier defeat, normally worth three or four games depending on the local convention.
Default: 61. Adjustable from 0 to 180 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Double skunk if loser is under”.
Games in the match: what is the default in Cribbage?
Play a single game, or a best-of series. Odd numbers avoid drawn matches.
Default: 1. Adjustable from 1 to 9 in steps of 2.
In the app: “Games in the match”.
Variants of Cribbage
Five-card cribbage
The original English game. Five cards each, two to the crib, a three-card hand and a target of 61. The non-dealer pegs three for last at the start.
Three-handed crib
Five cards each and one dealt straight into the crib to make it up to four. Everyone scores for themselves.
Four-handed partnership
Two pairs, five cards each, one discard each into the crib. Partners share a peg and may not advise each other during play.
Cribbage is also known as
Crib, Noddy, Pegging. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.
Coming to the App Store.