Cribbage scoring rules
Cribbage is a race to 121 points, pegged around a board. Points come in twice per hand: once while the cards are being played, and once when hands are counted out afterwards.
The dealer also scores a fourth hand — the crib — made of the cards everyone discarded, which is why the deal is worth having.
Keep score while you read
During the play
Players alternate laying cards face up, calling the running total. The total may not pass 31.
- Making the total exactly 15: 2 points.
- Making it exactly 31: 2 points.
- Playing a card that matches the last one: 2 for a pair, 6 for three of a kind, 12 for four.
- Completing a run of three or more, in any order: 1 point per card.
- Your opponent cannot play without passing 31: you take 1 for the go. The last card played also scores 1.
The show
Each hand is then counted with the turned-up starter card as a fifth card, every combination counting separately.
- Every distinct set of cards adding to 15: 2 points each.
- Every pair: 2 points — three of a kind is three pairs, so 6, and four of a kind is 12.
- Every run of three or more: 1 point per card.
- Four cards of one suit in hand: 4 points, 5 with the starter. A flush in the crib only counts at five cards.
- Holding the jack of the starter's suit — his nobs: 1 point.
His heels and the order of counting
If the starter card is a jack, the dealer takes 2 immediately — his heels. Counting then goes non-dealer first, dealer second, crib last, and that order decides close games: a player who pegs out mid-count wins before the other hand is ever counted.
Frequently asked questions
29 points: three fives and the jack of the fourth suit, with the fourth five turned as the starter. Eight fifteens, six pairs from the four fives, and one for nobs.
121, twice round a standard board. A shorter game to 61 — once round — is common. Finishing more than 30 points ahead is a skunk.
During the play, no: 5-7-6 is a run of three and scores 3. In the show, order never matters at all — only which cards you hold.
The dealer, always. Both players discard two cards into it, so the non-dealer has to throw away cards without helping a hand they will not score.