What Is Muggins in Cribbage?
Muggins is an optional cribbage rule that lets you claim points your opponent overlooked. If they count their hand as 10 when it was worth 12, you call "muggins" and peg the missed 2 points yourself. The American Cribbage Congress glossary defines it exactly that way: points missed in play or in counting can be taken by the opponent.
How the rule works
When your opponent finishes announcing a score, whether during pegging or when counting their hand or crib, you may point out anything they missed. Those points transfer to you and are pegged on your side of the board immediately. The count they announced stands for them; the difference is yours. Some American players call the rule cutthroat.
A worked example
Your opponent holds 7♣ 8♦ 8♠ K♥ with a starter of A♦ and announces "four" for the two fifteens (7♣+8♦ and 7♣+8♠). But the hand is worth 6: they missed the pair of eights. Call muggins and those 2 points are pegged on your side, not theirs. A classic muggins target is nobs, the suit-match jack that counting eyes skip right past.
Agree on it before the first deal
Because muggins punishes counting mistakes, it changes the temperature of a game. Casual players usually leave it off; traditional and competitive players often insist on it. Invoking muggins mid-game against someone who didn't know it was in play is how friendly games stop being friendly. Conventions worth settling up front:
- Does it apply to pegging mistakes, or only to hand counting?
- Must the claim be immediate, or can it wait until the next deal starts?
- Does it cover the crib as well as the hand?
Why it's the best training rule in the game
Muggins rewards exactly one skill: counting accurately under mild social pressure. A few games with it in force will make you check every fifteen, pair, and run, including your opponent's, which is precisely how counting becomes automatic.
The rule also gives its name to Muggins, our digital cribbage board for iPhone and iPad. It's a fitting name for an app whose whole job is keeping the score straight.
By the Nobs Cribbage team Last reviewed 2026-08-01