What Does Pone Mean in Cribbage?
The pone is the non-dealer in a hand of cribbage; that is the American Cribbage Congress's own one-line definition of the term. In a two-player game, whoever is not dealing is the pone for that hand, and the role passes back and forth with the deal.
What the pone actually does
The pone has three jobs in every hand:
- Cuts the deck after the discard, and the dealer turns the top card as the starter.
- Leads the play: the pone lays the first card of the pegging phase.
- Counts first: when the play ends, the pone's hand is scored before the dealer's hand and crib.
The word is often explained as an old contraction of "opponent," though no rulebook settles the etymology.
Why counting first decides close games
The counting order is the pone's real weapon at the end of a game. Both players might have enough points on the table to reach 121, but points don't count until they're pegged, and the pone pegs first, ahead of the dealer's hand and crib.
Say the score is dealer 117, pone 116, neither pegs out during the play, and both hold hands worth 8. The dealer has more total scoring coming (hand plus crib), but it never matters: the pone counts first, pegs out at 121, and wins on the spot. Whole endgame strategies (playing on or playing off in the pegging) hinge on knowing whether you'll count first next hand.
Three-player note
With three players, the term still means the non-dealer who leads and counts first: by convention, the player to the dealer's left. Two-player is where you'll hear it most, because there the pone is simply "the other player."
If you're playing at a table with real cards, this counting order is exactly the ritual the Muggins board app leaves untouched: you count, it pegs.
By the Nobs Cribbage team Last reviewed 2026-08-01