Who Counts First in Cribbage?

The non-dealer counts first in cribbage. At the show, the order is fixed: the non-dealer's hand, then the dealer's hand, then the crib, always with the dealer last. The order matters because the first player to reach 121 wins on the spot, even partway through the counting.

What is the counting order at the show?

Whatever the number of players, the show always ends with the dealer. The crib belongs to the dealer and is counted after the dealer's own hand, never before it.

Counting last is the price the dealer pays for owning the crib. In a tight finish, that price can be the whole game.

How does the show run, step by step?

1. The play phase ends. The last card of the play is laid and its point is pegged, and no more cards are played.
2. The non-dealer counts. The pone counts their hand aloud, with the starter card counting as a fifth card, and pegs the total.
3. The dealer counts their hand. The dealer scores their own four cards with the same starter and pegs that total.
4. The dealer counts the crib. The dealer turns the crib face up and counts it, again with the starter, and pegs those points too.
5. The deal passes. The other player deals the next hand, so the counting order swaps with the roles.

Why does counting first decide close games?

Say the dealer sits at 118 points and the pone at 117, and the play ends with neither player pegging out. The pone's hand is a modest 6 points, but it counts first: 117 + 6 = 123, past the winning hole, so the pone wins the moment those points are pegged. The dealer's 12-point hand and 8-point crib are never counted at all.

Nothing special is happening in that finish. It is just the ordinary counting order combined with the rule that the game ends the instant anyone reaches or passes 121, in any phase. Close endgames are decided this way constantly, which is why players track who will count first before the deal even starts.

Who counts first with three or four players?

With three or four players the principle is the same: the show starts at the dealer's left, moves around the table, and ends with the dealer's hand and then the crib. In the three-player game the player at the dealer's left also cuts for the starter and leads the play, so that seat carries all of the pone's jobs for the hand.

Four-handed cribbage is a partnership game, with partners sitting opposite each other and one member of each side doing the pegging. The counting still goes around the table from the dealer's left, and the dealer still counts last. The full deal, crib, and turn rules for both forms are at 3 and 4 player cribbage.

What happens if someone miscounts?

The two directions of mistake are treated differently. A player who announces less than the hand is worth loses nothing by default; only where the table plays the optional muggins rule can the opponent claim the missed points and peg them. A player who pegs more than the hand is worth faces a standard remedy: the peg comes back to where it belongs, and the opponent receives the difference.

Muggins works from the announced score, which is one reason cribbage hands are counted out loud rather than silently. An overpeg is corrected from the board itself, by where the peg actually sits against the points earned.

Is there an order for counting inside your hand?

No rule sets one. The familiar spoken sequence, fifteens first, then pairs, runs, the flush, and nobs, is a table convention; no rule authority mandates how a hand must be announced. What the rules care about is the total you peg, not the route you took to it.

The convention survives because a fixed routine is easy to follow at speed. For the combinations themselves and a fully worked count, see how to score a hand.

By the Nobs Cribbage team Last reviewed 2026-08-02