How to Play Cribbage

What do you need to play cribbage?

To play cribbage, you need:

• 2 players
• A standard 52-card deck
• A cribbage board

This guide focuses on two-player cribbage. Rules for playing with three or four players are covered at the end.

What is a cribbage board?

The cribbage board is simply a way to keep track of the score.

Each player uses two pegs. When you score points, you move your back peg ahead of your front peg. The two pegs "leapfrog" each other as you move around the board.

Using two pegs makes it easy to see both your old score and your new score.

If you do not have a cribbage board, you can also use a cribbage scoring app such as Muggins.

Prefer paper at the table? The one-page printable cribbage board game rules card (PDF) takes one deal from shuffle to show in six steps.

How to determine who deals first in cribbage

At the start of a game, each player draws a card from a shuffled deck. The player who draws the lowest card deals first. Aces are low.

After the first round, players take turns being the dealer.

If you play another game, one common convention is that the loser of the previous game deals first.

How a round of cribbage works

Each round of cribbage follows the same basic steps.

1. Deal six cards to each player

The dealer gives each player six cards. Cards are dealt one at a time, alternating between players. Each player should now have six cards in their hand.

2. Each player discards two cards to the crib

Each player chooses two cards from their hand and discards them face down into the crib, this leaves each player with four cards.

The crib is a separate hand that belongs to the dealer, the dealer gets to score the crib at the end of the round.

Choosing which cards to keep and which cards to put in the crib is one of the most important parts of cribbage strategy. Generally, if you're not the dealer, you want to avoid discarding cards that will give the dealer points.

3. Cut the starter card

After both players have put two cards into the crib, the non-dealer cuts the deck. The dealer then turns over the top card from the bottom part of the deck. This card is called the starter card.

The starter card acts as a fifth card when players score their hands during the counting phase.

If the starter card is a Jack, the dealer immediately scores 2 points. This is sometimes called his heels.

4. Play the pegging round

Next is the pegging round, players take turns playing cards from their hand. The non-dealer starts.

As each card is played, you keep a running total. Aces count as 1, numbered cards count at face value, and face cards all count as 10.

For example:

• Player 1 plays a 7. The count is 7.
• Player 2 plays a 5. The count is 12.
• Player 1 plays a 3. The count is 15.

The count can never go higher than 31. If you can't play without going over 31, you say Go. The other player keeps playing cards until they can no longer make any legal moves. When they can't play either, they earn 1 point for playing the last card (2 points if that card makes the count exactly 31). The count then resets to zero and the player who said Go leads the next card.

During pegging, players can score points for playing cards that make the count exactly 15 or 31, playing pairs, or making runs.

Go, last card, and 31 are one score, not three: whoever plays the last card of a sequence gets 1 point, or 2 if that card lands exactly on 31.

Once all eight cards have been played, it is time to count the hands.

5. Count the hands

After pegging, players score the four cards they kept. The starter card is added to each hand when scoring. That means you are looking for points using a total of five cards.

Hands are always counted in this order:

• The non-dealer counts their hand.
• The dealer counts their hand.
• The dealer counts the crib.

There are five main ways to score points when counting a hand:

6. Switch dealers and do it all over again

The other player becomes the dealer, they deal six cards to each player, and the process starts again.

So the basic order of every round is:

Deal → Discard to the crib → Reveal the starter → Peg → Count the hands → Count the crib → Switch dealers.

Players continue taking turns dealing and scoring rounds until someone reaches 121 points and wins the game.

How do you win a game of cribbage?

The first player to reach 121 points wins. It doesn't matter what phase of the round you're in, the game ends immediately once a player gets 121 points.

If the winner reaches 121 points before the other player reaches 91 points, the losing player has been skunked. If the losing player has less than 61 points, this is called a double skunk.

What do beginners get wrong in cribbage?

The starter card is used by both players

The starter card is not part of either player's four-card hand but both players use it as a fifth card when counting their hands. The dealer also uses it when counting the crib.

You can use the same card more than once when counting

A card can be part of several different scoring combinations. For example, the same 5 might be part of a pair, a run, and one or more combinations that add up to 15.

Runs during pegging do not need to be played in order

A sequence such as 4 → 6 → 5 still makes a three-card run.

You cannot play a card that takes the count over 31

If the count is 28 and your lowest card is a 4, you can't play it. You must say "go."

The non-dealer counts first

After pegging, the non-dealer always counts their hand first. This is really important because the game ends as soon as someone reaches 121 so the counting order matters.

The crib belongs to the dealer

Both players add two cards to the crib, but only the dealer gets to score it.

How to play cribbage with 3 players

Three-player cribbage is very similar to the two-player game. Each player is dealt five cards instead of six and discards one card into the crib instead of two. The dealer also adds one extra card from the deck to make a four-card crib.

The player to the dealer's left begins pegging.

After pegging, players count their hands starting with the player to the dealer's left. The dealer counts their hand last and then counts the crib.

Dealer duties continue moving clockwise around the table.

The first player to reach 121 points wins. The full rules are at 3 and 4 player cribbage.

How to play cribbage with 4 players

Four-player cribbage is usually played with two teams of two. Partners sit across from each other and share a score.

Each player is dealt five cards and puts one card into the crib, creating the four-card crib for the dealer. Each player keeps four cards.

Play moves clockwise, beginning with the player to the dealer's left. Partners add their points to the same score on the cribbage board.

The first team to reach 121 points wins.

Cribbage is easier once you play a few rounds

Cribbage can seem complicated because of all the phases and different ways to score but it's genuinely not a complicated game.

The basic flow of the game is simple:

Get six cards. Put two in the crib. Peg your cards. Count your hand. Then do it again.

You do not need to memorize every scoring rule before your first game. After a few rounds, common scores like fifteens, pairs, and runs become much easier to spot.

That's all you need to know to play cribbage. You can practice a few rounds by playing one of our bots online.