How to Play Cribbage

A standard 52-card deck and a board. The board is not decoration — cribbage is scored in ones and twos, dozens of times a hand, and no one keeps that on paper. Each side has 121 holes, usually laid out as two streets of 60 that double back, plus a game hole at the end. You use two pegs: move the back one ahead of the front one by whatever you just scored, so the gap always shows your last count. That is exactly how the board on this page behaves.

• Aces count 1. Twos to tens count their face value. Jack, queen and king all count ten.
• Ace is low for runs: A-2-3 is a run, Q-K-A is not.
• Rank decides pairs and runs; the ten-count only decides fifteens and the running total.
• The dealer's crib is a real fifth hand, not a discard pile — it is counted like any other.

Take your four cards and the starter and count them in a fixed order, so you never miss anything: fifteens, then pairs, then runs, then flush, then his nobs. Say it out loud the way everyone does — "fifteen two, fifteen four, and a pair is six" — because the running phrase is what stops you double-counting.

1. 1Fifteens, 2 eachEvery combination of two or more cards that adds to exactly fifteen. Two cards, three cards, four, all five — each one is 2. Four fives and a jack holds eight of them: each five with the jack is four, and each way of taking three of the four fives is another four.
2. 2Pairs, 2 eachEvery pair of matching ranks. Three of a kind contains three pairs and is therefore 6; four of a kind contains six pairs and is 12.
3. 3Runs, their own lengthThree or more consecutive ranks, 3 for three, 4 for four, 5 for five. If a rank in the run is duplicated, multiply: 4-5-5-6 is two runs of three, worth 6, plus 2 for the pair.
4. 4Flush, 4 or 5All four cards in hand of one suit is 4, and 5 if the starter matches too. In the crib only the five-card flush counts; four of a suit there is nothing.
5. 5His nobs, 1A jack in your hand whose suit matches the starter. The starter itself being a jack is a different score — his heels, 2, and only for the dealer.

The non-dealer lays a card and says its value. The dealer lays one and says the new total. You alternate, and the total may never pass thirty-one. If you hold any card that still fits, you have to play it — you cannot hold one back. Score as the count grows: 2 for hitting fifteen, 2 for hitting thirty-one, 2 for pairing the card just laid, 6 for a third of that rank, 12 for a fourth, and the length of any run of three or more made by the cards laid since the count last reset. Runs there do not care about order, so 7-9-8 is a run of three.

When the player to lay has nothing small enough they say go, and the other plays on alone for as long as they can. The last player to lay a card takes 1 for the go — or 2 if that card made exactly thirty-one, which replaces it. The count then goes back to nought, the player who said go leads, and you carry on with whatever is left. When both hands are empty the last card laid is worth 1, and you go to the show.

It is worth walking through once, because it is the hand every player wants and the counting order makes it easy. You hold the jack of diamonds and the five of spades, five of hearts and five of clubs; the starter is the five of diamonds.

• Fifteens, 16. Each five with the jack is fifteen — that is four. Each group of three fives is fifteen — there are four ways to pick three from four. Eight fifteens, 2 apiece.
• Pairs, 12. Four fives contain six pairs.
• Runs, 0. Nothing consecutive.
• Flush, 0. Three suits among the fives.
• His nobs, 1. The jack of diamonds matches the diamond starter.
• Total, 29. Sixteen plus twelve plus one.

Change the jack to a king and you have 28 instead: the same eight fifteens and six pairs, but no nobs. Both are on the table here — deal enough hands and the board will pay them correctly, including the case where hitting 121 part-way through the count ends the game on the spot.