A fifth hand made from the two cards each player discards at the start. It belongs to the dealer, who counts it after both players have counted their own hands — so the discard is always a choice between helping yourself and helping your opponent.

Why is the five so important?

Sixteen cards in the deck count as ten — the tens and all three face cards — and every one of them makes fifteen with a five. That gives the five more scoring potential than any other rank, which is why you keep them and never throw them into your opponent’s crib.

How do you score during the play?

You peg as you go: 2 for making the total exactly fifteen or exactly thirty-one, 2 for a pair, 6 for three of a kind, 12 for four, and one point per card for completing a run of three or more. You also get 1 point when your opponent says go.

One point for holding the jack of the same suit as the starter card. It is a small bonus but it decides a surprising number of close games.

How many points do you need to win?

121, pegged twice around a standard board. The game ends the instant someone reaches it, which is why pegging one or two points during the play can matter more than holding a big hand you never get to count.

Winning while your opponent is still under 91 — a margin of thirty or more. A double skunk is winning while they are under 61. Both are traditionally counted as extra games in tournament and match play.

Cribbage

Cribbage is nearly four hundred years old and still the best two-player card game in English. It is scored so frequently that it needs its own board, and almost every hand contains a decision that a good player makes differently from a bad one.

Choose two cards for the crib, then alternate playing cards up to thirty-one. Scores peg automatically.

Players	2
Deck	One standard 52-card deck, six cards each
Play time	15–25 minutes to 121
Difficulty	Steep scoring to learn, then very deep

How to play Cribbage

Each player is dealt six cards. Both then choose two to discard face down into the crib — a separate four-card hand that belongs to the dealer and is counted at the end. This is the first and most important decision of every hand: you are helping your own crib or feeding your opponent's.

The non-dealer then cuts the deck and the top card is turned as the starter. It counts as a fifth card for both hands and for the crib. If it is a jack, the dealer immediately pegs 2 — traditionally called his heels.

The play (pegging)

Players alternate laying cards face up in front of themselves, announcing a running total. Face cards count 10, aces count 1. The total may not exceed 31. Score as you go:

Making the total exactly 15 — 2 points. Making exactly 31 — 2 points.
Playing a card matching the last one — a pair, 2 points; a third of the same rank, 6; a fourth, 12.
Completing a run of three or more consecutive ranks with the cards just played — 1 point per card, regardless of suit.
If your opponent cannot play without exceeding 31 they say go and you peg 1, then continue alone if you can.

When 31 is reached or neither player can go, the count resets to zero and play continues with the remaining cards.

The show (counting)

Now each player counts their four cards plus the starter, non-dealer first. Every distinct combination scores:

Any set of cards totalling fifteen — 2 points each, and they can overlap freely.
Pairs — 2 each; three of a kind is really three pairs, so 6; four of a kind is six pairs, so 12.
Runs of three or more — 1 point per card, counted for every distinct combination.
Flush — 4 for four cards of one suit in hand, 5 if the starter matches. The crib only scores a flush with all five.
Nobs — 1 point for holding the jack of the starter's suit.

The dealer then counts the crib the same way. Deal alternates. First to 121 wins, and the game ends the moment someone pegs it.

Strategy

Cribbage rewards two things: knowing what a hand is worth before you discard, and knowing which cards are dangerous to lead.

Fives are the most valuable cards in the deck

There are sixteen cards worth ten in a deck — tens, jacks, queens, kings — and every one of them makes fifteen with a five. That makes fives worth far more than their rank suggests, and it makes discarding one to your opponent's crib close to a gift. Keep them; and when your opponent's crib is waiting, throw almost anything else.

Discard according to whose crib it is

This is the habit that separates players immediately. With your own crib, throw cards that work together — a five, a pair, two cards three apart. With your opponent's crib, break up your own useful combinations if you must and throw isolated, unconnected low cards. A king and a four have almost no chance of helping them.

Do not lead a five

Leading a five invites your opponent to play a ten-card for fifteen and 2 points. The conventional lead is a four or a low card that keeps the total awkward. Similarly, avoid leaving the count on 21, where any ten-card makes 31.

Count your hand before you commit to the discard

New players choose their crib cards by what looks least useful. Better players count both candidate hands. A hand of 6-7-8 with a pair somewhere often scores more than a hand full of tens, and the arithmetic is worth doing every time rather than trusting the shape of the cards.

Play the board near the end

Cribbage is won by pegging out, not by having the better hand. Once you are within twenty points of 121, count what you need and take the sure two points from a pair rather than protecting a bigger hand you may never get to count. The dealer counts last, which means a non-dealer close to the target should be taking every immediate point available.

Variants

Three-handed Cribbage — five cards each, one to the crib from each player plus one dealt straight in, and a triangular board.
Four-handed partnership — the usual form in clubs and pubs, played in pairs with partners' scores combined.
Five-card Cribbage — the original English game, played to 61 with five-card hands and a two-card crib. Shorter and much tighter.
Muggins — if you undercount your own hand, your opponent may claim the points you missed. Standard in serious play and rarely popular with beginners.
Lowball Cribbage — the first player to 121 loses, which inverts every discard decision.

Where Cribbage came from

Cribbage has an unusually precise origin. It is credited to Sir John Suckling, an English poet and notorious gambler of the 1630s, who is generally held to have developed it from an older game called Noddy — which already had a scoring board and the fifteen-count, but no crib. Suckling's innovation was the crib itself: the extra hand belonging to the dealer, which is what gives the game its asymmetry and most of its strategy.

It spread with English sailors and became firmly established in the Royal Navy, where it acquired the distinction of being the only card game legally permitted to be played for money in a British pub without a gaming licence. It travelled to New England early and remains strongest in the northern United States and Atlantic Canada. David Parlett covers the Noddy lineage in his history of card games, and the American Cribbage Congress has run tournament play since the 1980s. The board itself — 120 holes plus a game hole — is not decoration: the scoring happens too often and too fast to be recorded any other way.

Questions people ask about Cribbage

What is the crib?: A fifth hand made from the two cards each player discards at the start. It belongs to the dealer, who counts it after both players have counted their own hands — so the discard is always a choice between helping yourself and helping your opponent.
Why is the five so important?: Sixteen cards in the deck count as ten — the tens and all three face cards — and every one of them makes fifteen with a five. That gives the five more scoring potential than any other rank, which is why you keep them and never throw them into your opponent’s crib.
How do you score during the play?: You peg as you go: 2 for making the total exactly fifteen or exactly thirty-one, 2 for a pair, 6 for three of a kind, 12 for four, and one point per card for completing a run of three or more. You also get 1 point when your opponent says go.
What is nobs?: One point for holding the jack of the same suit as the starter card. It is a small bonus but it decides a surprising number of close games.
How many points do you need to win?: 121, pegged twice around a standard board. The game ends the instant someone reaches it, which is why pegging one or two points during the play can matter more than holding a big hand you never get to count.
What is a skunk?: Winning while your opponent is still under 91 — a margin of thirty or more. A double skunk is winning while they are under 61. Both are traditionally counted as extra games in tournament and match play.