Cribbage
The classic two-hander, and the one game where the arithmetic is the game. Here the server does the counting, so you can learn the scoring by watching it happen rather than by memorising it first.
The rules
- Each player is dealt six cards from a standard 52-card pack.
- Both players lay two cards away into the crib, a fifth hand that belongs to the dealer and is counted at the end of the deal.
- One more card is cut and turned face up. This is the starter, and it counts towards both hands and the crib. If it is a jack the dealer scores two at once, called his heels.
- The non-dealer leads the play. Take turns laying a card face up and calling the running total.
- Nobody may take the total past 31. If you cannot lay without going over, you say go and your opponent lays on while they can.
- When neither can lay, the count resets to nothing and play continues with the cards still in hand, until every card has been laid.
- The hands are then counted against the starter: each player counts their own four cards, and the dealer counts the crib as a second hand.
- The deal alternates, so the crib changes hands every deal.
Scoring during the play
- Taking the total to exactly fifteen scores 2.
- Taking it to exactly 31 scores 2.
- Laying a card of the same rank as the one before scores 2. A third of that rank scores 6, and a fourth scores 12.
- Completing a run of three with the cards just laid scores 3, a run of four scores 4, and so on up to 7. The cards need not have been laid in order.
- The last card laid before a go, and the last card of the deal, scores 1.
Scoring the hands and the crib
- Every distinct combination of cards adding to fifteen scores 2. Court cards count ten and an ace counts one.
- Every pair scores 2, so three of a kind is 6 and four of a kind is 12.
- A run scores one for each card in it, and every distinct run counts separately: a double run of three is 6.
- Four cards of one suit in your hand score 4, and 5 if the starter matches as well. The crib only scores a flush of five.
- A jack in hand of the same suit as the starter scores 1, called one for his nob.
How a game ends
- The first player to 121 wins, and the game stops the moment somebody reaches it.
- A resignation ends the game at once and the other player wins.
- A missed move deadline is a loss, exactly like resigning.
Cribbage is scored in points and in nothing else. There is no stake and nothing to win but the game, and the server counts every hand for you, so a score you did not spot is still a score you get.
Cribbage terms
- The crib
- The fifth hand, made from the two cards each player lays away. It belongs to the dealer and is counted last.
- The starter
- The card cut and turned face up before the play. It counts towards every hand, including the crib.
- Pegging
- The play phase, where cards are laid one at a time to a running total and scored as they go. Named for the pegs that mark the score on a cribbage board.
- A go
- What you say when you cannot lay a card without taking the total past 31.
- His heels
- A jack turned as the starter, worth 2 to the dealer immediately.
- His nob
- A jack in your hand matching the starter's suit, worth 1 when the hand is counted.