Cribbage Rules
Objective
The objective in Cribbage is to be the first player to get 121 points. The gameplay is divided into three distinct parts, The Deal, The Play and The Show. Each part is explained in detail below.
Cribbage flush If the four cards in your hand are of the same suit, you score four for a flush (a cribbage flush, unlike in poker, doesn't beat three of a kind!). If the starter card is also of the same suit, you score five. However, in the crib you cannot score a four-card flush; all five must be the same suit. Oct 25, 2012 The typical crib doesn’t have as many points as the typical hand, so this next chart looks a lot different. You can score more than 16 points in a crib, but we left those bars off because those scores happen so rarely that you wouldn’t be able to see them. Only about 1 in 1,000 cribs scores more than 16 points. # points in crib.
This version of Cribbage is for two players, there are many other variations possible, but these rules are only for the variation we've chosen for this site. There are a lot of rules, I've tried to explain them as best I can here, but you can also look at the rules at www.pagat.com or at Cribbage Corner, both of those are good places to learn how Cribbage works.
The Deal
The game starts with both players drawing a card from the deck to find out who is the dealer. The person that gets the lower card is the dealer. If the players draw equal cards then they draw again until the dealer can be determined. This way of determining the dealer is only done in the first round, in subsequent rounds who is the dealer will alternate between the two players.
The dealer deals 6 cards to himself and 6 cards to the opponent. Each player then chooses two cards from their hand to put face down into the crib. The crib belongs to the dealer and is used at the end of the round to gain extra points. Which cards you choose to put in the crib is very important, as it affects how many points you can get in later parts of the game.
At this point each player has four cards in their hand, and the Crib has four cards. The deck of cards is then put to the side, and the non-dealer (also called a pone) cuts the deck and then reveals the top card. This card is referred to as the starter or the cut. If the starter is a Jack then the dealer immediately scores 2 points. This is known as Two for his heels. Once the starter card has been shown, the players are ready to proceed to the next part of the game.
Cribbage Flush In The Crib Set
The Play
The pone (the player who is not the dealer) starts by laying down a card on the table and announcing its value, e.g. lays down a 6 and announces 'Six'. The dealer then lays down a card and announces the cumulative value of the cards on the table, e.g. he lays down a 5 and announces 'Eleven'. This continues with the players laying down one card each until a player cannot lay down another card without the cumulative value going over 31. The player then says 'Go' and the other player can then continue to lay down his cards until he also can't lay down a card without going over 31. He then says 'Go' as well, and the player who laid down the last card will score 1 point if the total value is under 31 but 2 points if the value on the table is exactly 31. They then reset the count to 0 and continue with their remaining cards, starting with the player who did not lay down the last card. An ace is counted as 1, face cards are counted as 10 and other cards are their normal value.
During this phase there are several ways to score points, based on how you lay down your cards. Points are scored as you lay down your cards, e.g. if your opponent has just laid down a 4 and then you lay down another 4 on top of it then you will score a pair. The starter/cut card is not used at all in this part of the game.
Players always announce the cumulative value of the cards on the table when they lay down a new card. If they score points they will announce the points as well, e.g. 15 for 2, or 31 for 2. When a player has said 'Go' then the other player will say '1 for the Go' when he's claiming the point from laying down the last card. He might also say '1 for last', if the other player has not laid down any cards since the value was last reset. 1 for the Go or 1 for last are just different ways of announcing the same thing, that the player gets 1 point because he laid down the last card under 31.
Scoring during The Play
- Fifteen: For adding a card that makes the total 15, score 2 points.
- Pair: For adding a card of the same rank as the card just played, score 2 points.
- Pair Royal (Three of a kind): For adding a card of the same rank as the last two cards, score 6.
- Double Pair Royal (Four of a kind): For adding a card of the same rank as the last 3 cards, score 12.
- Run (sequence) of three or more cards: Score 1 point for each card in the sequence. The cards do not need to be in order, but they do need to be all together. E.g. H2 C8 D6 H7 S5 is a 4 card sequence because C8 D6 H7 S5 can be re-arranged into S5 D6 H7 C8, but H2 C5 C7 D7 S6 is not a sequence because the extra 7 in the middle breaks up the sequence of 5-6-7. Basically if you can take n cards that are in order and re-arrange them so all the n cards form a numerical sequence then it's a sequence.
- Last card, total value less than 31: Score 1 point.
- Last card, total value exactly 31: Score 2 points.
It's worth noting that even though all face cards count as 10, you cannot create a pair, pair royal or double pair royal with cards unless they have the same 'real' rank. E.g. two queens are a pair, a queen and a king aren't, even though they are both valued at 10. For sequences an ace is always low, you can't make a sequence with a king and an ace next to each other.
It's also worth noting that you can make points in many ways with the same cards. E.g. if the cards on the table are DA C7 and you lay down H7 you will get 2 points because 1+7+7=15 and 2 points because 7+7 is a pair of sevens. So, in that case you would announce 'Fifteen for 4'.
This part of the game continues until both players have played all their cards. The scores are updated as soon as a player gets points, and if a player reaches the target score, 121, the game is finished immediately.
The Show
Once The Play is finished, the players take back their cards from the table and it's time to calculate the score for their hands, and the crib. These are always scored in the same order: pone's hand, dealer's hand, dealer's crib. As before, the scores are added to the scoreboard as soon as they are calculated, and if a player reaches 121 the game is over immediately, the other player doesn't get to count his score. This means that there's no chance of a tie, or both players going over 121 in the same round. The dealer will normally get more points since he scores both his hand and the crib, but the pone scores his hand first, so if they're both close to 121 the pone might win, even though the dealer would have gotten more points if he were allowed to count them.
The Show Scoring
How To Get A Flush In Cribbage
The scoring for The Show is similar to the scoring for The Play, but with some important differences. The starter card is used here with both hands and the crib, so a hand is the hand + the starter, and the crib is the crib + the starter. You can use the same card for many different combinations, e.g. it can be part of a pair and also part of a sequence.
- One for his nob: For having the jack of the same suit as the starter, score 1 point. E.g. starter is H4, you have HJ.
- Fifteen: Any combination of cards that sum to 15. You can re-use cards, so if you have HJ, SJ and C5 you get 2 points for HJ C5 and another 2 points for SJ C5.
- Pair: For any pair of cards, e.g. SQ DQ, score 2 points.
- Pair Royal (Three of a kind): For any three cards of the same rank, e.g. S8 C8 H8, score 6 points.
- Double Pair Royal (Four of a kind): For any four cards of the same rank, e.g. HA SA DA CA, score 12 points.
- Run (sequence) of three or more cards: Score 1 point for each card in the sequence. E.g. for SA H2 C3 D4, score 4 points.
- Flush, 4 cards: If all the cards in your hand are of the same suit, e.g. SA S5 S9 SJ, score 4 points. These four cards all have to be in your hand, you cannot have three cards in your hand + the starter count as a flush. A 4 card flush also can't be used for the crib, only for your hand.
- Flush, 5 cards: If all the cards in your hand, and the starter card, are of the same suit, e.g. SA S5 S9 SJ SQ, score 5 points. You can also get a 5 card flush for your crib, if all the cards in the crib and the starter are of the same suit.
Skunks and Double Skunks
A skunk is when a player wins by over 30 points, his opponent has less than 91 points when the game is over. A double skunk is when a player wins by over 60 points, the opponent has less than 61 points. Normally a skunk will count as two games and a double skunk as 3. However, on this site we're not playing multiple games, we only track each game individually. We will however show you an image of a skunk or two if you get a skunk, and we do keep track of skunk counts for the statistics page.
Variations
As with every game, there are slight variations in how people play Cribbage. I've tried to look at many sources and pick the most 'standard' rules I could. Some common variations is that the next-to-last hole on the scoreboard is the 'stinkhole' and not all points count there. I'm not using that variation on this site, you can score wherever you are. There are undoubtedly other variations that people like and would like to see here, if a lot of people request a specific variation I would consider adding it, but I don't want to start adding different options for the game, I like picking one way to play a game and sticking with it.
Discarding to opponent's crib
| Let's continue our look at the discarding tables compiled by Hessel, Colvert and Rasmussen by examining the discard to opponent's crib. This is usually a more difficult proposition than discarding to your own crib, since you must balance two contradictory goals: maximizing the value of your hand and minimizing the value of dealer's crib. A good way to develop a feel for this is to study the following tables, which give the average value of the crib for each of the possible two-card tosses. The methodologies behind these tables were described in the previous article, so I'll go straight to the data. Naturally, since we're discarding to opponent's crib, lower numbers are better. Discarding to opponent's crib (Hessel)
Discarding to opponent's crib (Colvert)
Discarding to opponent's crib (Rasmussen)
Once again, the Hessel and Colvert figures match each other closely, the most notable disparities concerning mid-card tosses such as 6-7, 6-8 and 7-9, to which Hessel gives higher values than Colvert. Rasmussen's averages, which closely matched the others for discarding to your own crib, occasionally differ markedly for discarding to opponent's crib. Most of the departures concern dangerous tosses such as 7-8 or 8-8. Since Ras's figures are based on his own games, there are far fewer samples for these tosses than for less dangerous (and thus more common) ones. For example, in 87,111 tabulated discards to his opponents' cribs, the 10-K toss occurred 3,884 times, the 5-5 toss only 58 times. This results in a disproportionately large statistical margin of error for 5-5 and other infrequent tosses, and this probably accounts for most of the difference between Ras's figures and the others. In fact, for the most frequent discards (those averaging under five points in opponent's crib), the three tables match each other quite closely. The only significant exception is A-9, which Ras reckons gives up 4.34 points, 0.3 less than Hessel and Colvert. Here is a summary of notable differences between Rasmussen's figures and the others:
As with the dealer numbers, I have distilled these three pone discard tables into a single set of figures for use in my own personal analysis and over-the-board decision-making. Click here to see them. The tables reinforce most of the conventional wisdom about discarding as pone. Nevertheless, there are a few surprises. Clearly the most dangerous cards to toss are 5s and two-card combinations totaling five or fifteen. Somewhat less dangerous are mid-card pairs, followed by low pairs and then high pairs. Since all of these combinations are worth two points going in (remember, any five-card hand containing an A-4, 2-3 or 5must be worth at least two points), the danger of tossing any of them to your opponent's crib is obvious. Less obvious is the danger of tossing two mid-cards that don't form a pair or 15. Note, for example, how the 6-7 discard gives up more points than A-A, A-4, A-5, 2-5, 5-9, Q-Q and K-K, even though the latter tosses are worth two going in! Likewise, 6-8 and 8-9 are riskier than A-4 and K-K, and Hessel and Ras give 3-4 as more dangerous than A-A, A-4, Q-Q and K-K. As noted last time, touching cards derive more added value in the crib than pairs, which have relatively few possibilities for improvement. Touching cards are much safer to throw if they are edge cards that can only be extended into a run in one direction. These are about as safe as near cards (cards separated by one rank) which form a run only when combined with an 'inside' card. Thus the 3-4 toss (touching cards), which can form a run with either a 2 or a 5, is more dangerous than A-2 (edge cards) or A-3 (near cards). Likewise, 9-10, 10-J and J-Q give up about a point more than 10-Q, J-K and Q-K. In fact, the latter three tosses are surprisingly safe, often preferable to tossing a wider, but lower, combination such as 3-8 or 4-7. As you would expect, tossing a J adds roughly ¼ point to the value of the crib, due to the possibility of His Nobs. If you toss an A, 2, 3 or 4 to dealer's crib, it's better to toss a 9, 10, Q or K with it, instead of a J. If you must split a pair of Js, toss the J from the longer suit. Thus, from this hand:
toss A J, not A J. The J will fetch one point on ten different cuts (since you were dealt three diamonds). The J will fetch one point on 12 cuts. In the above example, note that the J toss is statistically correct even though it means risking a crib flush. Your chance of giving up this rarest of cribbage scores is about 1 in 140 when you toss two cards of the same suit. This represents an added risk of approximately .036 points . If you tossed the J instead, you would add .043 points to the average value of the crib while subtracting the same value from your hand, for a deficit of .086 points. Granted, it's a subtlety, but then, cribbage is a subtle game. DeLynn Colvert discusses J discards on p. 50 of Play Winning Cribbage (Third Edition). Note that the 1 in 140 chance of giving up a crib flush on a same-suit discard as pone is a tad higher than the corresponding 1 in 150 chance of getting a crib flush as dealer (see How to analyze discards, part 1). This is because a same-suit discard more likely to be made by dealer than by pone. What are the best tosses to your opponent's crib? Wide cards obviously, but which ones? It turns out that tossing a mid-card and a high card is safer than tossing a low card and a high card. This is because a combination such as 8-K cannot possibly be combined into a single score, unlike a combo such as A-K, which can make a 15 with the addition of a 4. Either alternative is safer than tossing a low card and a mid-card. The single safest card to throw your opponent has long been assumed to be the K, and this is borne out by Hessel's and Colvert's tables. However, Rasmussen's statistics often give the edge to the Q instead. For example, Ras has K-K giving up more points on average than Q-Q, while in Colvert and Hessel's figures, the reverse is true. Have Ras's figures been distorted by the statistical margin of error in his samples? Perhaps, but a more likely explanation is cribbage psychology. Many human players, especially experienced ones, will actually toss a lone K to their own crib in preference to a lone Q, under the assumption that a K is more likely to be paired by pone's toss. Some cribbage textbooks even advocate this explicitly: see p. 37 of Colvert's book, where he advises tossing 2-K (not 2-10) to your own crib from 2-5-10-J-Q-K. Wergin recommends the exact same toss from this hand on p. 90 of Win at Cribbage. If your opponent follows this advice, you will probably give up fewer pairs, over the long run, by tossing her a Q instead of a K. However, since the K is less likely to become part of a run, you'll give up fewer runs with the K. This is probably why Rasmussen's statistics give 9-Q a better chance of producing a bust crib than 9-K, even though the latter toss gives up fewer average points. The Q/K debate is an effective demonstration of the human bias in Rasmussen's figures, which are based on real games, compared with the computer bias of Hessel's and Colvert's figures, which are based on software simulations. Here is a compendium of the safest tosses to opponent's crib, based on Rasmussen's numbers. In most cases, you are concerned with giving up the fewest average points, and the tosses on the left do just that. 10-K is best, followed by 9-K, 6-K, 9-Q and so on. If you are playing desperation defense, try one of the tosses in the middle list. These have the best chance of holding the crib to two points or less. But some of them are risky: discards such as 10-Q, 10-K and Q-K tend to be all-or-nothing affairs, producing lots of bust cribs, but lots of barnburners as well. Finally, if you're protecting a large lead, you might try one of the tosses on the right, which are the least likely to give up a crib worth eight or more points.
Some tosses appear in only one list, others appear in all three, but in different places. This demonstrates that the specific toss you make to your opponent's crib should be dictated by the requirements of your board position, and that the same hand may be played differently depending on the score. Suppose you're dealt:
What do you toss if the score is?
(remember, the asterisks indicate the player dealing) Answers:
If you're unfamiliar with things like positional holes and three counts, then I recommend reading the Cribbage for the Expert chapter of Colvert's Play Winning Cribbage, and Part II of Chamber's Cribbage: A New Concept. You can view excerpts from both books at the ACC's online Cribbage Tip Library. A final thought: the average crib given up by Rasmussen is 4.68 points, quite a bit lower than the 4.84 points he gets in his own cribs. If you project that spread over the nine deals of an average game, it's an advantage of .72 points per game over his opponents. That might not seem like much, but even a one point spread per game translates into a 2% increase in winning percentage (Colvert, p. 114) — proof that studying discarding technique pays off in the long run! - March 2000 (updated May 2001) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
prior article Cribbage Forum home next article
Schellsburg home
Cribbage Forum features articles on cribbage strategy and tactics by Michael Schell.
Original Material and HTML Coding Copyright © 2000-2 by Michael Schell. All Rights Reserved.