How to play cribbage
The rules of Cribbage, and a game played out one move at a time.
The rules are below, in the order a first hand meets them. If you would rather watch than read, press play: we deal one hand of cribbage on the real table, from the cut to the crib, and stop at every move to say what scored and why.
Press play and we deal a short game of Cribbage on the real table. It stops on every move and says what just happened and what you could do next.
The deal and the crib
Two players, one pack of 52. The table cuts for deal and the lower card deals, aces low, then shuffles again and gives six cards each.
Each of you lays two cards face down into the crib. The crib is the dealer's: it is counted at the end of the hand and every point in it goes to the dealer. So lay away cards that score together when the crib is yours, and cards that do not when it is your opponent's.
Once both have laid away, the next card of the pack is turned up as the starter. It counts with both hands and the crib. If the starter is a jack, the dealer takes two points for his heels at once.
The play to 31
The player who did not deal leads. You take turns laying one card on a shared count that may never pass 31. Faces count ten, aces one.
Making the count fifteen scores two, and so does making 31 exactly. A card of the same rank as the one before is a pair for two; three in a row is six and four is twelve. If the last three or more cards make a run in any order, that is a point a card.
When you have nothing that fits, you say go and the other player plays on while they can. When neither of you can, whoever played the last card takes one and the count starts again from zero, led by the other player. A 31 scores two and starts the next count the same way. Play goes on until all eight kept cards are down, and the last card of the hand scores one unless it made 31.
The show
Each hand is counted with the starter, the player who did not deal first, then the dealer, then the crib. Every set of cards adding to fifteen scores two, every pair two, and every run a point a card, counted once for each way you can make it.
Four cards of one suit in your hand are a flush for four, five if the starter matches. The crib counts a flush only when all five cards match. The jack of the starter's suit in a hand or the crib is nobs, one point. The table counts it all for you and lists each item with its cards, so nothing is missed.
Winning
The deal crosses the table after every hand, once both players are ready. The first to 121 wins, at the moment the score gets there: in the play, or in the first count before the dealer has counted at all. The winning total can be a little over 121.