Let’s Play Cribbage!

Cribbage is the rare card game that rewards a sharp eye and a little patience in equal measure. Two players is the classic setup, though three, four, five, or six can join in. The game traces back to seventeenth-century England, where the poet and soldier Sir John Suckling is widely credited with inventing it, and English settlers carried it across the Atlantic, where it took root and never left. If you are picking it up for the first time, or just knocking the rust off, here is everything you need to sit down and play.

The language of cribbage

Cribbage has its own vocabulary, and knowing a handful of terms makes the whole game click into place. A few worth learning before you deal the first hand:

• The crib (also called the box): a fifth hand built from the cards each player discards. It belongs to the dealer, who counts it after the hands.
• The starter: the card cut and turned up after everyone has discarded to the crib. It counts toward every hand and the crib.
• His nobs: if a player holds the Jack matching the starter's suit, that is one point. If a Jack is the starter itself, the dealer takes two, sometimes called "his heels."
• Pegging: moving your peg along the board as you score. Cribbage keeps score physically, which is half its charm.
• Go: called when you cannot lay another card without the running count passing 31.
• Fifteen: any combination of cards totaling 15, worth two points every time it appears.
• Nineteen: a wry name for a hand worth nothing, since 19 is a score you can never actually make in cribbage.
• Tenth cards: all face cards, since each counts as ten.

Setting up a game

You need three things: a partner, a standard 52-card deck, and a board. The board is where cribbage earns its character, because the pegging track can be almost anything. Ours turn the coastline you love into the score track itself, each one carved in birch with the real bathymetry underneath the holes. If you are still choosing, our guide to the questions to ask when picking a board is a good place to start.

Deal six cards to each player. Everyone keeps four and discards two face down to the crib. Cut the deck to reveal the starter card. Now you are ready to play. The non-dealer always goes first, which is a small compensation for not owning the crib that hand.

The play: counting to 31

Players alternate laying one card at a time face up in front of them, announcing the running total as they go. Face cards count as ten, aces as one, and everything else at its face value. The first player lays a 3 and says "three"; the second lays a 5 and says "eight." The cards stay in separate piles, because each hand is counted on its own at the end, but the total is shared.

This is where the first pegging happens. You score during the play by making the total land on useful numbers and by matching what your opponent just did:

• Bring the count to exactly 15 for two points.
• Lay a card matching the rank of the last one for a pair, worth two. A third of the same rank is a pair royal for six, and a fourth is a double pair royal for twelve.
• Complete a run of three or more, worth a point per card. The cards do not have to be laid in order. If a 3 and a 5 are down and you drop a 4, that is a three-card run for three points.

When you cannot add a card without passing 31, you call "Go," and your opponent keeps laying cards if they can. Whoever plays the last card before the count is stuck takes a point, or two points if they land exactly on 31. A "Go" is worth one point no matter how many cards were left unplayable. Then the count resets to zero and play continues with the remaining cards.

The show: counting the hands

Once all the cards are played, everyone counts their hand, non-dealer first, then the dealer, then the dealer counts the crib. Your hand is your four cards plus the starter, giving you five cards to build combinations from. Add it up like this:

• Every combination totaling 15 is two points, and a card can be reused across different combinations.
• Pairs are two points, three of a kind is six, and four of a kind is twelve.
• Runs of three or more score a point per card and need not share a suit.
• A flush of four cards in your hand is four points. If the starter matches the suit too, that is a fifth point. The crib only scores a flush if all five cards, starter included, share a suit.
• His nobs, the Jack matching the starter's suit, is one point.

Order matters here. Because the non-dealer counts first, a close game can end before the dealer ever counts a strong hand, which is exactly why the non-dealer position softens the sting of giving up the crib.

Watch for "Muggins"

Cribbage rewards a careful counter, and the Muggins variant makes it ruthless. If you spot your opponent overlooking points in their own hand as they count out loud, call "Muggins" and claim those points for yourself. It is optional, it is a little mean, and it teaches everyone to count twice. Agree on whether you are playing it before the first deal.

Playing to the finish

A standard game runs to 121, which is twice around a classic board, or two trips down and back. A short game runs to 61, once around. Keep dealing new hands, passing the deal after each one, until a peg reaches the game hole. The moment someone hits 121, the game is over, even if other players are mid-count. First peg home wins, and the margin is worth noting: finish before your opponent passes 91 and you have skunked them.

A board worth keeping

Cribbage has always been a game of makers. It was a favorite aboard whaling ships, where sailors carved boards from whatever was on hand, and surviving examples turn up cut from walrus and whale ivory. You can play in a pinch with a scrap of paper and a pencil, but a good board is part of the fun, and it lasts. Ours are carved from high-quality birch, and every one doubles as a small map of somewhere that means something to you. Browse the full cribbage boards collection to find your water, and if you want the longer story of the game, read our history of cribbage. Then deal a hand, keep your eyes on your opponent's count, and be ready to shout "Muggins."