How to play Cribbage
Cribbage is a race up a board to 121. Points come in small amounts and often: for cards that add up to fifteen, for pairs, for runs. You score twice in every hand, first as the cards are played one at a time, and then by counting the hand you kept. The dealer also counts an extra hand, the crib, made from cards both players threw away.
Here you play against Otto. Every point is counted and pegged for you, so the game is a good way to learn what scores.
The deal and the crib
Each player is dealt six cards and keeps four. The other two go face down into the crib, which belongs to the dealer. Tap two cards to choose them, then press the button to send them. The deal passes back and forth, so the crib is yours every second hand.
What to throw depends on whose crib it is. Into your own you can afford good cards. Into Otto’s you want to throw cards that are no use to each other.
The starter
When both players have thrown, the top card of the pack is turned up. This is the starter. It is not played, but it counts as a fifth card in both hands and the crib when they are counted. If the starter is a jack, the dealer pegs 2 at once.
The play
The player who did not deal lays the first card, and the two of you then lay cards in turn, each in front of yourself. The table keeps a running count of their values: court cards are 10, an ace is 1, and the rest are their number. The count may never pass 31, and the cards in your hand that would take it too far are dimmed.
A card scores at once if it does any of these:
| The card you lay | Points |
|---|---|
| Makes the count exactly 15 | 2 |
| Makes the count exactly 31 | 2 |
| Is the same rank as the card before it (a pair) | 2 |
| Is the third of a rank in a row | 6 |
| Is the fourth of a rank in a row | 12 |
| Completes a run of three or more with the cards just before it | 1 for each card in the run |
A run in the play does not have to be laid in order: 7, then 9, then 8 is a run of three for whoever lays the 8. It must be made of the last cards laid with nothing else between them. Suits do not matter in the play.
Go. If you cannot lay a card without passing 31, you say “Go”, and the table says it for you. The other player then lays any cards they can, and pegs 1 for the go when they can lay no more. The count starts again from nothing, and the player who said “Go” leads. Reaching 31 exactly scores 2 instead of 1. The last card of all scores 1 as well.
With a mouse, click a card to lay it or drag it onto the table. On a touch screen the first tap lifts the card and a second tap lays it. Cards from an earlier count stay on the table, dimmed.
The show
When all eight cards have been played, the hands are counted, each with the starter as a fifth card. The player who did not deal counts first, then the dealer’s hand, then the crib, which is the dealer’s. Press Continue to move from one to the next.
| In the five cards | Points |
|---|---|
| Each different set of cards adding up to 15 | 2 |
| Each pair | 2 (so three of a kind is 6 and four of a kind is 12) |
| Each run of three or more | 1 for each card in it |
| All four cards of the hand in one suit (a flush) | 4, or 5 if the starter matches |
| The jack of the same suit as the starter (“his nob”) | 1 |
- A card can be used in as many scoring sets as it fits. The hand 7, 7, 8, 8 with a 9 turned up has four fifteens, two pairs and four runs of three: 24.
- Only the longest runs count. 4, 5, 6, 7 is one run of four, not two runs of three.
- In the crib a flush counts only if all five cards, starter included, are of one suit.
- The most a hand can score is 29: three 5s and a jack, with the fourth 5 turned up in the jack’s suit.
The board and winning
The board along the top of the table has a track of 120 holes for each player: Otto’s above and yours below, out along one row and back along the next. Each player has two pegs. The front one shows the score and the back one shows where it stood before, so the last points pegged can be read off the gap between them. Your score is also shown as a figure above the table, and Otto’s beside his name.
The first player to reach 121 wins, and the game stops at that moment, even in the middle of the play or the show. That is why the order of counting matters: near the end, the player who did not deal counts first and may get home before the dealer has counted at all.
Tips for winning more often
- A 5 is the best card in the pack. Sixteen cards count 10, and each makes fifteen with a 5. Two 5s in your own crib are worth nearly 9 points on average; two cards like a 10 and a king are worth under 3.
- Never give Otto’s crib a 5 if you can help it, nor a pair, nor two cards next to each other such as a 7 and an 8. The safest things to throw him are a high card and a card well away from it: a king with a 9 or a 10.
- Keep cards that work together. A hand like 6, 7, 8, 9 is worth more than four high cards, because the starter can improve it in so many ways. In our test games the hands averaged about 8 points and the crib a little under 5.
- Do not lead a 5, and try not to leave the count at 5 or at 21: any ten-card then scores for Otto. A 4 is a safe lead, because no single card can make fifteen from it.
- Think before you pair. If you pair Otto’s card for 2 and he holds a third, he scores 6.
- Keep a low card for the end of a count. Aces and 2s often fit in under 31 when nothing else will, and they collect the go.
- The dealer has the edge. The dealer scores the crib and usually pegs more in the play: about 3 points a hand to the other player’s 2 in our test games. Whoever deals first wins a little more than half the time.
How good is Otto?
Otto plays fair. He sees his own six cards, the starter and the cards that have been laid, and nothing else: not your hand, not what you threw to the crib, and not the pack. The Hint button uses exactly the same thinking for you.
To choose his crib cards he takes each of the fifteen ways of keeping four cards, works out exactly what they would average over all 46 cards that might be turned up, and adds or takes away what the two cards thrown are usually worth in a crib. In the play he lays the card that scores most now, less what you are likely to score in reply.
Over thousands of test games he won about 70 in 100 against a simple player who keeps the best four cards as they stand and lays whatever scores most, and 99 in 100 against one who throws and plays at random. A game usually lasts about nine hands, which leaves room for the cards to decide a close one.
Other ways to play
This is six-card cribbage for two, the usual game. Some players use muggins, where you may claim any points your opponent forgets to count; here nothing is ever missed, so there is no muggins. In match play a win by more than 30 points is a skunk and counts double; here a win is a win, though the score sheet at the end will tell you when one happened. There are also five-card and three-handed games, which this table does not play.