How to Play Cribbage

Six-card cribbage is the most common form played in the English-speaking world. Two players use a standard 52-card pack, with the cards ranking king high to ace low. Here are a few steps to help you play cribbage.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Setting Up

1. Place the cribbage board between the two players. Start pegs at the top of the cribbage board.

2. Win the game by being the first to score 121 points over a series of games.

3. Cut the cards to determine who deals.

4. Shuffle and deal if you received the lower card.

5. Deal alternately six cards to yourself and six cards to your opponent.

6. Place two of the six cards facedown, both if you're the dealer and if you're the nondealer, to form the crib. The dealer gets the crib and gets to score it after the hand is played.

7. Allow the nondealer to cut the deck.

8. Turn the top card of the bottom half of the cut deck over to determine the start.

9. Move two holes with your peg if the start was a jack and you're the dealer.

10. Place the start with the crib to be counted at the end of the game.

Playing the Hands

11. Play any card from your hand if you're the nondealer. Call out the value of that card as you do so.

12. Play any card from your hand if you're the dealer. Call out the sum of the two cards as you do so.

13. Alternate playing cards until the sum of 31 is reached. Stop playing cards if adding your card would exceed the sum of 31.

14. Say "Go," and the other player must go on playing until he reaches 31 or until he cannot play a card making the sum less than 31.

15. Score one peg if you're the player coming closest to 31.

16. Score two pegs if you reach exactly 31.

17. Turn the cards you've played (both dealer and nondealer do this) facedown in front of you after a "Go" or 31 has been reached.

18. Take turns playing in this way until all the cards in both players' hands are used up.

19. Score each hand. The nondealer scores his discards first, then the dealer scores his hand followed by the crib.

20. Alternate the deal. The nondealer of the first hand now shuffles the deck and starts a new hand.

Tips & Warnings

• Each player uses two pegs moving ahead of each other like footsteps, and both players start in the same place on the cribbage board.

[fazzy]

on 1/31/2009 at the end of the game can you go out on a cut jack

[nm1807]

on 12/28/2008 do you use the cards from your first hand and shuffle them in for the second or do you discard those 12 cards and not use them

[jhcarr]

on 9/25/2008 Hi. I'm not a cribbage player, just checking to see how it's played. I think Shushus is correct, because 3 cards of the same rank form into 3 pairs. AH-AD-AC can be formed into AH-AD, AH-AC, and AD-AC, 3 pairs, @ 2 points each = 6 points. 4 of the same rank can be formed into 6 combinations: AH-AD-AC-AS can be formed as AH-AD, AH-AC, AH-AS, AD-AC, AD-AS, and AC-AS. At 2 points each, that makes 12 points.

[dariyan]

on 7/22/2008 Sorry Shushus - 3 of a kind DOES NOT mean 3 different pairs... it means 3 of one number e.g. AH-AD-AS or 8D-8C-8H., this is called a royal pair. This is much more difficult to get than a simple pair so it is worth 6 points. Similarly, 4 of a kind - called a double royal pair - is so hard to get that it is worth 12 points.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to get 3 different pairs in one hand because you can only score from your 4 cards plus the turn-up. the crib counts as a SEPARATE hand.
-Rhiannon

[shushus]

on 3/17/2008 3 of a kind means 3 different pairs each 2 points, 6 pts total