Cribbage

Cribbage or Crib is a rummy-style card game for two, three or four players that involves forming combinations of cards over a series of hands to accumulate points. Points are mainly scored by runs, regardless of suit; by pairs, triples and quadruples; by flushes; and by cards that add up to 15.
Cribbage is the only card game that can legally be played for a wager in British pubs. According to John Aubrey, cribbage was invented by Sir John Suckling, a British poet, in the early 17th century. It was derived from an older card game called Noddy. It has survived, with no major changes, as one of the most popular games in the English-speaking world.

General Idea

It is generally played by two people, although it can be played by three or four, or by a pair of two-person teams.
The game has several unusual features: one is the crib (or box), from which the game takes its name. This is a separate, four-card hand made up of discards from each player, which counts for the dealer. Another is that each hand has two distinct scoring stages: the play and the show.
Visually, cribbage is known for its scoring board - a series of holes (streets) on which the score is tallied with pegs. Scores can be kept on a piece of paper, but a cribbage board is almost always used, since scoring occurs throughout the game, not just at the conclusion of hands as in most other card games.
There are two main designs of cribbage board:
In both cases there are two pegs for each player (except team crib where it is two pegs per team\partnership), so that if a player loses track in the count one peg still marks the previous score. The holes are divided into groups of 5.

Variations

Playing the game

The dealer rotates with each hand, and this is important because of the advantage the crib gives to the dealer (especially in five-card). If at any point in a hand a player pegs out (reaches the winning score), then the game ends and he wins. A notable feature of cribbage is that as soon as a player pegs out, the game is over; this can happen during the play of cards or while the hands are being scored. Some cribbage boards are marked with an 'S' in place of 90 because a player is said to be 'skunked' if, when the game ends, the player has fewer than 91 points. A player who finishes with fewer than 61 points is said to be 'double skunked' or 'lurched.'

The deal and the formation of the crib

The dealer shuffles the pack and deals the required number of cards. The non-dealer has the right to cut the deck before the deal, though this can be ignored to save time. The players then discard cards face-down to form the crib, which will be by the dealer.
In one (unfriendly, but nevertheless common) variation, the non-dealer does not have the right to cut the deck before the deal. In this variation, the dealer may choose to offer the cut; a naive or inattentive opponent will cut the deck and hand it back, whereupon the dealer immediately pegs one point; a knowledgeable opponent, though, will simply accept the deck, whereupon he becomes dealer for that hand.

The turn-up

The player to the dealer's left cuts the pack and the dealer turns up the top card (sometimes called the Starter). If the card is a Jack, the dealer scores two points "for his heels.".

Card values

Aces always count as 1, and face cards always have a counting value of 10, but their customary rank for runs (i.e., 9,10,J,Q,K is a valid run of 5, but A,10,J,Q,K is only a run of 4, since the Ace is always 1).

The play

Each player in turn plays a card, with the non-dealer playing first, stating the total as he goes (face cards count as 10, aces as 1). When the first player leads with a card which is the same as the turned up card, they will often exclaim "See one, play one". The total must not pass 31.
If a player cannot play a card without bringing the total over 31, the player says "Go" and the other player must then play any cards that keep the total at 31 or less, he then pegs 1 point for the go (or 2 points — but no point for the go — if he hits 31 exactly). The count then resets to 0, and the player who said "go" leads the next card (unless he has no cards, in which case the other player plays his remaining cards).
The cards should be played face up in front of the player. Players peg points as follows: In all games except five card, when no other player can play, you play your remaining cards. In this situation, it is possible for you to inflict a "go" on yourself! For instance, if (in a two-player game) your opponent runs out of cards when the count is at 22 and you're holding a 5 and a queen, you play the 5 (bringing the count to 27), peg a point for your own "go" and then begin a new count, playing the queen (and scoring 1 point for last card).
An example from a two player game: Another example:

The show

Each player in turn (in the order of play), ending with the dealer, totals up the points in his hand, including the turn-up card, and pegs the amount. The order in which this is done is important as a player who tallies his score first may peg out and thus win the game even though another player's tally would take him to an even greater score. In a standard, two-handed game, the hands are scored in the following order:
  1. Non-dealer's hand
  2. Dealer's hand
  3. Dealer's crib
In general, hands are scored starting with the player to the dealer's left, then rotating round to finish with the dealer's hand, then the dealer's crib.
Points are scored for: For example, if a player has the Ace, 6, 7 and 8 of Spades in his hand and the turn up card is the 6 of Hearts, he would score:
"Fifteen six" - for three ways to form 15, that is 7 and 8, and Ace, 6 and 8 twice,
"and two" - for a pair of sixes,
"and six" - for two runs of three (6, 7, 8),
"and four" - for the flush,
"makes eighteen" - the total.
The score is traditionally read as shown, though players may simply declare the score, particularly with low-scoring hands. The highest possible score in six card cribbage is 29, for a holding of 5, 5, 5, J with a turn-up of a 5 of the same suit as the Jack. This scores: "fifteen sixteen" - for J-5 four times and 5-5-5 four times,
"and twelve" - for four 5s,
"and one for his nob makes twenty-nine."
(Don't be too concerned about how to score this particular hand, as acquiring this hand is extremely rare).
In the seven-card game it is a whopping 46, scored by 4,4,5,5,6,6 (including turn-up), that is fifteen 16, 24 in runs and 6 in pairs.
Not every score below these can actually be made and the lowest of those that can't is 19 (except in seven-card). Because of this, a player with a hand scoring 0 will often declare "nineteen". Another name for a hand scoring zero points is "Ukrainian Straight". Other common calls are "Fifteen two and the rest won't do", and "Fifteen four and the rest don't score".
In a variation called "Muggins", if a player does not claim points either in the play or in the show, their opponent may announce "Muggins" and claim those points for themselves. Whether or not to play Muggins is determined before the start of the game.

The crib

Finally the dealer tallies the points in the crib. This works precisely the same as tallying the other hands, except that a flush scores only if its suit matches that of the turn-up card.

Tactics

Forming the crib

There are certain cards and card combinations that are likely to be beneficial to a hand, so a non-dealer should try to keep them in his hand and the dealer should try to keep any good combinations together, either in his hand or in the crib. It is less beneficial to plan for the play. Obviously pairs, runs and combinations totalling fifteen are good. Other things to look out for are:

The play

Some of these tactics will only work in a two-player game (with more players it is harder to devise a strategy).

If you play first:

In general:

Statistics


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