• How Many Points Do You Need To Win Cribbage
• How Many Points Do You Need To Win Cribbage
• How Many Points To Win Cribbage

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• A player can usually win the game with the 2 points from cutting a jack. Some will not allow this, depending on the rules used. = 1 point for jack. This is a hand that gives one point because the jack and the cut are of the same kind. If you play cribbage think of the jack.
• It's fun to play cribbage lotto, but if you consider an average hand, or an average crib is typically somewhere around five points. Then conservative play strategy should give you more control of the board, leave you open to less damaging situations, and give you a better opportunity to win at the game of cribbage.

'fifteen-two, fifteen-four, fifteen-six, fifteen-eight and a double pair royal for twelve makes a total of twenty' Of course, if you cut a ten-point card to go with that, that gives you another.

Introduction

Cribbage is traditionally supposed to have been invented in the early 17th Century; it evolved from the earlier game Noddy. It is basically a game for two players, though adaptations for 4 players in fixed partnerships, and for 3 players also exist.

The more modern Six Card Cribbage has now almost entirely replaced the original Five Card Cribbage game described on this page. However the five card version does still survive in parts of Britain. For example, in South Wales it is played in pub leagues in combination with Nine Card Don (see the Don page for details). Matthew Probert reports that Five Card Cribbage is popular around Hampshire and Surrey, although the six card game is also played there.

Players and cards

Two players using a standard 52 card pack. Cards rank K(high) Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 A(low).

Object of the Game

To be the first to score 61 points accumulated over several deals. Points are scored mainly for combinations of cards either occuring during the play or occuring in a player's hand or in the cards discarded before the play, which form the 'crib'.

Board and Pegs

The points are recorded by means of a board and pegs. The holes in the board represent scores from 1 to 61.

The above diagram shows the players starting at opposite ends of the board and pegging in opposite directions, which is the way I was taught and is consistent with for example Popular Card Games by Lawrence H Dawson - Wills, Bristol & London (1933). However it is clear that it is now more common for both players to start from the same end, like this:

In any case, each player has two pegs: the forward peg shows the player's score to date, and the rear peg shows the previous score. When a player scores points, the rear peg is moved in front to show the new score. That way the distance between the pegs shows the amount most recently scored, and the opponent can thereby check it has been scored correctly.

Deal

Cut cards to determine who deals first. The player cutting the lower card deals, and the other player immediately pegs 3 points for 'last' as compensation. This is scored on the firstdeal only. Subsequently the turn to deal alternates.

The dealer shuffles, the non-dealer cuts the cards, and dealer deals 5 cards to each player one at a time. The undealt part of the pack is placed face down on the table.

Discard

Each player must choose two cards to discard face down to form the 'crib'. These four cards are set aside until the end of the hand. Any card combinations in the crib will count for the dealer, so non-dealer will try to throw cards that are unlikely to make valuable combinations.

Start Card

The non-dealer cuts the pack of undealt cards, lifting the upper part without showing its bottom card. The dealer takes out the top card of the lower part, turns it face up and, after non-dealerreplaces the upper part, places it face up on top of the pack. This turned up card is called the 'start' card.

If the start card is a jack, the dealer immediately pegs 2 points - this is called 'two for his heels'.

Play of the cards

Starting with the non-dealer, the players take turns to play a single cards face up in front of themselves. In this stage of the game the total pip value of the cards played by both players must not exceed 31. The pip values of the cards are:

Ace = 1; 2 to 10 = face value; jack = 10; queen = 10; king = 10.

As each card is played, the player announces the running total, but this total must not exceed 31. A player who cannot play without exceeding 31 does not play a card but says 'Go'. If your opponent says 'Go' then you may continues playing cards and scoring for any combinations you make (see below). When neither player can play without going over 31 (either because both players have played all their cards or because all cards left in the players' hands have pip values so high that they would take the total over 31 if played), the play ends.

If the play ends with a total lower than 31, whichever player was the last to play a card pegs 1 point for 'last card'. If the play ends at exactly 31, the player who played the last card pegs 2 points instead of 1 point.

Notes.

• Players familiar with Six Card Cribbage will be used to carrying on playing until all the cards have been played, starting again at zero each time 31 is reached or both players say 'Go'. Five Card Cribbage is different: you only play up to 31 once and one or both players may have unplayed cards at the end of the play.
• As in 6-card Cribbage, when neither can play the last person to play scores either 2 for 31 or 1 for last card. It is not possible to make both these scores at once.

Scoring during the play

A player who makes any of the following scores during the play pegs them immediately.

15:

If you play a card which brings the total to 15 you score two points ('Fifteen two')

31:

As mentioned above if you play a card which brings the totalto exactly 31 you score 2 points.

Pair:

If you play a card of the same rank as the previous card (e.g.a king after a king) you score 2 points for a pair. Note that(for example) a 10 and a queen do NOT make a pair even thoughthey are both worth 10 points.

Pair Royal:

If immediately after a pair a third card of the same rankis played, the player of the third card scores 6 for 'pairroyal'.

Double Pair Royal:

Four cards of the same rank, played in immediate succession.The player of the fourth card scores 12.

Run:

A 'run' or 'sequence' is a set of 3 ormore cards of consecutive ranks (irrespective of suit) - suchas 9-10-jack or 2-3-4-5. Note that ace is low so for example ace-king-queenis not a run. The player of a card which completes a run scoresfor the run; the score is equal to the number of cards in therun. The cards to not have to be played in order, but no othercards must intervene.
Example: cards are played in the following order:4-2-3-5-6. The player of the 3 scores 3 for a run, then the playerof the 5 scores 4, and the player of the 6 scores 5.
Another example: 4-2-3-4-3. The player of thefirst 3 scores 3 for the run 4-2-3. Then the player of the second4 score 3 for the run 2-3-4. The player of the second 3 scoresnothing because the 3 does not complete a run.
Another example: 4-2-6-5-3. The final 3 scores 5 points for a 5-card run. Nothing is scored before then, because there is no run until the 3 is played.

Last Card:

If neither player manages to make the total exactly 31, whoeverplayed the last card scores 1 point.

The Show

Players now score for combinations of cards held in hand. Firstthe non-dealer's hand is exposed, and scored. The start card alsocounts as part of the hand when scoring combinations. All validscores from the following list are counted.

15:

Any combination of cards adding up to 15 pips scores 2 points.For example king, jack, five, five would count 8 points (fourfifteens as the king and the jack can each be paired with eitherfive). You would say 'Fifteen two, fifteen four, fifteensix, fifteen eight).

Pair:

A pair of cards of the same rank score 2 points. Three cardsof the same rank contain 3 different pairs and thus score a totalof 6 points for 'pair Royal'. Four of a kind contain6 pairs and so score 12 points.

Run:

Three cards of consecutive rank (irrespective of suit), suchas ace-2-3, score 3 points for a run. A hand such as 6-7-7-8 containstwo runs of 3 (as well as two fifteens and a pair) and so wouldscore 12 altogether. A run of four cards, such as 9-10-J-Q scores4 points. This is slightly illogical - you might expect it toscore 6 because it contains two runs of 3, but it doesn't. Theruns of 3 within it don't count -you just get 4.

Flush:

If all three cards of the hand are the same suit, 3 pointsare scored for flush. If the start card is the same suit as well,the flush is worth 4 points. There is no score for having 2 handcards and the starter all the same suit. Note also that thereis no score for flush during the play - it only counts in theshow.

One For His Nob:

If the hand contains the jack of the same suit as the startcard, score 1 extra point.

Note that when scoring a hand, the same card may be counted andscored as part of several different combinations. For exampleif your hand is 7 8 8 and the start card is a 9 you score 'fifteen2, fifteen 4, and a pair is 6, and a run is 9 and a run is 12'- 12 points to peg, with each of your 8s forming part of a fifteen,a pair and a run.

After non-dealer's hand has been shown and the score pegged, dealer'shand is shown, scored and pegged in the same way. Finally thedealer exposes the four cards of the crib and scores them withthe start card. The scoring is the same as for the players' handsexcept that:

• a flush in the crib only scores if all four crib cards andthe start card are of the same suit. If that happens the flushscores 5 points
• it is now possible to have a run of five cards, which scoresjust 5 points.

Winning the game

As soon as someone reaches 61 points, that player wins the game. This can happen at any point - during the play or the show, or even by dealer scoring 'two for his heels'. Note thatit is not necessary to reach 61 exactly - for example if you overshoot by scoring 2 more points when you had 60 you still win.

Other Cribbage WWW pages

Here is the web site of the Salisbury and District Licensed Houses Cribbage League, where five-card cribbage is played.

The Cribbage page of Card Game Heaven also describes Five-Card Cribbage.

Other versions of Cribbage:

• Noddy, the precursor of Cribbage.
• Six Card Cribbage, which is now the most widespread form.
• The Noddy and Early Cribbage page of the Period Games site has further information.

With Meggiesoft Cribbage you can play Cribbage on-line or against a computer opponent. The target score is configurable and Muggins and Skunking are available as options. The program supports 5-card, 6-card and 7-card Cribbage and also Noddy.

Cribbage 29 hand - the best hand

The highest score is 29 (555J in hand with the starter 5 of the same suit as the Jack - for 'One For His Nob').
The odds of getting a 29 Cribbage hand are 1 in 216,580. How to calculate 29 hand probability? - the best cribbage hand.

Cribbage 28 hand

The second highest score is 28 (any of 10,J,Q,K and 5555 in hand and starter excepting the above 29 hand)
The odds of getting a 28 Cribbage hand are 1 in 15,028.

Cribbage 24 hand

The next highest is 24 (A7777, 33339, 36666, 44447, 44556, 44566, 45566, 67788, 77889).

How Many Points Do You Need To Win Cribbage

Impossible cribbage hands

Scores of 27, 26, 25 and 19 are impossible in hand point totals in Cribbage. There is no combination of 5 cards that will produce a score of such number of points. Sometimes if a Cribbage player scores 0 points in their hand they will claim they have a '19 hand.'

Cribbage hands

There are 12,994,800 possible cribbage hands, including the cut card. All cribbage hands total amount sorted by points. The average score is calculated as 4.77 points mathematically. In the real hand statistics this number of points is higher, since cribbage players have some control over their hands through the discard

Dealer and Pone average hands

The average hand for the dealer who needs to think about scoring of his own crib is lower than the average hand for pone. According to the real Cribbage hand statistics they are about 7.95 points for dealer and about 8.10 points for pone.

Crib

According to the real Cribbage cribs statistics the average crib score is about 4,65

The highest dealer score for a hand and a crib

The highest score (excluding pegging) for a dealer is 53. The starter must be a 5, and one hand must have J555 while the other has 4466. The first being a 29 (With the right Jack) and the second being 24.

The highest combined count of the dealer's hand, pegging, and crib

The highest combined count of the dealer's hand, pegging, and crib is 78 according to Joe O'Brien. Dealer hand 3,3,4,4 ; Pone hand 3,3,4,4 and Crib: J,5,5,5. The turn card is 5 of the same suit as the Jack in crib.

Pegging minimal points

The dealer will always peg at least one point during the pegging stage. If pone is able to play at each turn then dealer must score at least one for 'last', if not, then dealer scores at least one for 'go'.

Average pegging

It is generally known that the dealer outpegs the pone during the average hand. According to Cribbage games statistics the dealer pegs an average of 3.5 points per hand, while pone pegs an average of only 2.1 points.

How Many Points Do You Need To Win Cribbage

Average sum points

The dealer can expect to score about 16 points on each hand (including crib and pegging), and pone can expect to score approximately 10 points (including pegging).

Pegging maximal score

Joe O'Brien showed, that dealer can score 30 points (not 26 points as we stated before with a dealer's hand 4,4,4,7, pone's hand 4,8,10,K, and the jack as a starter). In Joe's example Dealer hand 7,7,4,4 ; Pone hand 7,7,4,4. Sequence of play is as follows:
Pone 7 7 4 4
Dealer 7 7 4 4
Dealer Points 2 13 2 13
Dealer Totals 2 15 17 30
This example of dealer maximal cribbage hands is in the article based on the letter of Joe O'Brien.

Update - Joe O'Brien showed that there is a hand that will give the pone a total of 24 in pegging. The Pone holding 5 5 4 4, and the Dealer holding 5 4 4 (na/). The Pone hits both the fifteen and the thirty-one, picking up a triple at the 15 mark and a pair and four of a kind on the way to the thirty-one mark. Kyle Graham showed, that pone can score 22 points (in opposite to other articles, that states max pone score is 18 points). Pone's hand: A, A, 3, 3; Dealer's hand A, 3, 3, NA. The sequence of play is A, A, A, 3, 3, 3, 3, NA; Pone gets 6+2+14 = 22 points. Later our player Kenneth Anderson showed, that the maximum cribbage scoring for Pone pegging is 23. Pone's hand: 5 (or 6) 4 4 4; Dealer's hand: 5 (or 6) 4 9 9 (9 9 could be any cards worth 9 or above). Total Pone points: 5+6+12 = 23 . More examples of pone maximal cribbage hands are in the article based on the letters of Joe O'Brien, Kyle Graham and Kenneth Anderson.

How Many Points To Win Cribbage