Objective

The objective in Cribbage is to be the first player to get 121 points. The gameplay is divided into three distinct parts, The Deal, The Play, and The Show.

The Deal

The game starts with both players drawing a card from the deck to find out who is the dealer. The person that gets the lower card is the dealer. If the players draw equal cards, then they draw again until the dealer can be determined. This way of determining the dealer is only done in the first round, in subsequent rounds who is the dealer will alternate between the two players.

The dealer deals 6 cards to himself and 6 cards to the opponent(s). Each player then chooses two cards from their hand to put face down into the crib. The crib belongs to the dealer and is used at the end of the round to gain extra points. Which cards you choose to put in the crib is very important, as it affects how many points you can get in later parts of the game.

At this point each player has four cards in their hand, and the Crib has four cards. The deck of cards is then put to the side, and the non-dealer (also called a pone) cuts the deck and then reveals the top card. This card is referred to as the starter or the cut. If the starter is a Jack, then the dealer immediately scores 2 points. This is known as Two for his heels. Once the starter card has been shown, the players are ready to proceed to the next part of the game.

The Play

The pone (the player who is not the dealer) starts by laying down a card on the table and announcing its value, i.e., lays down a 6 and announces "Six". The dealer then lays down a card and announces the cumulative value of the cards on the table, i.e., he lays down a 5 and announces "Eleven". This continues with the players laying down one card each until a player cannot lay down another card without the cumulative value going over 31. The player then says "Go" and the other player can then continue to lay down his cards until he also can't lay down a card without going over 31. He then says "Go" as well, and the player who laid down the last card will score 1 point if the total value is under 31 but 2 points if the value on the table is exactly 31. They then reset the count to 0 and continue with their remaining cards, starting with the player who did not lay down the last card. An ace is counted as 1, face cards are counted as 10 and other cards are their normal value.

During this phase there are several ways to score points, based on how you lay down your cards. Points are scored as you lay down your cards, i.e., if your opponent has just laid down a 4 and then you lay down another 4 on top of it then you will score a pair. The starter/cut card is not used at all in this part of the game.

Players always announce the cumulative value of the cards on the table when they lay down a new card. If they score points they will announce the points as well, i.e., 15 for 2, or 31 for 2. When a player has said "Go" then the other player will say "1 for the Go" when he's claiming the point from laying down the last card. He might also say "1 for last", if the other player has not laid down any cards since the value was last reset. 1 for the Go or 1 for last are just different ways of announcing the same thing, that the player gets 1 point because he laid down the last card under 31.

Scoring during The Play

·        Fifteen: For adding a card that makes the total 15, score 2 points.

·        Pair: For adding a card of the same rank as the card just played, score 2 points.

·        Three of a kind: For adding a card of the same rank as the last two cards, score 6.

·        Four of a kind: For adding a card of the same rank as the last 3 cards, score 12.

·        Run (sequence) of three or more cards: Score 1 point for each card in the sequence. The cards do not need to be in order, but they do need to be all together. i.e., ♥2 ♣8 ♦6 ♥7 ♠5 is a 4 card sequence because ♣8 ♦6 ♥7 ♠5 can be re-arranged into ♠5 ♦6 ♥7 ♣8, but ♥2 ♣5 ♣7 ♦7 ♠6 is not a sequence because the extra 7 in the middle breaks up the sequence of 5-6-7. Basically, if you can take n cards that are in order and re-arrange them, so all the n cards form a numerical sequence then it's a sequence.

·        Last card, total value less than 31: Score 1 point.

·        Last card, total value exactly 31: Score 2 points.

An ace is always low, you can't make a sequence with a king and an ace next to each other.

It's also worth noting that you can make points in many ways with the same cards. i.e., if the cards on the table are ♦A ♣7 and you lay down ♥7 you will get 2 points because 1+7+7=15 and 2 points because 7+7 is a pair of sevens. So, in that case you would announce "Fifteen for 4".

This part of the game continues until both players have played all their cards. The scores are updated as soon as a player gets points, and if a player reaches the target score, 121, the game is finished immediately.

The Show

Once The Play is finished, the players take back their cards from the table and it's time to calculate the score for their hands, and the crib. These are always scored in the same order: pone's hand, dealer's hand, dealer's crib. As before, the scores are added to the scoreboard as soon as they are calculated, and if a player reaches 121 the game is over immediately, the other player doesn't get to count his score. This means that there's no chance of a tie, or both players going over 121 in the same round. The dealer will normally get more points since he scores both his hand and the crib, but the pone scores his hand first, so if they're both close to 121 the pone might win, even though the dealer would have gotten more points if he were allowed to count them.

The Show Scoring

The scoring for The Show is like the scoring for The Play, but with some important differences. The starter card is used here with both hands and the crib, so a hand is the hand + the starter, and the crib is the crib + the starter. You can use the same card for many different combinations, i.e., it can be part of a pair and part of a sequence.

• One for his nob: For having the jack of the same suit as the starter, score 1 point. i.e., starter is ♥4, you have ♥J.
• Fifteen: Any combination of cards that sum to 15. You can re-use cards, so if you have ♥J, ♠J and ♣5 you get 2 points for ♥J ♣5 and another 2 points for ♠J ♣5.
• Pair: For any pair of cards, i.e., ♠Q ♦Q, score 2 points.
• Three of a kind: For any three cards of the same rank, i.e., ♠8 ♣8 ♥8, score 6 points.
• Four of a kind: For any four cards of the same rank, i.e., ♥A ♠A ♦A ♣A, score 12 points.
• Run (sequence) of three or more cards: Score 1 point for each card in the sequence. i.e., for ♠A ♥2 ♣3 ♦4, score 4 points.
• Flush, 4 cards: If all the cards in your hand are of the same suit, i.e., ♠A ♠5 ♠9 ♠J, score 4 points. These four cards all must be in your hand, you cannot have three cards in your hand + the starter count as a flush. A 4 card flush also can't be used for the crib, only for your hand.
• Flush, 5 cards: If all the cards in your hand, and the starter card, are of the same suit, i.e., ♠A ♠5 ♠9 ♠J ♠Q, score 5 points. You can also get a 5 card flush for your crib, if all the cards in the crib and the starter are of the same suit.

Skunks and Double Skunks

A skunk is when a player wins by over 30 points, his opponent has less than 91 points when the game is over. A double skunk is when a player wins by over 60 points, the opponent has less than 61 points. Normally a skunk will count as two games and a double skunk as 3