Cribbage

A hand, in order

1. Cut for first deal — low card deals. Two players get six cards each; with three or four, everyone gets five.
2. Everyone discards to the crib until it holds four cards. Two players throw two each; with three or four players you throw one each, and in a three-hander the fourth crib card comes off the deck. The crib belongs to the dealer.
3. Cut for the starter. If it’s a jack, the dealer pegs 2 for his heels.
4. The play. Starting to the dealer’s left, lay cards one at a time and call the running total. Never go past 31.
5. The show. Count hands starting to the dealer’s left; the dealer counts last, then the crib.
6. First to 121 wins, and it ends the moment someone gets there — anyone still waiting to count never scores.

Scoring in the play

Running total hits 15	2
Running total hits 31	2
Pair · three of a kind · four	2 · 6 · 12
Run of three or more, made by the last cards played in any order	1 a card
Go — nobody else can play without busting 31	1
Last card of the whole play	1

Scoring the show

Every combination of cards totalling 15	2
Every pair (three of a kind is three pairs, four is six)	2
Run of three or more, counted once for each way it can be made	1 a card
Four-card flush in hand, plus one more if the starter matches	4 or 5
Flush in the crib — only if all five match	5
Jack matching the starter’s suit (his nobs)	1

Face cards count ten toward fifteens; an ace is one. Runs go by rank, and there is no wrapping from king to ace. No hand can score 19, 25, 26 or 27 — which is why a nothing hand gets called a nineteen.

Tips worth knowing

• Fives are gold. Sixteen cards in the deck are worth ten, so a five makes a fifteen more often than anything else.
• Feed your own crib, starve theirs. Into your crib: fives, pairs, cards summing to five or fifteen. Into theirs: a face card with an unconnected low card, like K–9.
• Never lead a five. A third of the deck answers it for fifteen.
• Lead from a pair. If they pair you back, you take six with the third one.
• Low leads keep control. Aces through fours leave room under 31 and keep fifteen available to you.
• Chase the last card. A go or the final card is always worth at least a point, and those points decide close games.
• Count the same way every time — fifteens, pairs, runs, flush, nobs. Under muggins, points you fail to claim can be taken by your opponent.
• Know the arithmetic of the race. Dealing is worth about 16.7 points a hand once you add the crib and pegging; being pone is worth about 10.6. Roughly 27 points change hands a deal, so from a tie you each need about four and a half more deals.
• Count what you need before you discard. Near the end, a safe throw beats a greedy one when your opponent can go out on the crib.