The goal
Be the first to score (peg) 121 points, scored while playing your cards and by counting your hand afterwards.
Setup
Two players, one 52-card deck without jokers, a cribbage board or score sheet. Lower cut deals first; the deal then alternates.
The deal
Six cards each. Each player lays away two face down to the crib, an extra hand that scores for the dealer. The non-dealer cuts and the dealer turns up the starter card, a fifth card for every hand (a jack: dealer pegs 2).
A turn
- Non-dealer starts: take turns playing one card, calling the running total (aces 1, pictures 10).
- The total may not pass 31. Can’t play? Say “go”; the other player continues as far as they can.
- After 31, or when neither can play, start again from zero; the player who did not play last starts.
Special cards
- Play scores: fifteen 2, pair 2, pair royal 6, double pair royal 12, run 1 per card.
- Last card of a count 1, exactly 31 scores 2 instead.
- His heels: the starter is a jack, dealer pegs 2. His nobs: a jack of the starter’s suit in hand or crib, 1.
Scoring
- Counting the hands (the show), in order: non-dealer’s hand, dealer’s hand, then the crib, each with the starter.
- Each fifteen 2, each pair 2, runs 1 per card.
- Flush: 4 in hand (5 with the starter); the crib needs all five cards for 5.
Winning
The first player to reach 121 wins immediately, at any moment in the hand.
House rules
- Muggins. If a player misses points while counting, the opponent calls “muggins” and pegs them instead.
- Lurch or skunk. If the loser hasn’t reached 61, they are lurched and the win counts double. In the American version, under 91 is a skunk (double) and under 61 a double skunk (triple or quadruple).
- Five-card Cribbage. The older version: five cards each, two to the crib, and a game to 61.
