a card game for two or sometimes three or four players, a characteristic feature of which is the crib, and in which the object is to make counting combinations for points that are scored on a cribbage board.

Card game, usually for two players, in which each tries to form various counting combinations of cards, the score being kept by moving pegs on a narrow rectangular board.

Each player receives six cards. (There is also a five-card variant, as well as four-hand and three-hand variants.) Cribbage was invented by the 17th-century English poet Sir John Suckling. The rules of play, though somewhat involved, are simple enough to make cribbage a popular pastime, particularly in Britain and the northern U.S. The game usually ends at 121 (twice around the board plus one).

card game in which the object is to form counting combinations that traditionally are scored by moving pegs on a special cribbage board. The appeal of the game, usually played by two but with a popular variant played by four or occasionally by three, is evident from two facts: few changes have been made in the original rules, and it remains one of the most popular of all card games. In the United States cribbage is played by more than 10 million people, principally across the northern states from New England to the Pacific, and the game has remained popular in Canada as well. In Great Britain (United Kingdom) one to two million players compete in nationwide leagues, to which might be added a comparable number of casual players.

Though commonly credited to the invention of the 17th-century English (England) poet Sir John Suckling (Suckling, Sir John), cribbage clearly developed from an earlier game called noddy, which also used a special scoring board, as did the related but more-complicated game of costly colours, described by Charles Cotton in The Compleat Gamester (1674) and current in parts of England until nigh on the 20th century. Cribbage would quite likely have become the most popular of all two-hand card games if so many descriptions had not called the cribbage board indispensable, which it is not.

Almost the only big change from the original rules is that, in the United States and in the British two-player domestic game, each player is dealt six cards instead of the original five. Five-card cribbage remains popular in British club and tournament play, however, since it is commonly played as a four-hand partnership game where five is the norm and a switch to six cards for two players would be confusing.

Scoring is traditionally called pegging because it usually is done by moving pegs on a scoring device, the cribbage board. This cribbage board is essentially a tablet with 60 counting holes (in two rows of 30) for each player, plus one game hole for each and often extra holes for holding pegs when not in play and for keeping track of games won. Game is 121 (twice around the board plus one for the game hole) or 61 in the less frequently played game of once around. Each player has two pegs, and each scoring point is marked by jumping the rearmost peg ahead of the other (thus showing at a glance the number of points scored on a move as well as the total). Scores must be pegged in order because the first player to reach 121 (or 61) or, in some games, to pass it is the winner. Emphasis on the board as a scoring device created the idea that the game could not be played without it, but the score can be kept with pencil and paper or with chips or other counters. Cribbage boards are also available with 180 holes (for playing up to 181).

The standard 52-card deck is used, the cards ranking from king (high) to ace (low). Face cards count 10 each; other cards count their index value (number of pips). The player cutting low card deals first, the deal alternating with each hand. Six cards are dealt alternately to the nondealer and to the dealer. Each player then discards two cards facedown to form the crib. In discarding to the crib, since it scores for the dealer, the nondealer tries to lay away “balking” cards, those least likely to create scoring combinations. After the discard, the undealt remainder of the pack is cut by the nondealer; the top card of the lower packet is turned faceup on top of the reunited deck and becomes the starter. If the starter is a jack, dealer immediately pegs (scores) two points, called “two for his heels.” If the starter is any other card, the jack of that suit—formerly called “knave noddy,” an unmistakable link with the earlier game—is worth one point to the holder for “his nob” but is not scored until later. This is followed by the two stages of scoring, the play and the showing.

The nondealer begins the play by laying faceup before him any card from his hand, announcing its counting value. Dealer then plays a card (each adds cards to his own pile so that his original hand may be counted later in the showing) and announces the total of the two cards. Play continues alternately, each player announcing the new total, until the total reaches 31 or until one player cannot play without increasing the total beyond 31. If either player cannot add a card without exceeding 31, his opponent must play any card(s) in his hand that may be added without exceeding 31. The last to play in each sequence scores a “go”—two points for reaching exactly 31 or one for any lesser total. After a go, count begins again at zero.

In addition to go, the object is to peg for certain combinations of cards played consecutively. These combinations score whether the cards are played in strict alternation or in succession by one player when the opponent cannot play. The score in every case is pegged by the player whose card completes the combination. Any player who can add to a combination, provided there has been no intervening card, can score the value of the new combination. Combinations are scored for playing a card that makes the count exactly 15 (score 2 points); for playing cards of the same rank to make a pair (2 points), three of a kind (6 points), or four of a kind (12 points); and for playing a third or later card to form a run, or sequence, regardless of suits and regardless of the order in which the cards are played (1 point for each card in the run).

The next stage of scoring is the showing. After all four cards have been played, the values in each hand are counted—the nondealer's hand first, then the dealer's hand, then the crib, which scores for the dealer. The starter counts as a fifth card in each of the three hands. Every combination of two or more cards totaling 15 scores two points; each pair, two points; every sequence of three or more cards, one point for each card in the sequence; four cards of the same suit, four points, or five points if the same suit as the starter (but only a five-card flush matching the starter counts in the crib); and his nob (jack of the same suit as the starter), one point. Every possible different grouping of cards in the hand, plus starter, counts separately, except that a sequence of four or five cards may be counted only once and not as two or more separate sequences of three.

As indicated above, the order of scoring on each hand is important and is as follows: (1) two for his heels (to the dealer, for turning a jack), (2) scoring for various combinations in the play up to 31, (3) scoring in play for go (one point, or two points for making 31 exactly), (4) scoring of nondealer's hand, (5) scoring of dealer's hand, and (6) dealer's scoring of crib. When either or both players approach a score of 121 (or 61), greater significance attaches to whose turn it is to score, in that the nondealer has the advantage of scoring for cards in hand first, making it more urgent for the dealer to score in the play up to 31. The game ends immediately if either player is able to count out in the play or the showing. If nondealer is able to count out in the showing, it does not matter if the dealer, with or without counting his crib, could have scored a higher total. The loser scores only what he has already pegged before his opponent counts out, and if he has not already counted at least 61 (or 31), he is “lurched” (“left in the lurch”) and, if the play is for stakes, loses doubly. (As sometimes played, the winner must be able to count out to exactly 121, just as, in playing for a go, he tries to reach 31 exactly. Thus, for example, if a player's score is 120, he can count out only if he can score exactly one point, as for his nobs or for go.) Some play that, if a player fails to claim his full score on any turn, his opponent may call out, “Muggins,” and score for himself any points overlooked.

After each player has played all four of his cards and the showing has been completed, the cards are put back in the deck and shuffled and dealt as before.

In five-card cribbage, the original game, each player discards two cards into the crib, remaining with only three, plus starter. At the beginning of the initial hand, nondealer pegs three to offset dealer's advantage. Game is 61.

Four-hand cribbage is played in partnerships of two on a side, partners seated across the table from each other. The dealer gives each player five cards; each discards only one into the crib. The score is usually slightly less in the showing, but the average per side is about nine points in the play. Game is always 121.

In three-hand cribbage each player is dealt five cards. Each player then discards one into the crib, and a single card is dealt blind to complete the crib, which belongs to the dealer. The player at dealer's left shows first, and each player scores for himself.

Reliable sources for rules include Joli Quentin Kansil (ed.), Bicycle Official Rules of Card Games (2002); David Parlett, The A–Z of Card Games, 2nd ed. (2004; 1st ed. published as Oxford Dictionary of Card Games, 1992); and Barry Rigal, Card Games for Dummies, 2nd ed. (2005).