Cribbage Rules

Score points during the play and the count until one side reaches the target, which is 121 by default, with a shorter 61-point game also available. The first side to reach it wins the instant it gets there, whether that's during the play, on turning up his heels, or partway through somebody else's count. The game stops the moment the target is reached, even before the dealer has counted a card.

• 2 to 4 players. Four-handed is partners, each of you with the player across the table, sharing one score between you, though each of you still plays your own hand and partners cannot consult.
• Two-handed: six cards dealt to each hand, and each player throws two of them to the crib.
• Three-handed: five cards each, one thrown to the crib from each hand, and one more dealt straight off the top of the deck to make the crib up to four.
• Four-handed: five cards each, one thrown to the crib from each hand.
• Whatever the table size, the crib is always four cards and it always belongs to the dealer. The deal passes to the left after every hand.

Once the last discard is in, the top card of what's left of the deck is turned up as the starter. If it's a Jack, that's "his heels" and the dealer pegs two immediately, before a card is played.

Starting on the dealer's left, seats play one card at a time face up onto a running count that must never pass 31. Aces count one; face cards count ten. Points score immediately, to whoever played the card that earned them:

What happens	Points
The count reaches exactly 15	2
The count reaches exactly 31	2 (and the count resets)
A pair (two of the same rank played back to back)	2
Three of a rank in a row	6
Four of a rank in a row	12
A run of three or more, in any order (7-5-6 counts)	1 per card
"Go", when nobody can play under 31, so the last card played scores	1

Face cards pair by rank only (a Queen does not pair a King) and runs are by rank too, so 10-J-Q is a run and 9-10-J-Q-K is a run of five.

A seat that cannot play under 31 is passed automatically. There's no decision in it and no turn left waiting on a seat that has nothing legal to play. Once nobody at the table can go, the count resets to zero and the seat after whoever played last leads off again, if anyone's still holding cards.

Pairs and runs never reach back across a reset. Once the count returns to zero, the cards that made the last run or pair stop counting toward the next one.

Once every card has been played, each hand is counted against the starter as a fifth card: non-dealer first, then the dealer, then the dealer's crib last. That order matters: on the last hand of a game, the non-dealer can win before the dealer gets to count anything at all.

What's in the hand	Points
Every distinct combination of cards summing to 15	2 each
Every pair of same-rank cards	2 each (three of a kind is 6, four of a kind is 12)
A run of three or more, once for every way it can be made	1 per card, per run
A flush, four cards of the hand's own suit	4
A flush including the starter, all five the same suit	5
His nobs, a Jack of the starter's own suit, in the hand or crib	1

The crib counts the same way, with one exception: a four-card flush does not count in the crib. Only a full five-card flush (crib and starter all one suit) scores there, and it scores 5.

Face cards count ten for fifteens, but keep their own rank for pairs and runs. That's the distinction that trips up most kitchen-table counts, and the site's engine has been checked against the perfect 29, the classic 24s, and the scores that can never occur at all (19, 25, 26 and 27) over the entire distribution of possible hands.

• Throwing to the crib: drag a card from your hand onto the crib. At a two-player table you throw two: the first card you drag waits in your hand, outlined in gold, and the second sends them both. A click marks or unmarks a card without throwing it, and the crib's Throw them in button sends the ones you've marked.
• The play: on your turn, drag a card onto the play in the middle of the table. The count is shown above it. A card that would take the count past 31 comes back to your hand.
• The count: when it's your turn to count, press the button in the count box. With muggins on, type what you think your hand (or crib) is worth and press Claim. If you leave the table waiting, it counts for you after a little while, and counts it correctly.
• "Go" and the cut happen by themselves. A seat that can't play under 31 is passed (the table shows a Go beside it), and the starter is turned up the moment the last card lands in the crib.
• The host deals the first hand; after that the deal passes to the left.
• The board in the corner has a lane for each side, with a front peg and a back peg: the gap between them is the last score made.

Every table plays these the usual way unless its host chooses otherwise before the deal. The settings box offers exactly these, in these words:

Setting	What it does	Unless changed
Playing to	The first side to peg this many points wins, the instant it gets there. 121 is twice round the board; 61 is once.	121 points (the full game)
Muggins	Off: the table counts every hand and crib for you. On: you say what your hand is worth; claim too little and the next player against you pegs what you missed. You can never claim more than the hand is worth.	Off

A game report also says whether the losing side was skunked (below 91 in a 121-point game, below 31 in a 61-point game) or double-skunked (below 61 in a 121-point game). That's informational only, and nothing is doubled on this site, because that's a wager convention and not a rule of the game itself.