How to play Cribbage

Cribbage is one of the oldest card games still in wide play — invented by the English poet Sir John Suckling in the 1600s and a fixture of pubs and kitchen tables ever since. Its charm is the two-stage scoring: you peg points during a quick tactical "play", then count your hand again for combinations. It rewards a good eye for fifteens and runs, and it's just as much fun solo against a bot as across a board.

Goal

Be the first to 121 points. You score by pegging during the play and by counting your hand (and, when you're the dealer, the bonus "crib") at the show.

The deal & the crib

Each player is dealt six cards and discards two face-down to the crib — a bonus fifth hand that belongs to the dealer. Choose your two carefully: throwing strong cards into your own crib helps you, but into your opponent's crib it helps them. A starter card is then cut; if it's a Jack, the dealer pegs 2 ("his heels").

The play (pegging)

• Take turns laying a card, adding its value to a running count (face cards are 10, ace is 1). You can't take the count past 31.
• Peg 2 for making the count exactly 15 or 31, 2 for a pair (6 for three of a kind, 12 for four), and the length of any run of three or more.
• If you can't play without busting 31 you call "Go"; your opponent pegs 1 for the go (or for the last card of the round), and a fresh count begins.

The show

When all cards are played, each hand is counted with the starter as a shared fifth card — first the non-dealer, then the dealer, then the crib. Score 2 for every combination of cards totalling 15, 2 per pair, the length of each run, 4 or 5 for a flush, and 1 for "his nobs" — a Jack in hand matching the starter's suit. Counting first matters: if both of you would cross 121, the non-dealer wins by pegging out first. Hunt for cards that combine three ways at once — a 5 next to tens and a Jack is cribbage gold. G calls go, N starts a new game.