Cribbage
Peg, show, and count the crib. Two or three players, first to 121.
At a glance
A standard 52. Six cards each at two players, five at three — and two of them go to the crib.
First to 121, counting fifteens, pairs, runs and flushes.
Pegging, then the non-dealer's hand, then the dealer's, then the crib. The game stops the moment somebody gets there.
29 — three fives and the jack, with the fourth five cut.
How Cribbage scoring works
Points come from three places in every deal, and they are counted in a fixed order:
The play — "pegging". Cards go down alternately, the running total climbing towards 31, and points are scored along the way for making fifteen, for pairs, for runs, for the last card ("the go") and for hitting 31 exactly.
The show. The non-dealer counts their hand first, then the dealer counts theirs. Every combination summing to fifteen is 2, pairs are 2, runs score their length, four of a suit is 4 (five with the starter), and the jack of the starter's suit is 1.
The crib — the four discarded cards, which belong to the dealer and are counted last.
First to 121 wins. A shorter game to 61 — once round the board — is common when time is short.
Why the order matters
Cribbage stops the moment somebody reaches the target. Not at the end of the deal — at that instant. If the non-dealer counts out during the show, the dealer never counts their hand and never counts the crib, however good they are.
This is not an edge case. A large share of games end exactly this way, and it is why the non-dealer counting first is worth real points over an evening: being ahead on the board matters less than being ahead in the counting order.
Casetta Cards applies a deal in the true sequence — pegging, non-dealer's hand, dealer's hand, crib — and stops awarding at the winning point. Enter the whole deal; anything that came after somebody went out is simply not counted.
Twenty-nine
The best possible hand is 29: three fives and the jack, with the fourth five turned up as the starter. Fifteens in every combination, a pair royal, and one for his nob.
It comes up roughly once in two hundred thousand hands, so most players go a lifetime without one — which is why anything entered above 29 here is a miscount rather than a hand, and gets refused.
Common disputes, settled
Does the dealer peg for a jack turned up? Two, immediately — "his heels". It happens before any card is played, so it is part of the pegging.
Who counts first? The non-dealer, always, and it is the whole reason the deal rotates.
Can the crib be counted if the dealer has already won? The game is over the moment they reach the target, so the question does not arise — but if they reach it counting their hand, the crib is never counted at all.
What about three players? Five cards each, one dealt straight to the crib, and each player counts for themselves.
Keeping score without the board
A cribbage board is a fine thing and it forgets everything the moment you put it away. Casetta Cards keeps the deals, remembers who pegged what, and knows the counting order well enough to stop the game where a board would — so a win is a win rather than an argument. Free, in a browser.
Variations
All off unless you turn them on when starting a game.
61 — once round — Half the length, for a quicker game.