How to Count Cribbage Hands

After pegging ends, you count your 4-card hand — and the starter card counts as a fifth card in your hand. Every score comes from one of five categories, and you count all of them:

• Fifteens — 2 points per combination totaling 15
• Pairs — 2 points per pair
• Runs — 1 point per card in a sequence of 3+
• Flush — 4 or 5 points for matching suits
• His nobs — 1 point for the right Jack

The same card can appear in as many different combinations as it fits — a single 5 might make three separate fifteens and be part of a run. Here's a first hand counted in full:

Your hand

Starter

6

points

Notice the K♥ + 5♠ fifteen: face cards count 10 when summing to fifteen (and Aces count 1, always — never 11).

Every distinct combination of cards that adds up to exactly 15 scores 2 points — combinations of two cards, three, four, or all five. Card values: Ace = 1, face cards = 10, everything else its face value.

Your hand

Starter

6

points

A pattern worth memorizing: every ten-card (10, J, Q, K) paired with a 5 is a fifteen. That's why fives are the most valuable cards in cribbage — this hand's single 5 made all three fifteens.

Multi-card combinations count too: 7 + 6 + 2, A + 4 + K, and even five cards like A + A + 3 + 4 + 6 each score 2.

Each pair of same-rank cards scores 2 points. Three of a kind is worth 6 — not because of a special rule, but because three cards make three distinct pairs. Four of a kind makes six pairs: 12 points.

Your hand

Starter

6

points

Pairing is by rank only — a 10 and a Jack both count ten toward fifteens, but they don't pair with each other.

Three or more consecutive ranks score 1 point per card: a run of three is 3, a run of four is 4, a run of five is 5. Suits don't matter, and neither does the order the cards sit in — 4♦ 6♣ 5♥ is a run.

Your hand

Starter

3

points

Rank order is A-2-3 … 10-J-Q-K. Aces are always low: A-2-3 is a run, Q-K-A is not, and runs don't wrap around.

When a card in a run is duplicated, the run counts once for each copy — plus the pair. 6-7-7-8 is two separate 6-7-8 runs (one with each 7) and a pair of sevens. These hands are where the big counts live:

Your hand

Starter

16

points

At the table you'll hear this called a "double run of three for 8" — the two runs (6) and the pair (2) bundled together. PegOut announces the runs and the pair as separate lines; same points either way.

The family, with the pair(s) folded in:

• Double run of 3 (e.g. 4-5-5-6) — 8 points
• Double run of 4 (e.g. 4-5-5-6-7) — 10 points
• Triple run (e.g. 4-5-5-5-6) — 15 points
• Double-double run (e.g. 4-4-5-6-6) — 16 points

All four cards in your hand sharing a suit scores 4 points. If the starter matches too, it's 5. Three cards plus a matching starter is nothing — the flush must live in your hand.

Your hand

Starter

4

points

The crib is stricter: a crib only scores a flush when all five cards — the four in the crib and the starter — share a suit, for 5 points. A four-card crib flush is worth zero.

Holding the Jack of the starter's suit scores 1 point, called "his nobs" (or just "nobs").

Your hand

Starter

1

point

Don't confuse it with his heels — when the starter itself is a Jack, the dealer pegs 2 immediately at the cut. Heels is scored during play; nobs is part of counting your hand.

Real hands mix categories, so count in a fixed order and you won't miss points: fifteens first, then runs, then pairs, then flush, then nobs. Out loud it sounds like "fifteen two, fifteen four, … and a double run makes …".

Your hand

Starter

16

points

This is the classic shape worth burning into memory: a 5 next to a 4-5-6 run with a ten-card starter. Double run (8) plus four fifteens (8) — 16 points from modest-looking cards.

In a real game, non-dealer counts first, then the dealer's hand, then the crib. Order matters at the finish line: if both players could cross 121 on the same deal, non-dealer counts out first and wins.

The best possible cribbage hand is 29: three fives and the Jack, with the fourth five as the starter — the Jack matching the starter's suit.

Your hand

Starter

29

points

The odds are about 1 in 216,580 hands. Most players go a lifetime without one.

At the other end, 19 is impossible — no combination of five cards scores exactly 19 (nor 25, 26, or 27). That's why a zero-point hand is jokingly called a "nineteen hand":

Your hand

Starter

0

points

• Forgetting the starter. You're counting five cards, not four — the starter joins every hand and the crib.
• Counting a double run once. 4-5-5-6 is two runs and a pair: 8 points, not 4.
• Missing overlapping fifteens. The same card can be reused across combinations — four 5s and a Jack make eight distinct fifteens.
• Counting Q-K-A as a run. Aces are low only. A-2-3 works; K-A-2 doesn't.
• Counting a 3-card flush. The minimum is all four hand cards — and a crib flush needs all five.
• Taking nobs for the wrong Jack. Only the Jack matching the starter's suit scores — and if the starter is itself a Jack, that was the dealer's 2 for heels, pegged back at the cut.

Highest hand: 29. Impossible totals: 19, 25, 26, 27.