Cribbage Strategy Guide

Cribbage strategy comes down to three choices you make every deal: which two cards you throw to the crib, which card you lead and follow with in pegging, and how hard to push given where you stand on the board. Luck still matters. Two leading players report that even the best win only about 58 to 60 percent of their games, and between equal players the first dealer wins about 55 to 56 percent. The tips below come from published discard tables and from expert pegging and board-position play. For the rules themselves, see the full cribbage rules.

Discarding to the Crib

Throw cards that score together into your own crib, and cards that cannot combine into your opponent's. The dealer scores the crib as a bonus hand, so the same two cards can be the right throw as dealer and the wrong one as pone (non-dealer). A crib built from real discards averages just under 4.8 points.

Discarding as Dealer

As dealer, the crib is yours, so aim for the best total of hand plus crib. Published discard tables rank a pair of 5s as the strongest throw, averaging 8.79 points in your own crib. 2-3 and 5-J average 7.00, 5 with a 10 or King 6.66, and 7-8 6.53. The weakest throw is 10-King at 2.84. Touching cards usually beat a stray pair: 6-7 averages 5.14 against 4.30 for King-King, because a pair is already worth its 2 and improves on few starters. A 5 with any ten-card is worth 2 before you see the starter.

Discarding as Pone

As pone, you are feeding your opponent's crib. Never throw a 5 there: 5-5 hands the dealer 9.37 points on average and 5-J 7.76. The safest throws pair a middle card with a high one: 10-King gives away 3.88, 9-King 4.03, 9-Queen 4.11, and 6-King 4.14. Low throws such as A-2 or A-3 give up 5.07, safer than touching cards like 3-4 at 5.96, but well behind 10-King. The King is the safest single card because it can only extend a run one way, through Jack and Queen.

Balancing Hand and Crib

Add the points you keep to the average value of the throw. From 2-3-5-8-King-King, keeping 5-8-King-King or 2-3-King-King both leave 6 points in hand, but as dealer throwing 2-3 (about 7) beats throwing 5-8 (about 5.5). Rank the four you keep by their average with the starter: 2-2-3-6 (2 showing) averages 6.17, and 2-6-7-9 (4 showing) 6.04.

Pegging Strategy

Pegging is the phase where you lay cards in turn, scoring for 15, 31, pairs, and runs. Whether you play to score or to deny depends on the board position, covered below.

Defensive Pegging

Lead a card below 5. Off an Ace, 2, 3, or 4, even a ten-card reply stops at 14, so nothing pegs 15. Every lead from 5 up can be answered for 15: a 5 by any ten-card, a 6 by a 9, a 7 by an 8, and a ten-card by a 5. The best defensive lead comes from a pair, so a pairing reply walks into your third card. Avoid pairing your opponent's card unless you hold the fourth, and keep your cards apart in rank so they cannot join a run.

Offensive Pegging

When you need pegging points, set traps. Lead from a pair: if your opponent pairs you for 2, you lay the third for 6. Hold cards that add to 11, such as 7 and 4: against a King lead you play the 7 for 17, and if your opponent adds a Queen for 27 your 4 makes 31. From 4-6-6, the non-dealer can lead a 6; if the dealer answers with a King (16), the second 6 makes 22, and a 5 from the dealer (27) lets the 4 finish at 31 with a run of 4-5-6, 5 points for one card. Save low cards, pairs, and touching cards for late in the play, when a go or last card is on offer.

Danger Counts: 5 and 21

Two counts hand over free points. Leave the count on 5 and any of the 16 ten-value cards makes fifteen for 2. Leave it on 21 and those same cards make 31 for 2. A count of 11 costs you nothing by itself, because the ten-value card that answers it only reaches 21, which scores zero. Read the count before you play, and when you are pegging defensively keep it off 5 and 21.

Keeping 5s and Face Cards

Fives earn their place because they combine with the 16 ten-value cards (10, J, Q, K) to make 15. Keep your 5s, or throw them into your own crib as dealer, where 5-5 is the best throw in the tables. Throwing a 5 into your opponent's crib is one of the costliest throws you can make.

Ten-cards earn their keep alongside 5s. Before the starter, 5-10-Q-K counts 6 for three fifteens, 5-10-K-K counts 8 with the pair of Kings, and 5-J-Q-K counts 9 with the run. A Jack also scores 1 for his nob when it matches the starter's suit, so when you throw a ten-card into your opponent's crib, prefer one that is not a Jack.

Board Position Awareness

Measure yourself against par. In DeLynn Colvert's charted games the dealer averaged 16.2 points a deal (hand, crib, and pegging combined) and the pone 10.2, about 26 points for each player every two deals. This is his Theory of 26. At that pace the first dealer reaches 16, 26, 42, 52, 68, 78, 94, 104, and then 120 after nine deals (the unrounded 16.2 and 10.2 put the dealer on 121.8), so an average game is won by the first dealer counting the crib on the ninth deal.

In our game the computer always deals first, so you are always the first pone, and the first dealer wins about 55 to 56 percent of games between equal players. To win you need to finish about 7 points above average, so play for points from the first card. Colvert's targets for the first pone after each of the first eight deals are 17, 33, 43, 59, 69, 85, 95, 111. Ahead of that pace, play the defensive line; behind it, take pegging risks.

Players divide the board into four 30-hole streets: first street is holes 1 to 30, second 31 to 60, third 61 to 90, and fourth 91 to 120, with 121 the game hole. Par tells you more than the street does, but by fourth street every choice should be made with the finish in mind.

Endgame Strategy

Near the end, count what each side needs before you play a card. The game stops the moment anyone reaches 121, and the pone counts first in the show. With both players on 115, the pone is the clear favorite, needing 6 and counting first. With both on 105, the dealer is, because a dealer's average deal of about 16 reaches 121.

Keep the cards the finish needs. Needing 2 to 4 pegging points, keep touching cards. Needing 6 or 7, keep a pair and hope to make three of a kind. Needing 10 or more, keep a pair of 7s or lower: four 7s total 28, which fits under 31 for a double pair royal, while four 8s would pass it.

Defending a lead. When your opponent needs 7 or more to peg out, lead a card below 5, preferably from a pair, and do not hold 4-5-6 as your last cards. As pone protecting a big lead, throw 9-King rather than 10-King: 10-King can give the dealer a crib of up to 20.

The Stinkhole and Other Board Traps

Hole 120, one point from winning, is called the stinkhole (the American Cribbage Congress rulebook calls it the dead hole, and gives the stinkhole name to hole 90). A player sitting on 120 wins with any score at all, even a single go. Some house rules forbid pegging out from 120 on a go; our game allows it. When your opponent sits there, peg as tightly as you can and deny even one point.

The 90 line is the other trap: a loser who never passes it is skunked, and one left on 60 or less is double-skunked. Our game names either result when the game ends and counts the win once.