This section sticks to the rules, more or less, so it will be dry reading -- really dry reading. I've italicized references that are specific to the program.
Match Conditions
Matches consist either of a preset number of games or else are played to a preset number of "match points". The winner of the match is the player with the most match points. The program just lets you keep playing as many games as you like until you choose to start a new match.
Match points are awarded only for winning a game. There are no ties in cribbage. The number of match points for a win varies, depending on how soundly you defeat your opponent. Several point systems are in common use. One system (the program default) awards 2 points for a plain win, 3 points for a "skunk", and 4 points for the rare "double skunk". Others count the double skunk as just a skunk. Still others (2-4-6 is common) give more weight to skunks and double skunks. In any case, win/skunk/double skunk have the standard meanings described next.
Game Conditions
Games are played until either player reaches 121 game points. These will just be called points from here on (to distinguish them from match points). The player reaching 121 points is the winner of the game. Scoring in cribbage is not done simultaneously, so frequently the loser of a game will have unclaimed points.
If the losing player has 60 or fewer points (rare), the game is a double skunk. If the losing player has 61 to 90 points, the game is a skunk. Otherwise, the game counts as an ordinary win for the player with 121.
The point ranges for win/skunk/double skunk are not arbitrary. Points are usually marked on a cribbage board, with the players using opposite sides of the board to keep score. Each player's side is further divided into "streets" of 30 holes each. The last street is called "home" street. Points are tracked by leap-frogging two pegs down the streets. The street boundaries coincide with the point cutoffs for win/skunk/double skunk.
There is no requirement to use a cribbage board to keep score, but it is convenient. The visual effect of the peg positions on the board is important to experienced players when they make decisions.
The program cribbage board is a 120-hole tournament board, rather than the usual 60-hole board. With the short board, players sometimes forget whether they are on the first or second pass around the board. The program also allows short 61 point games by giving each player 60 points initially.
Cut for Deal
Players cut for first deal in a match, with the low card by rank winning the deal. Aces are always low in cribbage. By standard cribbage rules, the first deal in each subsequent game is awarded to the loser of the previous game. The program lets you optionally alternate first deals for duplicate match play or lets you handicap play so that the same player always deals first.
The Deal
During games, the deal alternates between the players -- called "dealer" and "pone" -- on successive hands. It is important to know whether you are dealer or pone in any situation in cribbage, as many rules are applied differently depending on the roles.
To start a hand, the dealer shuffles the deck, offers to let the pone cut (he may decline), then deals six cards each, face down, alternately, to the pone and himself. These are tournament rules. In friendly games, opponents often dispense with the offer of a cut. The program handles shuffling and dealing automatically.
A non-standard rule (ignored by the program and in real-life tournament play) actually penalizes you for offering or accepting the cut.
Discarding
Each player next places two of his six cards face down into a common hand called the crib. Later, the crib will be scored by the dealer. The important choice of discards is discussed under Tips and Strategy.
The Cut
Next, the pone removes part of the remainder of the deck from the top, without exposing at any of those cards. The dealer then turns face up the top card from the stack remaining. This card is called the "cut" or "starter card". Later, the cut will be a fifth card common to the dealer hand, the pone hand, and the crib when those hands are scored.
The dealer is entitled to score 2 points now if the cut is a jack. The dealer must score the points (or announce his intention to do so) before the pone plays his first card, or else dealer misses the scoring opportunity. The pone must wait a "reasonable" amount of time to give the dealer a chance to score here.
The program handles this situation when penalties are enabled by displaying a scoring prompt after every cut. You tap Enter or click the back peg to score zero, or else you take 2 points. In friendly games, the scoring prompt is only displayed when a jack is actually cut.
Pegging Play
After the cut, the pegging play takes place. The pone plays first by turning up one of his cards and calling the count. The count is a running sum of the ranks of played cards (with aces counting as 1 and face cards as 10). The play continues, alternating between the two players. The cards are not mixed, so that the hands may be scored later. If one player can no longer make a play within the count limit of 31, he announces "go" and his opponent continues alone until he too can no longer make a play. When the count has reached 31 or when both players have announced "go", the count is reset to zero. Play then continues with the opponent of the player who last played a card now going first. This is repeated until all eight cards from both hands have been played.
The program displays the eight card plays in the same row as a visual convenience and indicates that the count has been reset by flipping the exposed cards face down. The program also calls the count and announces "go" for you automatically during the pegging play.
These are the bare mechanics of pegging play. More important, though, are the ways in which points are scored during the process. This in turn affects your playing strategy (see Tips and Strategy).
Play Scoring
In the following, a pegging sequence refers to those cards played since the count was last at zero.
| Go | In any pegging sequence ending with a count less than 31, the player who last played a card is entitled to 1 point, called a "go" point. |
| 15 or 31 | Playing a card which brings the count to exactly 15 or 31 entitles the player to 2 points. |
| Same Rank | Within a pegging sequence, playing a card that matches the rank of the last 1, 2, or 3 played cards entitles the player to 2, 6, or 12 points, respectively. That is, score 2 points for a pair, 6 points for three-of-a-kind, or 12 points for four-of-a-kind. |
| Run | Within a pegging sequence, playing a card which completes a run of three or more cards entitles the player to 1 point for each card in the run. A run is a series of cards of consecutive rank (aces are always lowest rank in cribbage), in any order. |
These scoring plays can be combined on a single play. For example, the card sequence 4-6-5... at the start of pegging entitles the pone to five points when he plays the 5, since the count is at 15 and since the 5 completes a run of three cards. In cribbage jargon, this would be announced as "Fifteen two and a run of three for five".
Remember -- scoring combinations cannot extend beyond one pegging sequence. Flushes (discussed in hand scoring below) do not count for anything during pegging play.
Cribbage players frequently combine "go" points with other pegging points when possible. However, the program requires "go" points to be scored separately. Sorry about the inconvenience -- couldn't avoid it easily.
Hand Scoring
Once pegging play is completed, the three hands -- pone hand, dealer hand, and crib -- are scored in exactly that order. The cut is a fifth card common to all three hands. Crib points are scored by the dealer. The scoring rules are identical for all three hands except for the way flushes are scored in the crib (see below). As in the pegging, there are several ways to score points. The total score for a hand will usually be a combination of several ways.
| Same Ranks | Four-of-a-kind scores 12, three-of-a-kind scores 6, and each pair scores 2. |
| Runs | Each distinct run of three or more cards scores 1 point for each card in the run. As long as two runs differ by at least one card, they are considered distinct. Again, remember that aces are always low in cribbage. A-2-3 is a run but Q-K-A is not. |
| Nobs | If one of the four retained cards in the hand is a jack whose suit matches the suit of the cut card, then score 1 point for "nobs". |
| Flush | If the four retained cards in the pone or dealer hand are all the same suit, score 4 points for a flush. If, in addition, the suit of the cut card also matches, score a fifth point. In order to score a flush in the crib, all five cards must be the same suit. This scores 5 points. |
| 15's | Each distinct combination of cards whose count-value sums to 15 scores 2 points. As in the pegging, the count value of a card is the same as its rank, except that face cards all have a count-value of 10. Aces have a count-value of 1. |
As a short exercise, try scoring these two dealer hands: 5(cut)-5-5-5-J and A(cut)-A-6-7-8. Assume the jack scores nobs in the first hand and that the four retained cards in the second hand are the same suit. The correct scores are in the Cribbage Trivia section.
Once the crib is scored, the hand is completed and the pone becomes dealer for the next hand, and so on, until the game is concluded.
Penalties
In friendly games, opponents will often call attention to each other's scoring mistakes and allow the player in error to make a correction. For simplicity, the program makes corrections for you in a friendly game.
In ruthless games, penalties are enforced for taking too many or too few points in any scoring situation. As with match scoring rules, there are a few variations in common practice. In tournament play (and in the program when penalties are enabled) these rules are enforced:
1. If you score too many points, your score must be corrected and your opponent takes the excess points you tried to take.
2. If you score too few points, you have in effect already penalized yourself, so nothing else is done.
Some folks are more ruthless than this, and in the second case will take the points you missed. This is called "muggins". Including muggins is a program option. A further tournament rule in practice (not enforced by the program) is that if you take too many points, and in doing so claim victory, you forfeit the game immediately.
The computer prevents several other problem situations from arising, e.g., misdealing, inadvertently exposing cards, improperly calling Go, etc.