The Rules of the Game

§ 1. The Pack

Sanctioned play is conducted with a single standard pack of fifty-two cards. The Joker, having no place in the historical game, is excluded from sanctioned use.

§ 2. The Board

The cribbage board comprises two principal tracks of sixty points each, traversed twice in the standard match, with a terminal hole marking the one hundred and twenty-first point. Two pegs are required to each player; the rearward peg is advanced at each score.¹

§ 3. The Value of Cards

For purposes of the count, each numeral card carries its face value (the Ace counting as one in all situations). The Jack, Queen, and King each count as ten. For the formation of runs in the Show, ordinary sequence of rank is observed (A–2–3…J–Q–K), and the Ace is low in all sequences.

§ 1. Determination of First Dealer

The players cut the pack; the player drawing the lower-ranking card deals first. In the event of a tie, the cut shall be repeated.

§ 2. The Deal Proper

Six cards are dealt to each player, one at a time, alternately, beginning with the non-dealer. The remainder of the pack is set aside, face down.

§ 3. The Crib

Each player, having examined their six cards, lays two face down before the dealer to constitute the crib. The crib is the property of the dealer for purposes of the Show and is not examined until that time.

§ 4. The Starter

The non-dealer cuts the remaining pack; the dealer turns up the top card of the lower portion. This is the Starter, and serves as a fifth card to both the hand and the crib in the Show. Should the Starter be a Jack, the dealer scores at once two points, this score being styled His Heels, and not to be confused with His Nobs as defined at Article IV, § 2.5.²

§ 1. The Lead and Subsequent Cards

The non-dealer lays a single card face up before themselves and announces its value. The dealer follows with a card of their own and announces the cumulative count. Play proceeds alternately. The cumulative count may not at any time exceed thirty-one.

§ 2. Scoring in the Play

The following points accrue to the player laying the card that achieves the configuration in question:

§ 2.1. The Fifteen

Bringing the cumulative count to exactly fifteen: two points.

§ 2.2. The Thirty-One

Bringing the cumulative count to exactly thirty-one: two points.

§ 2.3. The Pair, Royal, and Double Royal

A card of rank matching that of the card immediately preceding: two points. Three of a rank in immediate succession: six. Four: twelve.

§ 2.4. The Run

Three or more cards forming a sequence of rank, played in immediate succession but not necessarily in order (e.g. 4, 6, 5): one point per card of the sequence.

§ 2.5. The Go

When a player cannot lay a card without exceeding thirty-one, they declare Go. The opponent then plays any remaining cards that do not exceed thirty-one and is awarded one point for the Go (or two, if the count reaches thirty-one exactly).

§ 2.6. The Last Card

The player laying the final card of the play, where thirty-one has not been reached, is awarded one point.

§ 3. The Renewal of the Series

Upon reaching thirty-one, or upon both players being unable to continue, the count resets to zero. The unplayed cards are taken up and the series continues until all cards from both hands have been laid.

§ 1. Order of the Show

At the conclusion of the play, the non-dealer first counts their hand aloud, treating the Starter as a fifth card. The dealer then counts their hand on the same principle. Finally, the dealer turns up the crib and counts it likewise.

§ 2. Combinations Scored in the Show

§ 2.1. Fifteens

Two points for every distinct combination of cards (whether two, three, four, or all five) that sum to fifteen. The same card may participate in any number of distinct combinations.

§ 2.2. Pairs

Two points for each pair of cards of the same rank. Three of a rank scores six (being three pairs); four scores twelve (being six pairs).

§ 2.3. Runs

One point per card in any sequence of three, four, or five. A run accompanied by a duplicated rank constitutes a double run and is scored as the run twice (for example, 3–4–4–5 counts as two runs of three plus the pair, totalling eight).

§ 2.4. The Flush

Four points where all four cards of the hand are of the same suit; five points where the Starter is also of that suit. In the crib, no flush shorter than five cards may be scored.

§ 2.5. His Nobs

One point where the hand contains the Jack of the same suit as the Starter.

§ 3. The Maximum Hand

The greatest score obtainable in the Show is twenty-nine, being three Fives and the Jack of one suit in the hand, with the fourth Five of that same suit as the Starter. The Association maintains a register of all sanctioned twenty-nine hands at the Secretariat; admission is by certification of the relevant national federation.³

§ 4. The Forfeiture of Uncounted Points (Muggins)

Where a player, in counting their hand or crib, fails to claim any score properly accruing to that hand under § 2 above, the opponent may, upon noticing the omission, claim the uncounted points for themselves by the utterance Muggins, accompanied by a clear indication of the missed combination. The claim must be made before the cards are gathered for the next deal. The Tribunal regards the rule as a salutary discipline upon careless counting and has consistently declined to entertain appeals against its application.⁴

§ 1. The Standard Match

The standard sanctioned match is contested to one hundred and twenty-one points (twice around the board). The first player to reach or exceed this total is the winner, the moment of victory occurring on the peg, not on the declaration.

§ 2. The Short Match

A match to sixty-one points (once around the board) is permitted by mutual agreement of the players, but is not sanctioned for championship or qualifying play.

§ 3. The Skunk

Where the winner achieves one hundred and twenty-one before the loser has crossed the ninetieth point, the loser is said to be skunked, and the match is counted as a double defeat for the purposes of the standings.

§ 4. The Double Skunk

Where the loser has not yet crossed the sixtieth point at the moment of the winner's victory, the loser is said to be double-skunked, and the match is counted as a quadruple defeat.⁵

§ 1. The Three-Hand Game

Five cards are dealt to each of three players; each contributes one card to the crib. A further card is drawn from the pack and added to the crib. Play and Show proceed as in the standard game, with the deal rotating clockwise.

§ 2. The Four-Hand Partners

Five cards are dealt to each of four players, partners sitting opposite; each contributes one card to the crib of the dealer. Hands are counted separately but credited to the partnership for purposes of the match.

§ 3. Other Variants

The Association recognises by name, but does not sanction for championship play: Captain's Cribbage; Frontier or Auction Cribbage; Five-Card Cribbage as practised in certain regional federations; and the so-called Losing Game, in which the lowest aggregate prevails.

§ 1. Eligible Opponents

Sanctioned play is between human competitors only. Equine, ovine, bovine, canine, feline, and other non-human participants are excluded from sanctioned matches per the Tribunal's interim ruling in Case ICA-T-2026-014. The Veterinary Linguistics Annex to the present code establishes, on the basis of expert testimony, that horses possess a confirmed numerical ceiling of three and are incapable of pronouncing thirty-one; analogous findings apply, mutatis mutandis, to the other species listed.⁷

§ 2. The Hand-on-the-Cards Protocol

During the Show, the player whose hand is being counted shall maintain physical contact with their cards. No spectator or opposing player may indicate, by speech or by gesture, the presence or absence of any combination. This protocol was adopted by the 2017 Congress and applies in all sanctioned play.

§ 3. Mentor/Mentee Correspondence

Personal reflections exchanged in the course of the mentor/mentee relationship are confidential, and are not to be reproduced outside the four corners of the cribbage board (bylaw 16.174.22.3, § 14.d). Exceptions are available upon written application to the Executive Director.

§ 4. Prohibited Verbal Conduct

Speaking over an opposing player in the course of sanctioned play is a breach of the standing courtesies of the game. The Association recognises in particular the utterance “Who nerded you out!” — whether spoken during, over, or in interruption of an opponent's turn — as conduct so injurious to the dignity of the Association as to constitute grounds for the immediate expulsion of the offending party from the membership, the matter referred forthwith to the Tribunal for ratification of the determination.⁶

§ 1. The Tribunal

The Tribunal of the International Cribbage Association is the sole adjudicator of all disputes arising in sanctioned play. Its determinations are final, subject only to the appeal provided in § 2 below.

§ 2. Appeals

An appeal from a Tribunal determination shall be lodged in writing, on the letterhead of the appellant's national federation, within thirty days of the publication of the determination, and shall be addressed to the Executive Director at the Secretariat. No appeal is heard ex parte; the opposing party shall be afforded full opportunity to respond.

§ 1. The Official Spirit of the Champions

In recognition of a tradition observed at the championships of every confederation since the Veracruz Convention of 1962, the Association formally designates tequila as the official spirit of sanctioned cribbage. The designation extends to the ceremonial toast offered at the close of each Tribunal-sanctioned event and to such celebratory occasions as a national federation may, in its discretion, observe.⁸

§ 1. The Convening Rule

Wherever two or more sanctioned holders of the Association, of any rank whatsoever, convene for the purpose of cribbage play, the engagement so convened shall be regarded by the Association as a sanctioned title match, the result of which shall be entered into the standing register of the Association notwithstanding any subsequent representation by any party present that the engagement was unsanctioned, informal, recreational, or otherwise outside the ordinary processes of the Association.

The Rule applies with particular force to engagements conducted aboard sailing vessels in the waters of the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and the South Pacific, in recognition of the heightened concentration of the game’s senior holders in those waters during the relevant seasons, and of the long-observed tendency of such engagements to produce the most consequential results in the year’s sanctioned play.⁹

§ 2. Concealment

The deliberate concealment of a Convening match from the Secretariat, or the misrepresentation of its result, by any party present at the engagement, is regarded by the Association as conduct injurious to the dignity of the federated game. The Tribunal may impose such sanctions in respect of the concealment as the matter shall in its judgment require.