How to count a cribbage hand

At the show you count your four cards with the starter. Here is each kind of score, with a hand counted out the way it is said at the table.

Play Mabel

Your four cards and the starter make five. Count fifteens first, then pairs, then runs, then a flush, then nobs, and say it as you go: "Fifteen two, fifteen four, and a pair is six." Counting in the same order every time is how nothing gets missed. The show comes after pegging, at the end of each hand; how to play shows where it sits.

Fifteens, 2 each

Every set of cards that adds to 15 is 2. Face cards count 10, an ace counts 1. The same card can be in more than one fifteen.

10♠ 5♦ 9♣ 6♥ starter K♠

Fifteen two (10 and 5), fifteen four (king and 5), fifteen six (9 and 6). Six.

Pairs, 2 each

Two of a rank is a pair, 2. Three of a rank is a pair royal, 6, because it holds three pairs. Four of a rank is a double pair royal, 12.

7♣ 7♦ 4♠ 4♥ starter J♣

Fifteen two, fifteen four (each 7 with both 4s), and two pairs is eight. The jack is the starter, not in the hand, so no nobs.

Runs, 1 for each card

Three or more ranks in a row is a run, 1 a card, in any order. A pair inside a run doubles it: 4, 5, 6, 6 is two runs of three, and the pair counts too.

4♦ 5♠ 6♥ 6♣ starter 9♦

Fifteen two, fifteen four (4, 5 and each 6), fifteen six, fifteen eight (9 and each 6), a pair is ten, and a double run of three is sixteen.

4♣ 5♦ 6♠ 7♥ starter 8♦

Fifteen two (4, 5 and 6), fifteen four (7 and 8), and a run of five is nine.

6♦ 7♠ 8♥ 8♣ starter 9♠

Fifteen two, fifteen four (7 with each 8), fifteen six (6 and 9), a pair is eight, and a double run of four is sixteen.

A flush, 4 or 5, and nobs, 1

Four cards of one suit in your hand is 4. If the starter is that suit too, 5. In the crib only the five-card flush counts.

2♥ 6♥ 9♥ K♥ starter 4♠

Fifteen two (6 and 9), fifteen four (2, 9 and 4), and a flush is eight.

2♥ 6♥ 9♥ K♥ starter 4♥

The same hand with a heart turned: the flush is five, nine in all.

2♥ 6♥ 9♥ K♥ starter 4♠

The same four cards in the crib, with a spade turned: four hearts don't count there. Fifteen two, fifteen four, and that is all.

Nobs is the jack of the starter's suit, in your hand or the crib, for 1. A jack turned as the starter is his heels, 2 to the dealer at the cut, and not part of the hand's count.

J♠ 3♦ 8♣ A♥ starter 4♠

Fifteen two (jack, 4 and ace), fifteen four (8, 3 and 4), and nobs is five.

A hand with nothing

Some hands count nothing. The table calls that "nineteen", because 19 is a score no hand can make. The highest a hand can count is 29: the 29 hand counts it out.

K♣ 9♦ 7♠ A♥ starter 3♣

No fifteen, no pair, no run, no flush, no nobs: nineteen.

Counting your own

Mabel's Cribbage counts every hand for you and says it in these words. If you would rather count your own, turn on "Count my own hand": you enter your count at the show, a wrong count gets one more try, and then the right count is shown and pegged.

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