Pegging in cribbage, and the go

Pegging is the part of the hand where the cards are laid one at a time and points are pegged as they fall. Here is each way to peg, with the cards laid in order and the count said the way it is said at the table.

Play Mabel

The count to 31

The player who did not deal lays the first card and says its value. Then you take turns, each laying a card and saying the new count. Face cards count 10, an ace counts 1. The count may never go past 31. Pegging comes after the deal and the discard to the crib; how to play shows where it sits in a hand.

In each example below the cards are laid left to right, and the points are for the last card.

Fifteen and thirty-one, 2 each

Make the count exactly 15 and peg 2. Make it exactly 31 and peg 2.

7♦ 8♣ count 15

A 7, then an 8: “fifteen two”.

K♠ 10♦ 9♣ 2♥ count 31

King, 10, 9, then a 2 for 31: “thirty-one for two”.

Pairs as the cards fall

Lay the same rank as the card just laid and peg 2. A third in a row is a pair royal, 6. A fourth is a double pair royal, 12. Only cards laid in a row count: a card between them breaks it.

5♠ 5♥ count 10

A 5 on a 5: “ten for two”.

4♠ 4♥ 4♦ count 12

A third 4: “twelve for six”.

3♠ 3♥ 3♦ 3♣ count 12

The fourth 3: a double pair royal, “twelve for twelve”.

Runs as the cards fall

If the last three or more cards laid make a run, in any order, peg 1 for each card. A pair in the middle breaks the run.

4♥ 5♣ 6♠ count 15

A 4, a 5, then a 6: the count is 15 for 2, and a run of three for 3 more, “fifteen five”.

9♦ 7♣ 8♥ count 24

A 9, a 7, then an 8: the three are in a row, in any order, “twenty-four for three”.

2♣ 3♦ 4♠ 5♥ count 14

A run of four, “fourteen for four”.

4♦ 5♣ 5♥ count 14

The second 5 is a pair for 2, but 4, 5, 5 is not a run.

The go and last card

If you can't lay a card without going past 31, say go. The other player keeps laying cards while they can. Whoever lays the last card under 31 pegs 1 for the go. Then the count starts again at zero, and the player who said go leads.

Here is a go against Mabel, the computer opponent. You dealt, so she leads.

Mabel lays a king: “ten”.
You lay a 10: “twenty”.
Mabel lays a 9: “twenty-nine”.
You hold a 4 and a 7. Either would go past 31, so you say go.
Mabel has nothing of 2 or less to lay, so she pegs 1 for the go.
The count goes back to zero, and you lead the new count.

K♠ 10♦ 9♣ count 29

The 9 pegs nothing itself. The go is pegged after the other player says go: 1 to Mabel.

If the last card had made exactly 31, it would peg 2 for thirty-one and nothing for a go, and the count would start again just the same.

Whoever lays the very last card of pegging pegs 1 for last card, unless that card made 31, which is 2 and no more.

3♣ 2♦ 2♠ count 7

Your last card, a 2 on a 2: a pair for 2, and 1 for last card, 3 on the pegboard.

After the last card

After the last card comes the show: each hand is counted with the starter, the player who did not deal first, then the dealer's hand and the crib. How to count a cribbage hand shows each score with a hand counted out.

Mabel's Cribbage keeps the count for you and pegs each score as the card lands, in these same words. Every point pegged here counts toward 121, and toward staying past the skunk line at 91.

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