Cribbage Scorer
Cribbage Scorer
Hand flush: 4 cards same suit = 4 pts; 5 cards = 5 pts
Practice Mode
Guess your score before seeing the answer
Select Your Cards
Choose all 4 hand cards and the starter card to see your cribbage score with a full breakdown by category.
Score any cribbage hand instantly — complete breakdown included
Cribbage is one of the most mathematically rich card games ever devised, and counting your hand correctly is the skill that separates beginners from veterans. Miss a fifteen-two and you leave points on the board; overclaim and your opponent calls you out. Our free Cribbage Hand Scorer eliminates counting errors entirely — select your four hand cards and the starter card, choose hand or crib mode, and the scorer instantly displays your exact point total alongside a detailed breakdown showing every scoring combination. The game was invented by the English poet Sir John Suckling in the early 17th century and has been played continuously ever since. It is especially popular in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and the American Cribbage Congress (ACC) organizes competitive play under standardized rules. A standard cribbage game is played to 121 points, tracked on a distinctive wooden board with pegs, and each round consists of a deal, discarding to the crib, cutting the deck to reveal the starter card, a pegging (play) phase, and finally the hand-counting phase where this scorer is most useful. Scoring a cribbage hand involves checking five categories in sequence: fifteens, pairs, runs, flush, and nobs. Every combination of cards that sums to exactly 15 (using pip values where face cards count as 10 and aces count as 1) scores 2 points. Every pair of cards with the same rank scores 2 points — three of a kind therefore yields three pairs for 6 points, and four of a kind yields six pairs for 12 points. Runs of three or more consecutive ranks score points equal to their length, and double runs (a pair within a run) score the run twice plus the pair separately, which can cascade into triple and quadruple runs for surprising totals. A flush scores 4 points if all four hand cards share the same suit, or 5 if the starter also matches — but in crib mode the flush only counts if all five cards match, reflecting the official rule that the crib's flush requirements are stricter. Finally, a Jack in the hand that matches the suit of the starter card scores 1 point for his nob, and if the starter card itself is a Jack, the dealer scores 2 points for his heels. The practice mode on this scorer is designed to sharpen your mental counting speed. A random hand is dealt, you enter your guess, and then the correct answer is revealed with the full breakdown so you can see exactly where your count diverged from the truth. Consistent practice with the scorer trains your eye to spot fifteens and runs at a glance, which speeds up real-game hand counting considerably. For reference, the legendary 29-point hand — the maximum possible score — consists of three 5s and a Jack in the hand, with the starter card being the 5 of the same suit as the Jack. This yields eight fifteens for 16 points, four of a kind in fives for 12 points, and nobs for 1 point. Scores of 19, 25, and 26 are mathematically impossible in cribbage and are often cited as joking answers when a player has a terrible hand. Whether you are a first-time player learning the scoring rules, an intermediate player double-checking a tricky hand during a tournament, or an experienced player who wants to practice counting speed, this scorer provides everything you need in a clean, mobile-friendly interface with no installation required.
Understanding Cribbage Scoring
What Is Cribbage?
Cribbage is a two-player card game (also playable with three or four players) that uses a standard 52-card deck and a distinctive pegboard for score tracking. Each round, players are dealt six cards (or five in some variants), discard two to the shared crib, reveal a starter card by cutting the deck, play through a pegging phase, and then count their hands. The hand-counting phase applies a structured set of scoring rules that reward combinations summing to 15, matching ranks, consecutive rank sequences, same-suit collections, and jack-related bonuses. The first player to peg 121 points wins the game.
How Is the Score Calculated?
The scorer evaluates all five scoring categories against the combined set of four hand cards plus the starter card. Fifteens: every subset of 2–5 cards whose pip values total exactly 15 scores 2 points — all 31 non-empty subsets are checked. Pairs: every pair of cards sharing the same rank scores 2 points, so three of a kind is three pairs (6 pts) and four of a kind is six pairs (12 pts). Runs: all subsets of 3, 4, or 5 cards with consecutive rank ordinals (Ace=1 through King=13) score points equal to their length; longer runs exclude shorter sub-runs from scoring separately, but duplicate ranks create double or triple runs that score independently. Flush: four hand cards of the same suit score 4 points; if the starter also matches, 5 points — in crib mode all five cards must match. Nobs: a Jack in the hand matching the starter's suit scores 1 point. His Heels: a Jack as the starter card scores 2 points for the dealer.
Why Accurate Counting Matters
In competitive cribbage, players are expected to count their own hands and announce the score. Failing to claim points you are owed (muggins rules) means your opponent may take those points instead. Overclaiming is penalized by point deductions. In tournament play under American Cribbage Congress rules, miscounts — whether under or over — can determine the outcome of close games where a single point separates victory from defeat. Even in casual play, consistent accurate counting is a sign of cribbage mastery and earns respect at the table. Using a scorer during learning accelerates skill development by providing immediate feedback on every hand.
Limitations of This Scorer
This scorer covers the standard hand-counting phase of a cribbage game. The pegging (play) phase — where points are scored during card play for 15s, 31s, pairs, and runs in sequence — is a separate scoring system not included in hand counting. The scorer also does not provide statistical discard advice, which would require computing expected values across all possible starter cards for a chosen discard pair; that feature is marked for a future version. This tool assumes standard two-player cribbage rules as defined by the American Cribbage Congress. Variations such as five-card cribbage (an older format) or three/four-player variants may have slightly different scoring rules not reflected here.
How to Use the Cribbage Scorer
Select Your 4 Hand Cards
Use the rank and suit dropdowns for each of the four card slots to enter the cards you were dealt. Rank options run from Ace through King; suit options are Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades. The scorer validates as you go and will alert you to any duplicate cards.
Choose the Starter Card
Enter the rank and suit of the starter card — the card turned face-up after cutting the deck. The starter counts in all scoring categories: fifteens, pairs, runs, and (in hand mode) flush. It does not count toward nobs, but if the starter itself is a Jack, his heels is scored automatically.
Set Hand or Crib Mode
Use the Hand / Crib toggle to select the correct scoring context. In hand mode, four cards of the same suit score a 4-point flush (5 if the starter matches). In crib mode, all five cards including the starter must share a suit for any flush points — a rule unique to crib scoring.
Review Your Score Breakdown
The scorer instantly displays your total with a color-coded donut chart showing each category's contribution. Scroll down to see every individual scoring combination listed — e.g., '5♥ + 10♠ = 15' — so you can verify each line and learn the patterns for faster mental counting at the table.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the maximum possible cribbage hand score?
The maximum is 29 points, achieved with a very specific combination: three 5s and a Jack in the hand, with the starter card being the 5 of the same suit as the Jack. This yields eight fifteens (16 points), four of a kind in fives (12 points — the starter 5 combines with the three hand 5s), and nobs (1 point, since the Jack in hand matches the starter suit). Scores of 28 are achieved with the same four 5s plus a Jack that does not match the starter suit. The 29-point hand is extraordinarily rare; statisticians estimate the probability at roughly 1 in 216,580 hands.
Why are 19, 25, and 26 impossible scores in cribbage?
Certain score values simply cannot be reached by any valid combination of cribbage hands. A score of 19 requires more points than any configuration of cards without a flush or run can produce from basic fifteens and pairs, yet the specific arrangements that would reach 19 all fall just short or skip over it. The same mathematical gap applies to 25 and 26. This quirk has become part of cribbage culture — experienced players often joke that a hand with zero points is 'a 19' because 19 is the highest impossible score, meaning a bad hand scores as likely as a 19. The impossible scores are 19, 25, 26, and 27.
What is the difference between hand mode and crib mode flush scoring?
The flush rule is stricter for the crib than for a regular hand. In hand mode, four hand cards of the same suit score a 4-point flush even if the starter card is a different suit; if the starter also matches, it becomes a 5-point flush. In crib mode, the flush only counts if all five cards — all four crib cards and the starter — share the same suit, scoring 5 points. A four-card flush in the crib with a mismatched starter scores nothing. This rule prevents players from padding the crib with a weak flush discard.
How do double runs and triple runs work?
A double run occurs when a hand contains a pair within a run of three consecutive ranks — for example, 3-4-5-5. Because there are two cards of rank 5, there are effectively two distinct 3-card runs: 3-4-5 (using the first 5) and 3-4-5 (using the second 5). Each run scores 3 points, so the two runs total 6 points, plus 2 points for the pair, giving 8 points combined. A triple run (three of a kind within a run) generates three distinct runs for 9 points plus the three-of-a-kind bonus of 6 points. A double-double run (two pairs within a run) scores four runs of three for 12 points plus both pairs for 4 points.
What is 'his nobs' and 'his heels' in cribbage?
These are two separate Jack-related bonuses with easily confused names. His nobs (or simply 'nobs') is scored when a player holds a Jack in their hand whose suit matches the suit of the starter card — worth 1 point. The logic is that the Jack of the matching suit is considered the 'right' Jack. His heels (or 'nibs') is scored by the dealer when the card cut as the starter is itself a Jack — worth 2 points — and is pegged immediately when the cut is made, before hand counting begins. This scorer applies both rules automatically based on your card selections.
How do I use Practice Mode to improve my counting speed?
Enable Practice Mode with the toggle in the input card, then click Random Hand to deal a fresh five-card hand. Study the cards displayed and mentally count your score using the standard cribbage sequence: fifteens, pairs, runs, flush, nobs. When you have a number in mind, type it into the guess field and click Reveal. The scorer shows whether your guess matched the correct total and displays the full breakdown of every scoring combination. Repeating this process with random hands is the most effective way to internalize cribbage scoring patterns and build the speed needed to count quickly during actual games.