Cribbage: Getting started

1. A cribbage board
2. A standard deck of playing cards
3. A good teacher *
4. A good attitude and a little patience

*A good teacher is an important tool in learning the game. They can teach you the ins and outs of the games, and if you have an exceptionally good teacher, they may even let you in on some secrets! I met my teacher at the bar that I work at. Look around, it is actually a fairly popular games, and there are many who are more than willing to help a novice. . .everyone likes being an "expert" sometimes.

The following is the rules for the most commonly played 6 card two player cribbage.

WHAT YOU NEED:
A standard deck of playing cards
A cribbage board
Another person to play with :)

THE OBJECT:
The first player that scores 121 points wins.

BOARD AND PEGS:
The cribbage board is used to keep track of each players score. When taking points the rear peg is always moved in front of front peg so you can see how many points were scored on the previous round.

THE DEAL:
A common way to determine who deals first is to have both players cut the deck of cards, the player with the lowest card on the bottom of their cut deals first. The deal then alternates for the rest of the game.

The dealer than shuffles the deck and deals 6 cards face down to each player one at a time. The dealer then places the undealt cards in a pile face down on the table.

THE CRIB:
Both players now look at their cards and choose two out of their six cards to discard in a pile face down by the dealer. These four cards become the crib and the dealer will get whatever points these cards bring at the end of the round. The dealer always gets the crib.

GAMEPLAY AND SCORING
After both players place their two cards in the crib infront of the dealer it is time for the pone, or the non-dealer, to cut the deck. The dealer than flips the top card of the cut deck so it is face up. This is called the cut. If the cut card happens to be a jack the dealer than takes two points, commonly called "two for his knees."
The pone starts the gameplay by laying one of their cards face up infront of them announcing it's numerical value ( Ace=1, 2=2, 3=3. . .face cards are all 10). The dealer than lays their first card face up on the table in front of them and announces the sum of the value of the card played before and the card they layed. This goes on until someone reaches 31, or as close as it can be without going over 31. If no one has a card to play without going over 31 than the player of the last card gets a point for a "go." This goes on until there are no cards left in either players hands. There are additional ways to score points during this part of the game. And they are as follows:
If a players card takes the number to exactly 15 than that player can take 2 points
2 of a kind = 2 points
3 of a kind= 3 points
4 of a kind= 4 points
3 card run= 3 points
4 card run= 4 points
5 card run= 5 points
Laying last card (a go)= 1 point
Making total 31= 2 points

Now it is time for the players to count their hands. The pone always counts first, then the dealer counts their hand and then their crib. This is where that cut card from the beginning of the game comes in. This card can be used in addition to the players hand to score points. Points can be scored in the following ways and cards can be used in every combination possible:
Adding up to 15 points= 2 points
2 of a kind = 2 points
3 of a kind= 3 points
4 of a kind= 4 points
3 card run= 3 points
4 card run= 4 points
5 card run= 5 points
Jack the same suit as the cut card (knobs)= 1 point
Cards in hand all the same suit (flush)= 4 points
Cards in crib all the same suit as cut card (flush)= 5 points
Points are usually counted out loud for example if a person had 2 queens in their hand, a 3, and a 5 than they would count, "15-2, 15-4, and a pair is 6"

The game goes on in this manner until someone reaches 121 points to win.