Cribbage
Cribbage Pegging
Pegging is the play of the cards. After you throw two to the crib and the starter is cut, each of you still holds four. You lay those four down one at a time, add their values, and stop at 31. That mid-hand run \u2014 not the discard, not the show \u2014 is what people mean when they search cribbage pegging.
Kitchen-table American cribbage: 52 cards, race to 121, two people, six each, throw two. The crib throw lives on what to throw. Point values for the show live on the scoring chart. First-night order of play lives on how to play cribbage. This page is only the play: how the count works, what scores while the cards are going down, and one pone-versus-dealer sequence with why each card was played.
Pegging is the play, not the crib and not the show
A cribbage hand has three jobs that get mashed together in search results. Separate them.
- The throw. Six cards, keep four, two face down to the crib. Dealer owns that extra hand. Pone starves it. That decision is over before anyone plays a card.
- Pegging. The four you kept, laid down one at a time, running total toward 31. Pone leads. You score as you play. The starter is face up in the middle and does not get played.
- The show. After the eight cards are down, count your four plus the starter. Then the dealer counts the crib with that same starter. Fifteens, pairs, runs, flushes, nobs. That is a different count.
You can peg out to 121 in the middle of the play. You can also peg out in the middle of a show count. Same race. Different phase. If you came here from a scoring chart, stay for the ranking: which card to play, not which box to tick after the hand.
How the count works mid-hand
Pone plays first, face up in front of themselves, and says the value. A 7 is "seven." A king is "ten." An ace is "one." Dealer answers from their four and adds: "seventeen." or whatever the new total is. Keep alternating.
Three hard limits:
- The running total cannot pass 31.
- If every card you still hold would pass 31, you say go.
- After a go, the other player plays any extra cards that still fit under 31, scoring 15s, pairs, runs, and 31 as usual. Then they peg 1 for go if the count is not 31. A card that hits 31 scores 2 instead, not 1+2.
Then the count resets to 0 and leftover cards start a new series. When all eight cards are down, last card is 1 unless that play was already 31.
The number you call is the sum of the pip values on the table in this series. It is not your board score. It is not the show. Peg the board as the combinations happen, then keep calling the running total.
What scores during the play
These are play points. Flushes do not score here. Nobs does not score here. The show chart is still on cribbage scoring.
| You just made | Peg |
|---|---|
| Running total 15 | 2 |
| Running total 31 | 2 |
| Pair (same rank as the card you answered) | 2 |
| Three of a kind in a row | 6 |
| Four of a kind in a row | 12 |
| A run of 3 or more, even out of order | 1 per card in the run |
| Go or last card (total not 31) | 1 |
Fifteen and thirty-one
Hit 15 on the nose, peg 2. Hit 31 on the nose, peg 2. A 5 answered by any 10, jack, queen, or king is the classic fifteen for two \u2014 which is why you do not lead a 5. A card that makes 31 is 2, and the series ends. You do not stack go on top of it.
Go
Go is not a pass you choose. It is what you say when you are stuck. Your opponent then milks the rest of the series: extra 15s, extra pairs, extra runs, or 31. If they cannot hit 31 they take 1 for playing the last legal card. Reset. New series at 0 with whatever is still in hand.
Pairs
Same rank as the card you are answering, played immediately: pair for 2. A third in a row is 6. A fourth is 12. The pair has to be consecutive plays. A 5, then a 10, then a 5 is not a pair. The last card was a 10.
Do not auto-pair. If they just played a 7, they may be holding another 7. Your pair for 2 becomes their trips for 6. That trap is why pairing is a ranking decision, not a reflex. The slow version is the advanced pegging lesson.
Runs
The last three or more cards must form consecutive ranks. Order on the table does not matter. 8 then 6 then 7 is a run of three for 3. Add a 5 and it is a run of four for 4, if those four are still the last four and there is no pair in the middle. A duplicate rank breaks it. Ace is low: A-2-3 counts. Queen-king-ace does not.
His nobs, and why it is not a pegging play
His heels: if the starter is a jack, dealer pegs 2 before anyone plays. That 2 lands on the board, then pegging starts.
His nobs: a jack in your four that matches the starter's suit is 1 point in the show. You do not play the starter. You do not peg nobs during the play. If you came here looking for nobs, it belongs with the hand count, not with 15 and go.
Walk through one pegging sequence
Two-player. Pone is not the dealer and leads. Both have already thrown. Starter is the 2 of diamonds \u2014 not a jack, so no heels. These are the four each seat kept.
Pone: 4 of clubs, 6 of hearts, 8 of diamonds, king of spades.
Dealer: 5 of hearts, 7 of clubs, 7 of diamonds, 10 of spades.
One series, then a leftover series. Why each card, not just the total.
Play 1 \u2014 Pone leads the 4 of clubs. "Four."
Safe lead. A-4 is the band that does not gift an easy 15 (dealer would need an 11). Never lead a 5. The 6 and 8 are middle cards you may want later for a run. The king is a 10-count you hold back so you are not the one putting 10 on the table for a 5 to answer. Count: 4.
Play 2 \u2014 Dealer plays the 7 of clubs. "Eleven."
Not the 5 (4+5 is 9, and a 6 from pone is fifteen plus a start of a run). Not the 10 (4+10 is 14, which is a fine leave, but dealer is sitting on two 7s). Eleven is the pair trap: if pone pairs the 7 for 2, dealer plays the other 7 for trips, 6 points. Count: 11.
Play 3 \u2014 Pone plays the 8 of diamonds. "Nineteen."
Pone does not pair the 7. Auto-pairing is how you eat 6. 11+8=19. The 6 would have been 17. The king would have been 21. Nineteen leaves dealer without a 31 (they would need a 12). Count: 19.
Play 4 \u2014 Dealer plays the 5 of hearts. "Twenty-four."
19+5=24. The leftover 7 would be 26. The 10 would be 29, which is a go setup if pone cannot play an ace or 2. Dealer takes 24 instead: pone's remaining 6 fits (30) and the king does not (34). Dealer is also one card from a 5-6-7 run if pone plays that 6. That is the risk. Count: 24.
Play 5 \u2014 Pone plays the 6 of hearts. "Thirty, a run of four for four."
24+6=30. The king busts. The last four cards were 7, 8, 5, 6. Rearranged: 5-6-7-8. Consecutive ranks, no pair in the middle, even though nobody played them in order. Run of four is 4 points \u2014 1 per card \u2014 not a nested extra 3. Count: 30. Pone pegs 4.
Dealer cannot play the leftover 7 (37) or the 10 (40). Dealer says go. Pone's king also busts on 30. Pone played the last legal card of the series and the total is not 31, so pone pegs 1 for go. Reset to 0.
Second series \u2014 leftover cards
Still in hand: pone has the king of spades. Dealer has the 7 of diamonds and the 10 of spades. Dealer said go, dealer still has cards, dealer leads the new series.
Dealer leads the 7 of diamonds. "Seven." Why the 7, not the 10: a 10-lead is how a leftover 5 becomes fifteen for two, and dealer already used their 5. The 7 also does not pair anything pone still holds.
Pone plays the king. "Seventeen." Only card left. 7+10=17. No 15. No pair. No run.
Dealer plays the 10 of spades. "Twenty-seven." Last card of the hand. Total is not 31, so dealer pegs 1 for last card.
Pegging for this deal: pone 5 (run of 4, plus go), dealer 1 (last card). The pair trap never fired because pone refused the 7. The 15 never happened because pone did not lead a 5 and dealer did not gift one on the 4. Then you count hands. That count is the show, with the starter, on the scoring chart.
What to practice from here
Night-one ranking, not a solver:
- Do not lead a 5. A-4 is the safe lead band.
- Do not auto-pair. They may have the third.
- Runs can be out of order. Look at the last three or four ranks, not the order they hit the table.
- Go is stuck, not polite. Take 31 when you can; otherwise take 1.
- His nobs is the show. His heels is before play. Neither is a card you play to 31.
The first-night drill of the play is pegging basics. Traps and when to play tight near 121 are advanced pegging. Those lessons stay where they are. This page is the search result for the play itself. Replay awkward sequences in cribbage practice with the cards where you can see them.