What to Throw to the Crib

Six cards, throw two, dealer owns the crib

Dealer gives six cards to each player, starting with the pone. The leftover pack stays in the middle. That pack is not the crib. You will cut it for the starter after both of you have thrown.

Each of you chooses two cards. Stack all four face down on the dealer's side of the table. You should each have four cards left. Those four, plus the starter, are what you count in the show. The dealer also counts the crib with that same starter.

Swap the deal every hand. When you are dealer, the extra hand is yours. When you are pone, you lead pegging, you count first, and you do not get the crib. A cute throw that scores in the crib is a gift if you are pone and a raise if you are dealer. Same two cards. Opposite jobs.

Keep a counting hand first

Do not start by hunting a clever crib throw. Start by picking four cards that already score: fifteens, pairs, runs. A 5 with a 10-count is 2. A pair is 2. A run of three is 3. The two you throw are whatever did not make that keep.

You still have to peg with those four cards. A 12-point keep that cannot play under 31 is a real hand. A 2-point keep with four middle cards that pair and run during the play is also a real hand. Do not strip your pegging cards down to four kings just to make a pretty crib. More on the play itself: pegging basics and advanced pegging.

Pone: starve the crib

You are throwing to the dealer. Assume those two cards will be counted against you. The job is to give the dealer as little as possible while still keeping your own four.

• Do not throw a 5. Any 10, jack, queen, or king makes 15 with it. Sixteen cards in the pack do that. Two 5s together are worse. Keep 5s in your hand unless the rest of the keep is dead without the two you would have to toss instead.
• Do not throw sequential ranks. 6-7, 7-8, 8-9, 3-4, 4-5: the starter, or the dealer's two cards, turn those into runs. A 3-4 in the opponent's crib is how 8-point cribs get built.
• Do not throw a pair. That is 2 points before anyone turns a starter. Three of a kind in the crib is 6.
• Do not throw two 10-counts together. 10-J, J-Q, Q-K, 10-K all make 15 with a 5. Face cards also sit next to each other for runs. One face card with a stray ace or 2 is safer than two faces.
• Toss broken junk. Ranks far apart, mixed suits, nothing that totals 5 or 10 or 15. King and a 2. Queen and a 3. 9 and an ace. Those are the classic pone throws: two cards that do not help each other and do not invite a run.

Suits matter less than ranks, except this: mixed suits starve a crib flush. The crib only scores a flush if all five cards (crib plus starter) match. Throwing two hearts to the dealer is how that flush gets a head start. Throw mixed if you have a choice. Flush math is on the scoring chart, not here.

Two cards that sum to 5 (ace-4, 2-3) or to 10 (4-6, 3-7, 2-8) are also friendly to a crib, because a 10-count or a 5 from the dealer or the starter makes 15. If you have to throw one of those pairs as pone, you have to. Do not volunteer it.

Dealer: feed your own crib

Same six cards, opposite throw. The crib is yours. A 5, a pair, and two connected ranks are now good. You still keep a counting hand. You do not dump your only fifteen into the crib and leave yourself with four unmatched point cards.

• A 5 in your crib is a raise. Keep it in hand if it is what makes your four-card score. Throw it if the keep is the same with or without it, and the other leftover is anything that might sit next to a 5 (a 4, a 6, or a 10-count).
• A pair in your crib is at least 2. Throw a junk pair (two kings, two aces) when the four you keep already have fifteens and a run. Keep the pair in hand when it is the backbone of the keep.
• Connected cards belong together in your crib. 4-5, 5-6, 7-8, 2-3: the starter often completes a run or a fifteen. As dealer, that is the point.
• Matching suits are friendlier in your crib than in pone's. You still need all five for a crib flush, so do not break a scoring keep just to throw two clubs. If the two leftovers already match, that is a small extra, not a reason to wreck the hand.

The trade is small. Give up 2 hand points only when the two you throw are clearly better as a crib than as part of your four. A 12-point keep and a weak crib still beats a 4-point keep and a dream crib most nights. The slow version of this balance is the crib lesson.

A kitchen-table cheat sheet

Same two cards. Opposite seats. This is the first-night bar, not a computer table.

Walk through one pone hand and one dealer hand

Two separate deals. Not the same six cards. Count the keep out loud, then look at what the two leftovers do in a crib.

Pone: 2 of spades, 5 of hearts, 6 of clubs, 7 of diamonds, 10 of hearts, queen of clubs

You are not the dealer. The crib is theirs.

The keep that jumps out is 5-6-7 plus a 10-count. 5-6-7 is a run for 3. 5 plus the 10 is a fifteen for 2. That is 5 points before the starter, with two 10-counts to choose from (the 10 and the queen).

Two ways to get that same 5:

1. Keep 5-6-7-10. Throw the 2 and the queen.
2. Keep 2-5-6-7. Throw the 10 and the queen.

The second keep is also 5 points: 2+6+7 is a fifteen, and 5-6-7 is still the run. Same 5 in the hand. Completely different crib.

Throw 10 and queen, and you just handed the dealer two 10-count cards. Any 5 from their throw or the starter is a fifteen. Jack, queen, and king also sit next to each other for runs. That is how pones gift an 8-point crib while staring at a 5-point hand they could have kept either way.

Throw the 2 and the queen instead. Ranks far apart. Mixed suits. No 5. Not a pair. Not sequential. 2 plus queen is 12, not 5, not 10, not 15. That is broken junk. Keep 5-6-7-10, throw 2-queen, and you starved the crib without giving up the keep.

Do not throw the 5. Do not throw 6-7. Those are sequential, and the 5 is the card you never volunteer as pone.

Dealer: 4 of diamonds, 5 of clubs, 7 of hearts, 8 of spades, 8 of clubs, jack of diamonds

You dealt. The crib is yours.

7 and two 8s already make two fifteens (7+8 twice) and a pair. That is 6 points. You can attach the jack or the 5 as the fourth card and the keep is still 6. The 4 does not help the 7-8-8 keep.

Two keeps that both score 6:

1. Keep 7-8-8-jack. Throw the 4 and the 5.
2. Keep 5-7-8-8. Throw the 4 and the jack.

Same 6 in the hand. As dealer, the first throw is the one you want. 4-5 is a 5 plus a connector. The starter often completes a run (3-4-5 or 4-5-6) or a fifteen (5 plus any 10-count, or 4-5-6). Pone might even throw you a 6 or a 10-count by accident.

The second throw, 4 and jack, is a pone-style starve: 14, not sequential, no 5. You kept the 5 in a hand that did not need it. That 5 belongs in your crib when the keep is the same without it.

You still kept a playable hand. Pair of 8s and a 7 peg. The jack is a 10-count for the play. You did not strip the four down to junk just to feed the crib.

After you throw

Cut the starter. If it is a jack, dealer pegs 2 for his heels before anyone plays. Pone leads. Peg toward 31. Then pone counts, dealer counts, dealer counts the crib. First to 121 wins, including in the middle of a count, which is why pone counting first is a rule and not manners.

Replay awkward discards in cribbage practice with the cards where you can see them. The crib selection drill is the same decision with the rest of the table stripped away. For the extra hand itself, the crib lesson is the slow version.