Cribbage Basics

Cribbage, also called crib or six-card cribbage, is a popular card game that’s rich in strategy and arguably unique among card games in that it uses a board and pegs for scoring. Cribbage also has a tradition of quaint jargon and rigid etiquette that can make it seem a bit daunting to learn but that ultimately enriches the flavor of the game. Though you don’t need to know the jargon to play cribbage, it’s useful to learn these aspects of the game in case you find yourself playing with a seasoned cribbage player.

Credit for inventing cribbage goes to the 17th-century English poet John Suckling (1609–1642), though it’s more likely that he simply codified the rules and popularized a game that already existed. Cribbage is quite similar to an earlier card game called noddy, which has similar rules to those for cribbage but does not use a board for scoring. Cribbage is the only card game that can be played legally for money in pubs in Britain.

Cribbage was originally played with a five-card hand. Over time, though, the six-card variation eclipsed the five-card version in popularity and became the standard game. The original five-card cribbage is rarely played today.