Pick your four cards and the starter card above, and the counter scores the hand for you. It lists every fifteen, pair, run, flush and nobs on its own line, adds the total, and shows how you would say each score out loud while pegging your count on the board.
More: full rules · scoring guide · strategy · hand counter · how to play
How the counter works
Choose four cards for your hand, then the starter. The counter looks at all five cards together and checks every possible group: sets that add to fifteen, matching ranks, consecutive ranks, four or five cards of one suit, and a jack matching the starter's suit. Each item that scores appears as its own row so you can check it against your own count, and nothing is hidden inside a single total.
Cards are worth their face value for fifteens, with an ace as 1 and every picture card as 10. For runs, though, jack, queen and king stay in order as 11, 12 and 13, so 10-J-Q is a run but 10-10-10 is not. If the hand is a crib, tick the crib box first, because the flush rule is stricter there.
Notable hands and what they score
| Score | Example (hand + starter) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 29 | 5♥ 5♠ 5♦ J♣ + 5♣ | Four fives (double pair royal, 12), four fifteens from a five plus the jack (8), four more from groups of three fives (8), and nobs (1). |
| 28 | 5♥ 5♠ 5♦ J♦ + 5♣ | The same cards, but the jack does not match the starter's suit, so no nobs. One point short of perfect. |
| 24 | 7♠ 7♥ 8♠ 8♥ + 9♦ | A double-double run: four runs of three (12), two pairs (4), and four sevens-and-eights fifteens (8). |
| 21 | 7♥ 8♠ 8♦ 8♣ + 9♥ | A triple run (9), a pair royal (6), and three fifteens from 7 plus 8 (6). |
| 20 | 5♥ 5♦ 10♠ J♣ + 5♠ | A pair royal of fives (6), six fifteens from a five with either ten-card (12), and three fives together (2). |
| 12 | 6♥ 7♠ 7♦ 8♣ + K♥ | A double run of three (6), a pair (2) and two fifteens from 7 plus 8 (4). |
| 0 | 2♥ 4♠ 8♦ Q♣ + K♠ | No combination reaches 15, nothing pairs and nothing runs. A genuine zero hand, often called a nineteen. |
The scores you can never get
Totals from 0 to 24 and 28 and 29 can all be made, except 19. The values 19, 25, 26 and 27 are impossible: there is no five-card hand that adds up to them. If someone tells you they counted 19 for a hand, recount, because something is wrong. Because 19 can never happen, players jokingly call a hand that scores nothing a nineteen.
Hand flush versus crib flush
| Situation | In your hand | In the crib |
|---|---|---|
| Four cards of one suit, starter a different suit | 4 points | 0 points |
| All five cards one suit | 5 points | 5 points |
The reason is that the crib is built from cards both players threw away, so a four-card flush there would be too easy to hit. For the full rule list, see the scoring guide, and for the way to build better hands before you count them, the strategy page.
Want to count real hands as they are dealt? Play a game against the computer.
Play Cribbage nowFrequently asked questions
Does the counter work for the crib too?
Yes. Tick the crib box before reading the result. The only difference is the flush: in a crib a flush counts only when the starter matches the four crib cards, and a four-card flush alone scores nothing.
Why does the counter ask for a starter card?
Every hand is scored as five cards: the four you kept plus the starter that was cut from the deck. The starter can join fifteens, pairs and runs, and it decides whether a jack in your hand is worth the extra point for nobs.
Why can I never score 19?
Hands are built from fifteens (2 points each), pairs (2 each), runs, flushes and a single nobs point. No mix of the cards in a five-card hand adds up to 19, and the same is true of 25, 26 and 27. That is why a hand worth nothing is jokingly called a nineteen.
What is the best possible cribbage hand?
29 points: three fives and a jack in your hand, with the fourth five as the starter and the jack matching the starter's suit. It is rare enough that many players go years without seeing one.
Does the counter score pegging?
No. It counts the show only, meaning the hand or crib after play is over. Points won while laying cards, such as fifteens, pairs and go, are covered on the scoring page.