Facts

• The object of the American Cribbage Congress tournament game is to be the first player to score 121 points.⁠¹
• The ACC game uses a standard pack of 52 playing cards; jokers are discarded, and the four suits are considered equal.⁠¹ In the ACC ranking, king is high and ace is low. Kings, queens, jacks and tens each count ten; other cards count their pip value, and the ace counts one.⁠¹
• In the two-player game the dealer, after a mandatory cut by the pone (the non-dealer), deals one card alternately to each player, beginning with the pone, until each has six cards.⁠¹ Each player discards two cards to form the crib, which belongs to the dealer.⁠¹
• A jack turned as the starter card counts two points for the dealer. The ACC also calls this “his heels,” and sometimes “nibs.”⁠¹ A jack of the same suit as the starter card, in either the hand or the crib, counts one point. The ACC calls this “nobs.”⁠¹
• A four-card flush counts four points only in the hand, not in the crib. A five-card flush, including the starter, counts five in the hand or the crib.⁠¹
• ACC-sanctioned and satellite tournaments must be played on “long boards”: sixty holes up and sixty holes down.⁠¹
• The 1911 Britannica gives the highest possible score in hand as 29: three fives and a knave, with a five of the same suit as the knave turned up.⁠²
• Many descriptions have called the cribbage board indispensable. Encyclopaedia Britannica, in David Parlett’s article, says that it is not: the score can be kept with pencil and paper, or with chips or other counters.⁠³

1. American Cribbage Congress, Official Tournament Rules, 2025 edition, rules 1.1–1.7
2. Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition (1911), “Cribbage” (public domain)
3. David Parlett, “cribbage,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, article retrieved 15 November 2026