Cribbage Hand Scorer

Overview

The Cribbage Hand Scorer takes a 4-card cribbage hand plus the starter (cut) card and returns the full score along with every scoring combination — fifteens, pairs, runs, flushes, and the right jack — broken out so you can see where each point came from. Enter the five cards by rank and suit and the score is computed instantly.

Cribbage scoring is famously fiddly: a single hand can score from zero up to the legendary perfect 29, and a missed two-point pair or a counted-twice run costs games. This tool removes the ambiguity and is useful for teaching the game, post-mortem analysis of close hands, or settling friendly arguments over whether a double run with a pair scores twelve or fourteen.

How it works

Each scoring category is evaluated independently and summed. Fifteens count every subset of the five cards whose face values sum to fifteen (aces are 1, face cards are 10) — each such subset is worth two points. Pairs count every two-card combination of the same rank at two points apiece, so three of a kind scores six (three pairs) and four of a kind scores twelve.

Runs count the longest consecutive sequences of ranks across the five cards, with one point per card in the run; if the run can be formed in multiple ways because of duplicate ranks, each combination scores separately, which is how double and triple runs accumulate so quickly. Flushes require all four hand cards to share a suit (four points) plus the starter for a fifth (five points). The right jack — nobs — adds one point if the hand contains a jack of the same suit as the starter.

Examples

• Hand 5, 5, 5, 5 with starter J (any suit): four-of-a-kind for 12, plus four ways to make fifteen with three fives and the jack — wait, the jack is worth 10, and three fives sum to 15, so each pairing of three fives plus the J yields one fifteen, but the actual classic max comes from 5-5-5-J: 8 fifteens (the 4 trips of fives plus the J, plus the 4 fives in pairs summing to 10... ). The 29-point hand is 5-5-5-J of the cut suit, with cut 5: 8 fifteens (16) + four of a kind (12) + nobs (1) = 29.
• Hand 6, 7, 8, 9 with starter 9: run of four (4) doubled by the extra 9 (4 + 4 = 8), pair of nines (2), fifteen 6+9 and 7+8 (2 + 2) = 14.
• Hand A, 2, 3, 4 with starter 5: run of five (5), fifteen 1+2+3+4+5 (2) = 7.
• Hand K, Q, J, 10 with starter 5: run of four (4), four fifteens — 5+K, 5+Q, 5+J, 5+10 (8) = 12.

FAQ

Why are aces low in cribbage?
By rule, ace always counts as 1 for fifteens and as the bottom of a run. There's no high-ace option.

How do flushes work in the crib?
The crib (dealer's bonus hand) requires all five cards including the starter to share a suit for any flush points.

Is "his nobs" the same as "his heels"?
No — nobs is the jack-in-hand-matching-starter rule (one point). Heels is the dealer cutting a jack as starter (two points), which happens before scoring.

What's the maximum possible hand score?
29, formed by 5-5-5-J with the starter 5 matching the jack's suit.

Does this score the play phase too?
No, just the show. Pegging is a separate scoring phase counted live during play.

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