Free The Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorite and Forgotten Games by Nikki Katz

deck of fifty-two cards; cribbage board
    TIME: Half an hour
    PARTNERSHIP: No
    COMPLEXITY: Medium
    Sir John Suckling, an English poet and playwright, is credited with creating cribbage in approximately 1631. It’s a fast-paced card game that uses a unique scoreboard called the cribbage board. The objective of cribbage is to be the first player to score 121 points or more, moving around the cribbage board twice and then crossing over the starting line with one or more points. The standard cribbage board has four parallel rows of thirty holes each, and there are two pegs for each player. You and your opponent use two rows each, moving up the outside row and down the inside row—completing a sixty-hole track. The two pegs are used to mark your current score (the one in front) and the previous score (the one in back). Each time you earn points, whether during play or in counting your hand, you move the rear peg ahead of the forward peg by as many holes as points earned. Each move is called a “peg,” and you can peg one or more points per move.
    Cribbage opens with both players cutting the deck to see who will deal first. The player with the lowest card becomes the first dealer and deals six cards, face down, one at a time to each player.
Rules
    The game begins with you and your opponent looking at the six cards in your hands and each discarding two cards. The four discarded cards become the “crib” and are an extra hand for the dealer to use later. The dealer’s opponent cuts the deck and turns the top card face up. This is known as the “start” card. If it is a jack, the dealer scores and pegs two points. The starter card will be used again later to help you score points with your hand.
    Play begins with the dealer’s opponent laying down one card face up on the table. The dealer lays down a second card, adding the value of the two cards together to keep a running total. Each time a card is laid down, the cumulative value of your cards and your opponent’s cards are added together into this running total. You can lay down any card that you wish, as long as the running total does not exceed thirty-one. You each keep your own cards in front of you instead of mixing the cards together. Play alternates between the two players. If you play a card that makes the running total exactly thirty-one, you peg two points. Your opponent then lays a card, and the running total starts over from zero. If you cannot play a card without exceeding thirty-one, you let your opponent know this by saying, “Go.” If your opponent cannot play a card either, he pegs one point for the “Go.” If your opponent can play any cards without exceeding thirty-one, he plays those cards scoring one point for the “Go” and an extra point if the new running total is exactly thirty-one. It is then your turn to lead a new card, starting the running total over at zero. This continues until you both have played your four cards. The last player to lay down a card pegs one point. The eight cards have been played, and now it’s time to score the hand.
Scoring the Hand
    Along with scoring the above points during play, you can score other points for different things, as follows:
Fifteens: If you hit a value of fifteen in the running total, you score two points.
Pairs: If you play a card of the same value as the previous card, you score two points.
Pair royal (three of a kind): If you play a card of the same value as the previous two cards in a pair, you score six points.
Double pair royal (four of a kind): If you play a card of the same value as the previous three cards in a three of a kind, you score twelve points.
Runs: If you make a sequence of three cards (for instance, eight/nine/ten) you receive three points. If the run is four cards, you receive four points, and so on. The run does not need to be in exact sequence—that is, you could play a nine/ten/eight, which would still count for three points. The run can be made up of cards from any