Cribbage Strategy: Discards, Pegging and the Endgame

Cribbage rewards small edges repeated over many hands. An average player counts about 8 points a hand; a strong one counts closer to 10, mostly by discarding better. Here is what actually moves that number.

Discarding: The Biggest Decision You Make

You make 15 possible keeps from every six-card hand, and the gap between the best and worst is often four or five points. Two rules carry most of the weight:

  • Count the crib as yours or theirs. As dealer, the crib comes back to you, so a pair of fives thrown in is a gift to yourself. As non-dealer, the same throw hands your opponent an average of eight points.
  • Keep cards that combine. A 5 with any ten-card is a fifteen. Runs of adjacent cards grow when the starter lands nearby. Four unconnected cards are worth almost nothing no matter how pretty they look.

Never Throw These to Your Opponent’s Crib

  • A 5 — the single most valuable card in the deck. Ten-cards are everywhere.
  • Touching cards (6-7, 4-5) — they build runs and fifteens easily.
  • Pairs — two points handed over before the starter is even cut.
  • Two cards making 15 — same problem, guaranteed points.

The safest throws to an opponent’s crib are widely-spaced cards, especially a King with a low card: kings cannot run upward, so K-2 or K-3 rarely helps anyone.

Throwing to Your Own Crib

Reverse everything above. Fives, pairs, fifteens and touching cards are exactly what you want. A common beginner mistake is protecting a mediocre hand at the cost of a barren crib — the crib is a whole extra hand, and as dealer you should feed it.

Pegging: Points Are Small, Mistakes Are Not

  • Do not lead a 5. Any ten-card answers for fifteen. Lead a 4 or an Ace-to-3 instead.
  • Lead from a pair. If your opponent pairs you, you strike back with three of a kind for 6.
  • Avoid leaving the count at 5 or 21. Both invite a ten-card for an easy fifteen or thirty-one.
  • Keep low cards for the end. Aces and deuces win the scramble near 31 and collect the go.
  • Break up your own runs. Playing 6 then 7 tells your opponent a 5 or 8 scores; vary the order.

The Endgame: Count the Race, Not the Hand

Past about 90 points, stop maximising and start counting what you need. The rough guide: a dealer averages about 16 points per hand across hand, crib and pegging; a non-dealer about 10. If you are dealing and need 14, play safe and take the average. If you are behind and need 20 as non-dealer, keep the wild hand — a flush or a double run — because the average will not get you there.

Remember the counting order: non-dealer counts first. Sitting on 115 as non-dealer, you only need to reach 121 before the dealer counts — pegging a single point can end the game before their hand ever hits the table.

Practise With the Coach

Turn on Coach in the game and every discard and pegging play is rated against the optimal choice, with the reason. The hint button will tell you the best keep before you commit, so you can check your instinct hand by hand.

Play a game with the coach on, brush up on the full rules, or check a hand with the hand calculator.