Gambling terms, explained straight

Card Games

Cribbage board rules

A cribbage board is a scoring device with rows of holes where players move pegs to track points during a game of cribbage.

Rows and holes
Four rows of thirty holes arranged as two sets of tracks on the outer edges 1
Game targets
Commonly 61 or 121 points, depending on the rule set 23

Key points

  • Players use two pegs each; the first peg marks the latest score, the second the previous score, and they leapfrog as new points are scored 31.
  • One trip around the tracks records 60 points, or 61 if returning to a starting hole is counted 1.
  • Each track is grouped in sets of five holes for easy counting 1.

Where this term is used

Not the same as

  • Cribbage rules — the rules are the procedures for dealing, discarding, pegging, and scoring; the board is only the scoring device used to track those points 21
Card games Cribbage rules Full rules for dealing, discarding, pegging, and winning in standard cribbage. Card games Cribbage scoring rules How points are awarded for pairs, runs, flushes, and other combinations. Card games Rummy rules Rules for the classic card-melding game, unrelated to cribbage. Card games Euchre rules Rules for the trick-taking game euchre, which uses a different scoring system. Card games 500 rummy rules Rules for the rummy variant 500 rummy, not connected to cribbage. Card games Cribbage flush Scoring rule for a flush in cribbage, separate from board mechanics.

Sources

  1. Scoring and Other Equipment for Domino Games - Pagat pagat.com Describes the board layout, hole counts, and track groupings.
  2. Cribbage en.wikipedia.org Provides standard game targets and distinguishes board from rules.
  3. Six-card cribbage: card game rules pagat.com Explains leapfrog pegging and game targets for six-card cribbage.

Sources are drawn from regulators, universities and published research, and each one is labelled with what it actually is — a preprint is not called a paper. Bookmaker and affiliate pages are never cited here, because a page that sells betting is not a neutral authority on it.

Written and maintained by Ellis Warrender, writer and maintainer.

Last updated 28 July 2026. Spotted an error? Tell me and it gets fixed and logged on the corrections page.