Cribbage
2-4 players
One deck of cards excluding Jokers
A cribbage board or a pen and paper to keep score.
Set up
Deal each player five cards. Everyone will then have a chance to look at their cards and discard one placing it face down into 'the box'( a separate pile of cards). There should always be four cards in the box so, if there are less than four players then place cards from the deck into the box to make it up to four. The box is like a second hand, players take it in turn to have the box, the player to the left of the dealer will have to box first. Once all players have placed a card in the box one player splits the deck and the player who has the box first flips the card over where the deck was split ( this is the turnover cards and may help you gain more points.)
How to play
The aim of the game is to score points to make it up and down the board. Points can be scored in you hand or through pegging when the game is in play. The player with the box starts the round. On your turn you place down a card from your hand in front of you and voice out loud the running total of the cards already placed down (all picture cards are equal to ten and aces are ones). So if you start and you place a nine you would say "nine" then if the next player places a four they would say "thirteen". Players then continue to take it in turn to lay down cards until the cards down add up to thirty one or closest to without going over. If on your turn you cannot lay a card without going over thirty one then it skips to the next player who can lay a card. When the last person who can lay a card does all the cards that are down are flipped over and the person to their left starts by laying another card, this continues until everyone has put down all the cards from their hand.
There are two ways you can score points the first is by pegging this is done when you are laying cards down in turn. If you lay a card which makes the running total add up to fifteen you peg two points. If you lay a card which is the same number as the previous player you peg two points, the next player could also then peg six points if they lay a card which is the same as the two previous numbers such as if three fours are put down in a row. Another way to peg is if the cards placed down form a run such as four, five, six, the person who places the six would peg three points. Something to note is that suits do not matter for runs when pegging, nor does the order they appear in e.g. five, four, six is still a run as long as there are no cards separating them. The final way you can peg is by placing a card which brings the total to thirty one exactly this will give you two points. However, if you place the last card of the turn (closest to thirty-one) then you will get one point instead.
The second way points are scored is in your hand. These are counted up when the round is over. The player to the left of the player with the box has their points counted and scored first. In your hand you score two points for every combination of cards that adds up to fifteen. You also score points for pairs (two points) or three of a kinds (six points). You can also score point if you have a run (once again suit does not matter.) However, If you have four cards of the same suit in your hand you will get a point for each card even if they do not link in any other way.
Finally the turn over card that was revealed during the set up can be used by everyone as a fifth card in their hand to make pairs or runs for example. Also if you have a jack in your hand which is the same suit as the turn over card you also get a point or if the turn over card is a jack then the person whose box it is gets an extra two points. As for the box count up the point as you would in your hand but they are separate you cannot make combinations with cards from both hands.
Player 1
Player 2
IIII
II
When it comes to actually keeping score you can either use a cribbage board and physically move the pegs up and down the board as and when points are pegged or you can just use a pen and paper to keep score by keeping a tally. There is a total of thirty pegs up one side of the board so the first person to 61 (up and down and into home) would be the winner.