Cross Crib Rules, Strategies & How to Play

Cross crib is a fun, strategic alternative to cribbage, where players use the board to build high scoring cribbage hands instead of in a ”crib” or the cards in your hand. 

The objective:  

The object of cross crib is to score (peg) 31 points before your opponent. 

One player (or team) will use their cards to make high scoring cribbage hands using the columns of the board while the other player (or team) will use their cards to create high scoring hands using the rows perpendicular to the columns on the board. 

(see picture for reference) 

Players will use their pile of dealt cards to build five high-scoring cribbage hands on the playing board (runs, pairs, 15’s etc.) But be careful! Your opponent is trying to do the same, in the rows (or columns) perpendicular to yours. 

Your goal is to create the best-scoring cribbage hands possible in your five columns (or rows), while simultaneously blocking your opponent's scoring opportunities in their rows (or columns).

NOTE: The board has two spots for pegging. One has 65 holes and is used to keep score of players hands in each individual round.

The other has 31 pegging holes. This is used for the game score which will determine the winner.  

To start: 

Decide which player (or team) will create high scoring cribbage hands using the columns and which will play using the rows. Note: This will stay the same throughout the entire game. 

Each player (or one player from each team) cuts a card to determine the dealer. The dealer shuffles the deck and distributes 24 cards evenly amongst each player, dealing first to their left and last to themself.

**IMPORTANT**

**Cards should remain FACE DOWN in front of players! Players may ONLY look at the top card of their pile at any given time. Once their top card is played on the board, they may look at the next card on top of their pile. **

 Dealer places the 25th card face up in middle spot on cross crib board. If Dealer lays a jack, they should peg two (2) points, pegged on their round scoring pegs (65 holes). 

To Play: 

Player to the left of the dealer begins. 

On your turn, play the top card of your pile, only the top card, on the board. 

 Use strategy to create high scoring cribbage hands, such as runs, pairs, 15’s, three-of-a-kind etc, meanwhile, you are simultaneously blocking your opponent from doing the same. 

Play continues clockwise until players have played all their cards. 

Note: Cards from your pile are played one per player, per round. All players, may always look at the top card on their pile. However, teammates and other players must not see your cards.

To Keep Score:

After all the cards have been played, it is time to count your points. The non-dealing team counts their five respective rows (or columns) first. 

Players use the individual round set of holes to keep track of the total points in their five hands. (65 should be enough, but if you do end up with more just keep counting)

The player (or team) that pegged the most points during each individual round gets to move their peg the difference between the teams’ score on the game score set of 31 holes. 

Example: Team A scored 37 points that round and team B scored 43 points, team B would move their scoring peg 6 points. 

Team B now needs to score 25 more points to win the game. 

To WIN: 

Play continue like this and play continues until a player (or team) pegs 31 points on game score set of holes.