Cribbage terms and slang
Cribbage carries more private vocabulary than any other pub card game, and most of it is worth points. Nibs is 2 points to the dealer when the starter card is a jack. Nobs is 1 point for holding the jack that matches the starter’s suit. Muggins is an optional rule that lets your opponent claim any score you failed to count. The glossary below gives every term you will hear at a table, what it is worth, and which are rules rather than slang.
The glossary
Terms that carry a score are marked with their value. Everything else is table language, and you will hear it whether or not you use it yourself.
| Term | Also called | Meaning | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nibs | His heels | The starter card turns out to be a jack. The dealer pegs immediately, before any card is played. | 2 to the dealer |
| Nobs | His nob | You hold the jack of the same suit as the starter card. Counted during the show, not during the play. | 1 |
| Muggins | None | An optional rule: if you undercount your own hand, an opponent may call 'muggins' and take the points you missed. | The missed points |
| Pone | Non-dealer, eldest hand | The player who is not dealing. The pone leads the first card and counts first at the show. | None |
| Starter | The cut, the turn-up | The card cut and turned face up before the play. It counts towards every hand and the crib. | None |
| Crib | The box | The four discarded cards, counted by the dealer after both hands are shown. | None |
| Pegging | The play | The phase where cards are laid alternately to a running count that may not pass 31. | None |
| Go | None | Called when you cannot lay a card without passing 31. Your opponent pegs for the go, or 2 if they land exactly on 31. | 1 (2 on 31) |
| Skunk | Lurch | Winning while your opponent is still short of 91, so they are more than 30 points behind. Usually counted as two games in a match. | None |
| Double skunk | None | Winning while your opponent is short of 61. Rarer, and counted as four games at some clubs. | None |
| Stink hole | The dirty hole | Hole 120, one short of the win. Superstition says you lose from there, which the arithmetic does not support. | None |
| Street | Corner | A stretch of the board between corners. Fourth street is the last 30 holes before home. | None |
| Double run | None | A run of three or four with one rank paired, so the run counts twice plus the pair. | 8 or 10 |
| Nineteen hand | None | A hand worth nothing. Nineteen is impossible to score, so it is the standing joke for zero. | 0 |
| Rubber | Match | A series of games, most often best of three or best of five. | None |
Nibs and nobs are not the same thing
They are the two jack scores and they are confused constantly. Nibs belongs to the dealer and is worth 2. Nobs belongs to whoever holds the matching jack and is worth 1.
Nibs, or his heels, happens at the cut. If the card turned as the starter is a jack, the dealer pegs 2 straight away, before anyone has played a card. If the dealer forgets and the play begins, most rule sets say the points are gone.
Nobs, or his nob, happens at the show. If you are holding the jack whose suit matches the starter, that jack is worth 1 point on top of anything else it does in fifteens, pairs and runs. It counts in the crib too, which is one reason a jack is a decent throw to your own crib and a poor one to your opponent’s.
The words come from the same place. In older texts the jack was the knave, and "his nob" and "his heels" were parts of a figure drawn on the card. Some clubs still write them as knobs and knibs, which is the same score under a different spelling.
What is nibs in cribbage?
- Nibs, also called his heels, is 2 points pegged by the dealer when the starter card cut at the beginning of the hand is a jack. It is scored immediately, before any card is played.
What is nobs in cribbage?
- Nobs, also called his nob, is 1 point for holding the jack of the same suit as the starter card. It is counted during the show along with the rest of your hand, and it counts in the crib as well.
What is the difference between nibs and nobs?
- Nibs is 2 points and only the dealer can score it, when the cut card is a jack. Nobs is 1 point and any player can score it, for holding the jack matching the starter’s suit.
Muggins, skunks and the stink hole
These three come up most often in arguments. Muggins is optional and has to be agreed before the game starts, a skunk describes the margin you won by rather than anything you score, and the stink hole has no rule attached to it at all.
Muggins has to be switched on before you start. Under it, if you count your hand and claim fewer points than it is worth, your opponent may say "muggins" and peg the difference themselves. Tournament play generally uses it; kitchen-table play generally does not. Agree it before the first cut, because introducing it mid-game after someone undercounts causes arguments.
A skunk is a margin of victory. You win the game at 121; if your opponent has not reached 91 by then you have skunked them, and most match formats count that as two games rather than one. A double skunk, with the loser short of 61, is scored as four games at some clubs and simply as bragging at others.
The stink hole is hole 120. Sitting one point from home with an opponent still pegging is uncomfortable, and the name has stuck for a couple of centuries. There is no rule about it. You need one point, the same as from any other hole, and the odds do not change because the hole has a name.
What is a skunk in cribbage?
- A skunk is winning while your opponent is still below 91 points, a margin of more than 30. In match play it usually counts as two games instead of one. A double skunk, with the loser below 61, counts as four at some clubs.
What does muggins mean in cribbage?
- Muggins is an optional rule allowing an opponent to claim any points you missed when counting your own hand. It has to be agreed before the game starts, and it is standard in tournament play but not in casual games.
What is cribbage?
- Cribbage is a card game for two to six players in which you score for fifteens, pairs, runs and flushes, first while laying cards alternately to a count of 31, then by counting your hand against a shared starter card. The first player to 121 points wins.