I’ve loved playing cribbage with family and friends ever since my grandpa taught it to me as a kid, and it’s not a hard game to pick up overall.
But one of the rules most people struggle with is around nibs and nobs.
What is nibs and nobs in cribbage?
Nibs and nobs in cribbage are both ways to get some extra points through the jacks. Nibs is when the Jack is cut prior to the pegging phase and is worth two points to the dealer. Nobs is when you have a Jack with the same suit as the cut card in your hand, and it’s worth one point.
It sounds way more complicated than it actually is, but use the rest of this article to tell the difference between the two and how to count these points better.
Check out our comprehensive guide on the rules of cribbage and how to play with examples, scoring breakdowns, and vocabulary guide.
Table of Contents
Nobs Vs. Nibs
Nibs and nobs. Nobs and nibs? Just what are these things?
Despite being different by only one letter, they’re different points for counting.
We’ll dig into each of these in more detail later on, but for now, let’s look at the two compared directly with one another in this chart.
| Question | Nibs | Nobs |
|---|---|---|
| How many points? | 2 | 1 |
| When do you count it? | Right after the cut, before the pegging phase | When you count your hand or crib |
| How do you get it? | The dealer gets this is if the pone (other player) cuts them a Jack | If you have a Jack in your hand matching the suit of the cut or turn-up card |
| Odds of getting the points | 2.5-7.5%. Depends on how many Jacks are drawn in the hands and crib. | Odds go up about 25% for every Jack in your hand. |
Check out our complete guide of cribbage rules by clicking the link.
What Is Nibs In Cribbage?
Nibs in cribbage, also known as “his heels,” are two bonus points that happen when the pone (or other player) cuts the dealer a Jack before the pegging phase of the game. The odds of this happening range from 0-10%, depending on how many Jacks were drawn for the hands and crib.
Unlike nobs, there are no strategies for improving your chances of getting nibs. It’s purely based on luck.
Each Jack drawn during the initial phase of the round decreases the odds of getting nibs by 2.5%.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to know exactly how many Jacks are drawn since you don’t see your opponent’s hand until the end, but assuming a 5% chance of getting nibs is fair.
This means the odds are overall low enough you shouldn’t count on those two points, but if you’re into advanced strategy, you’d still want to count those two points in your math for figuring out the best cards to discard.
How do I come up with this?
The odds of drawing a Jack from a deck of 52 is just over 7.6%. (4 Jacks divided by 52 cards equals 7.6%.)
Applied to the 12 cards used in the initial hands, this means you’ll have the odds of drawing a Jack at 91.2%. (7.6% times the 12 cards for the hands equals 91.2%).
With each card drawn in the hands, you have fewer chances to cut it later, by 2.5%.
Check out this chart for your odds depending on how many Jacks are left:
| How many Jacks are left in the deck? | Odds* |
|---|---|
| 4 | 10% |
| 3 | 7.5% |
| 2 | 5% |
| 1 | 2.5% |
| 0 | 0% |
*Since there are 40 cards left in the deck, you divide the number of Jacks left by 40 to get your odds.
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Check out this classic one here!
Who Gets Nibs In Cribbage?
The only person who gets nibs in cribbage is the dealer. The pone (other player or opponent) has to cut the Jack for the dealer to give them two points. Since the dealer doesn’t cut, it’s impossible for the non-dealer to get those points.
Even in three-handed and partner cribbage, the dealer is the only one who can get those points since nibs or his heels always comes from the cut card.
What Is Heels In Cribbage?
“His Heels” is another word nibs in cribbage, and it means when the dealer gets two points for the pone (non-dealer) cutting a Jack in the pre-pegging phase. Though unclear where the phrase comes from, most people think it’s intended as the opposite of nobs, which refers to a head.
There’s a common saying taught in cribbage to help people remember these two obscure scoring rules.
“One for his nobs and two for his heels.”
Nob is British slang refers to a head. The heels are the opposite end of the body, and there are two of them.
So this may be where the alternate term for nibs comes from.
Read more in our dedicated article on what “his heels” means in cribbage.
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Can You Win A Game From Nibs?
If getting two points from nibs puts you to the 121-point mark, you win the win, no pegging or counting is needed. Cribbage is a game where the first to reach the finish line wins, no matter where you’re at in the game or counting process.
I’ve never been on the receiving end of nibs to win the game, but it’s happened to me twice as the pone or non-dealer, and let me tell you it’s a terrible feeling.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing to do about it. For this rule, it’s purely a matter of luck.
How Many Points Is Nobs In Cribbage?
Nobs is worth one point in cribbage. It happens when a player has a Jack in their hand matching the suit of the cut card or turn-up card. It’s counted when the player counts their hand. The odds of getting nobs goes up 25% for every Jack in your hand.
Jacks are powerful cards which is why you should always hold onto them with all else in your hand being equal.
After all the cards for hands are dealt, there are 40 cards left in the deck.
While not strictly true, it’s safe to assume there are an equal amount of each of the four suits left over.
This means your Jack will match the suit of 1/4 or 25% of the cards, so your chances of having one cut and matched are 25%.
If you have two Jacks, you match around half or 50% of the deck.
This continues with 3 Jacks at 75% and 4 Jacks at 100%.
You might also want to check out our article on pair royal in cribbage.
When Do You Count Nobs In Cribbage?
Unlike nibs, which is counted immediately, nobs is counted when you count your hand or crib. If you’re the pone or non-dealer, you get to count it first. Counting hands happens after the pegging phase.
The phases of the game go as follows for those who forgot:
- Deal the hands (6 each in two-player cribbage)
- Discard two cards to the dealer’s crib (extra hand)
- Pone (non-dealer) cuts a card
- Pegging phase (start with pone)
- Counting phases (start with pone, then dealer hand, and then dealer crib)
After this, the deal passes to the pone (now the dealer), and we start all over again.
Does Nobs Count In The Crib?
Nobs counts in any hand, including the dealer’s crib. This confusion comes from old directions using the phrase “in hand” when referring to nobs, but the crib is an extra hand. Official rules allow for nobs in the crib hand.
How Nobs Takes You To 29 (The Maximum Hand)
Nobs is a must to get to the maximum hand, 29.
For this hand, you’ll need:
- Three fives in your hand
- One Jack of a different suit than the three fives
- The matching suit 5 as the cut card
When this happens, you’ve got the best hand in the game.
On counting, it shakes out like this:
- 15 by matching a 5 and Jack = 8 points
- 15 by making groups of three 5s = 8 points
- Four of a kind = 12 points
- Nobs = 1
Added together, this gets you to the magical 29.
The odds of this happening are 1 in 216,580 (0.00046%) from a standard 6-card hand.
On a personal note: I’ve never gotten a 29, but I have gotten a 28 hand.
My grandpa, who played on his lunch every day for his 30 years of teaching and a lot more besides, has gotten it once.
Can You Get Nibs AND Nobs?
It’s impossible to get nobs and nibs in the same round. Since nobs comes from having the right Jack to match the starter card (cut card) and nibs comes from cutting a Jack, it’s impossible to both have the matching Jack to a Jack.
