I love teaching people how to play Cribbage. In fact, because of my Youtube videos and this website, I’m teaching more people than ever!
But of course, everyone wants to know what the top Cribbage hands are and how to get them.
Truth be told, it’s a huge amount of luck, but it’s still important to know how to get them and count them when they show up, so let’s talk about it!
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Table of Contents
The 29 Hand: The Best There Is
The top hand is, of course, the illusive 29-hand.
The odds of getting this are 1 in around 200,000. Some people go their whole lives without ever getting it!
It requires a very specific set of circumstances.
You 3 fives in your hand and a Jack. The Jack must NOT be the same suit as the fives in your hand.
Then, the final five must be cut. When this happens, you have a 29 hand!
In brief, it counts like this:
- Jack-Five 15s for two = 8 points
- Five+Five+Five 15s for two = 8 points
- Four of a kind (fives) = 12 points
- Nobs for one points = 1 point
All this adds up to 29!
If you want more details on the counting, check out my 29 hand counting guide.
28 Hand: Close, But No Cigar
The second-highest hand is very similar to the highest, just without the nobs.
It’s much (much) easier to get this hand.
All you need is ANY combination of 4 fives and a ten-value card.
Any Ten, Jack, Queen, or King will work.
The fives can be in all in the hand or three in the hand and one in the cut card.
It doesn’t matter.
As such, the odds are higher of getting this, though it’s still tough.
In all my playing, I’ve gotten it once! My grandpa (whose gotten a 29 hand) wasn’t so impressed!
The counting for this one goes like this:
- Jack-Five 15s for two = 8 points
- Five+Five+Five 15s for two = 8 points
- Four of a kind (fives) = 12 points
As you can see, it’s the same as a 29-hand, without the nobs.
The Impossibles: 27, 26, and 25
The number 19 gets a lot of ironic love in the game of Cribbage. It’s often slang for a zero-point hand.
Why? Because it’s impossible to get! No hand or crib can add up to 19 exactly!
Read more: Cribbage slang dictionary
But despite the love the 19-hand gets, it’s not the only one!
27, 26, and 25 are all equally impossible to get!
24-Point Hand: A Grab Bag Of Options
The final top Cribbage hand we’ll cover is the 24-point hand. From here on down, it gets more common and there are many more combinations that make up those hands.
Here we’ll go over the hands that’ll get you to 24, which is still a massive hand and disheartening to be on the opposite side of.
Ace & 4 Sevens
The first set of hands here are when you have four of a kind and a bunch of three card 15s.
The Ace and 4 Sevens perfectly demonstrates this.
Let’s look at this one in detail (and it’ll show how the others work too!).
We have:
Ace (any suit) + 7Spades + 7Clubs + 7Hearts + 7Diamonds
First, let’s do the 15s. 7+7+Ace(1) = 15.
So all in all, we have 12 points like this:
- Ace + 7S + 7C
- Ace + 7S + 7H
- Ace + 7S + 7D
- Ace + 7C + 7H
- Ace + 7C + 7D
- Ace + 7H + 7D
Now, we have four of a kind or six sets of pair for another 12 points. In detail, it goes like this:
- 7S – 7C
- 7S – 7H
- 7S – 7D
- 7C – 7H
- 7C – 7D
- 7H – 7D
12 points for the 15s and 12 points for the pairs make 24 points altogether!
Three & 4 Sixes
This one is just like the Ace-Seven example.
We have 12 points for all the 15s with 3+6+6 = 15.
And we have 12 points for the 4 sixes.
Seven & 4 Fours
Here’s another one like the Ace-Sevens.
We have 12 points for all the 15s with 7+4+4 = 15.
And we have 12 points for the 4 fours.
Nine & 4 Threes
Ace-Seven format works here too.
We have 12 points for all the 15s with 9+3+3 = 15.
And we have 12 points for the 4 threes.
Four-Five-Six Double Double
Now, we’re digging into double-double territory.
A double-double run is four sets of three-card runs. Use this video if you don’t believe me, but I’ll go into a bit more detail in a second.
This combination works with any set of 4-5-6 as long as you have two pairs.
Let’s use 4S-4C-5S-6H-6D for example.
First, we’ll tackle the 15s. We have 8 points here.
- 4S + 5S + 6H
- 4S + 5S + 6D
- 4C + 5S + 6H
- 4C + 5S + 6D
Now, we need to tackle the runs. I know this format is a double-double run and worth 16 points between the runs and pairs, but for detail’s sake, I’ll break it down.
First, the runs:
- 4S – 5S – 6H
- 4S – 5S – 6D
- 4C – 5S – 6H
- 4C – 5S – 6D
There are four distinct runs of three for 3 points each, making it 12 points. Now, we add the pair of fours and the pair of sixes for four more points.
This is where we get 16 points for a double double run.
Adding the double double with the 15s, we get 16+8 = 24 points total.
This works whether the pairs are in the fours, fives, or sixes in this case.
But we need to be a bit pickier in the next two examples.
Six-Seven-Seven-Eight-Eight
This example is similar to the 4-5-6 one, but we can’t use just any double double with 6-7-8. The sevens and the eights HAVE to be the pairs.
Why? We need those sevens and eights to add to 15.
Breaking the counting down, we have 8 points for the sevens and eights matching up. We also have 16 points for the double double run (look to the previous example for a break down of how this special run works).
8+16 is 24!
Seven-Seven-Eight-Eight-Nine
This one is exactly like the previous example EXCEPT the nine is in the run instead of the six.
If scoring is tough for you, don’t worry! I have something that can help!
Check out my Cribbage scoring breakdown with a FREE pdf download.
