Best Cribbage Hands
The perfect 29 hand
Three 5s and a Jack in your hand, with the fourth 5 as the starter in the same suit as your Jack. It scores 16 for fifteens, 12 for four of a kind and 1 for nobs. It is very rare, roughly once in over 200,000 hands.
28 points
Four 5s with any 10-value card (or the same 29 hand without nobs): 16 for fifteens plus 12 for four of a kind.
24 points
Examples include 4-4-5-5 with a 6 starter, 3-3-3-3 with a 9 starter, and 7-7-8-8 with a 9 starter.
Other strong hands
| Hand + starter | Points |
|---|---|
| 5-5-5-J + 5 (nobs) | 29 |
| 5-5-5-5 + 10 | 28 |
| 4-4-5-5 + 6 | 24 |
| 7-7-8-8 + 9 | 24 |
| 3-3-3-3 + 9 | 24 |
| 6-6-7-7 + 8 | 20 |
| 5-5-10-J + 5 | 20–21 |
Check any hand with the cribbage hand calculator.
Impossible scores
19, 25, 26 and 27 cannot be scored with any hand. Players say "19" to mean a hand worth zero.