29: The Perfect Cribbage Hand
The highest possible hand at Cribbage is 29 points (shown above). It comprises all four 5s and the Jack of nobs. It is extremely rare to score a 29 hand in cribbage. In tournament play there is usually a special award for a 29 hand, whether it be cash or merely glory.
How to score the 29 hand
Your 29 hand stories
We love to hear your stories about 29 hands or other interesting cribbage experiences! See the
Your Stories page, or contact us with your own story.
What are the odds of getting a 29 hand in cribbage?
See the Odds of a 29 hand in cribbage page to find out the exact odds of scoring this perfect hand.
A 29 hand and a 28 in the same game
Adam Wigdahl writes:
I had a 29 hand yesterday (picture right). Two hands later my opponent had a 28. I ended up losing the game, and actually there was a chance I would have been skunked if I didn’t have a 20 point hand towards the end of the game.
Now what are the odds of a 28 and a 29 happening in the same game?
We put this question to Professor Plum, our wizened statistics guru. Professor Plum:
First we need to know the odds of a 28 hand. This is just the four 5s plus any ten-card (not the right Jack!), the odds of which are 1 in 15,028. We already know the odds of a 29 are 1 in 216,580. On average 20 hands are dealt in a game of cribbage, so the chances of both hands appearing in the same game are ( 20 / 15028 ) * ( 19 / 216580 ) = 0.000000117, or 1 in 8,565,169. So about 1 in 9 million is the answer.
Adam’s own workings suggest that the likelihood of actually being able to score a 28 and a 29 (as opposed to being dealt them) is about 1 in 10 million (often the last hands of a game are not scored as one player has gone out). But how surprised should we be about such an occurrence?
If we consider only officially sanctioned tournament play in the United States, there is a tournament somewhere almost every day, so let us say 365 tournaments a year of about 30 games each. So we would expect to see about one 29 hand a year in tournament play. I don’t have the actual figures, but that sounds about right.
But a 29 and the 28 in the same game are a thousand times as improbable, so we would expect this to occur in tournaments about once every 1,000 years.
It is impossible to know how many games of cribbage are played every day, between friends and families and pubgoers. But there must be thousands of times as many unofficial games as there are tournament games. So we could estimate that a 29+28 combination occurs somewhere in the world maybe about once a year.
A 149 game
Shawn Salo writes:
My dad’s friend was playing partners cribbage, they ended up on the 120th hole and the first person to count had a 29 hand and was able to count it. I looked online but couldn’t find anything on the odds of scoring a 149 game. This was done in league play a few years back in Ishpeming, Michigan. I was curious on the odds of this. It must be super rare.
I never heard of it happening before, but perhaps you have? Let us know! Comment Below!
Cribbage 29 Hand!
The highest possible cribbage hand score is 29 points -- three Fives and a Jack in hand with the starter card (or cut card) being a Five of the same suit as the Jack - for "One For His Nobs".
The chances of getting this highest possible 29 Cribbage hand are 1 in 216,580!
Cribbage 28 Hand
This 2nd highest scoring cribbage hand can happen with any combination of Ten or Jack or Queen or King for a cut card combined with four Fives
in hand except the above 29 hand
The chances of getting this 28 Cribbage hand are 1 in 15,028.
Cribbage 24 Hand
The 3rd highest cribbage hand is 24 Examples include: Ace with four Sevens, Nine with four Threes, etc.
Impossible Cribbage Hand Scores
It is impossible to get point scores of 27, 26, 25 and 19 for a cribbage hand. There is no possible combination of 5 cards that will produce the above point totals. In over-the-board cribbage, sometimes a Cribbage player will score zero points for their hand if they claim that they have a "19 hand".
Cribbage Hands' Stats
There are 12,994,800 possible cribbage hands if the cut card variations are included. Mathematically, the average hand score is calculated as 4.77 points. In the real hand statistics, however, the average hand point score is higher as cribbage players excersize control over their hands when they discard.
Dealer and Pone Average Hands
As the dealer tries to maximize the score in both the hand and the crib, the average hand for the dealer is lower than the average hand for pone. Statistics show that real Dealer's hands averages 7.95 points and the Pone's hand: 8.10 points.
Crib
Statistics show that average crib score in Cribbage averages 4.65 points.
Highest Dealers Score for a Hand and a Crib
The highest possible Dealer's score (excluding the pegging stage) for a dealer is 53 points. The starter must be a 5, and one hand must have J555 while the other has 4466. The first being a 29 (with the Jack of the correct suit) and the second being 24.
Minimal Points for Pegging
The dealer will always peg at least one point during the pegging stage. If pone is able to play at each turn then dealer must score at least one for "last", if not, then dealer scores at least one for "go".
Average Pegging
Statistically, the dealer outpegs the pone during the average hand. On average, the dealer pegs 3.5 points per hand, while pone pegs an average of only 2.1 points.
Average Sum Points
The dealer can expect to score about 16 points on each hand (including crib and pegging), and pone can expect to score, on average, 10 points (including pegging).
Maximum Scores During Pegging
Dealer can score up to 26 points. Dealer holds 4,4,4,7, pone holds 4,8,10,K, and the cut card is a Jack. The sequence of play is 8, 7, 4, 4, "go", 4, "go", 4; K, 10. Dealer scores 2 for his heels, 2 for fifteen, 2 for pair, 6 for pair royal, 12 for double pair royal, and 2 for 31. Pone scores 1 for last.
Pone can score up to 18 points. The first 7 cards played are in the order 2,A,3,5,4,7,6, and dealer's last card is 4 or larger for "go". Pone scores for runs of 3, 5, and 7, plus 2 for fifteen and one for "go".