What Is Nobs in Cribbage?
Nobs is the jack in your hand or crib that matches the suit of the starter card, and it is worth one point. When counting aloud, players traditionally claim it as "one for his nob." The American Cribbage Congress glossary lists it as "his nobs," which is the same rule and the same point.
How the point works
The starter card sets the suit. If the starter is the 4♠ and you hold the J♠, that jack is nobs, worth one point counted with the rest of your hand. A jack of any other suit scores nothing extra. The point belongs to whichever hand holds the matching jack: yours, your opponent's, or the crib.
A worked example
Say you hold J♠ 7♦ 8♦ 9♣ and the starter is the 4♠:
| Score | Cards | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Fifteen | 7♦ + 8♦ | 2 |
| Run of three | 7♦ 8♦ 9♣ | 3 |
| Nobs | J♠ (matches 4♠) | 1 |
| Total | 6 |
Without the suit match, the same hand counts 5.
What's the difference between nobs and his heels?
Both points involve a jack, which is why they're mixed up constantly:
- Nobs: a jack in your hand or crib matching the starter's suit. 1 point, counted with the hand.
- His heels: a jack turned up as the starter itself. 2 points, pegged by the dealer immediately.
One jack in the deck can never score both: if it's the starter, it's heels; if it's in a hand, it can only ever be nobs.
Is it nobs, knobs, or nibs?
Nobs is the spelling the rulebooks use, often as "his nobs", and pagat's rules write the singular "his nob". Knobs, with a k, appears in no rulebook or glossary we can find; it is the same word spelled by sound, and a player claiming "one for his knobs" means this same one-point jack.
Nibs is a different point. The American Cribbage Congress glossary uses nibs as another name for his heels, the jack turned up as the starter, worth 2 to the dealer. Some casual North American usage stretches nibs to the held jack as well, so if a claim of "nibs" ever moves pegs at your table, ask which jack is meant.
Why it's easy to miss
Nobs is easy to overlook in casual counting because it depends on a suit match, not a number pattern, and eyes trained to hunt fifteens skip right past it. If you play with the muggins rule, a forgotten nobs point is exactly the kind your opponent gets to steal.
The rule is also where our upcoming cribbage app Nobs takes its name.
By the Nobs Cribbage team Last reviewed 2026-08-09