Are Aces High or Low in Cribbage?

Aces are always low in cribbage, in every part of the game. An ace counts 1, never 11, toward fifteens and the running count. Because runs never wrap around from king back to ace, queen-king-ace is not a run and neither is king-ace-2; ace-2-3 is.

One order covers the whole game, from king at the top down to ace at the bottom:

Is ace-2-3 a run in cribbage?

Yes. A run, which the American Cribbage Congress rulebook calls a straight, is three or more cards of consecutive rank, worth 1 point per card. Ace-2-3 qualifies and scores 3; the rulebook's own double-run examples are built on it, and pagat's rules teach the run of three with the same cards.

Because nothing ranks below the ace, a run that includes one can only climb upward. That limits the show, the counting phase where a hand is five cards (four held plus the starter): the only ace runs possible there are ace-2-3, ace-2-3-4, and ace-2-3-4-5.

During the play the ace does not need to land first. A play run only requires the consecutive ranks to appear with no foreign card between them. The sequence 3, then ace, then 2 pegs a run of three for whoever lays the 2. An ace run can even stretch to seven cards in play, since ace up through 7 totals just 28, under the 31 cap.

Is queen-king-ace a run in cribbage?

No. Runs never wrap around from the top of the pack to the bottom: king is the highest rank, ace is the lowest, and the two are not consecutive. No run can cross the king-ace join in either direction, which is why king-ace-2 fails too.

The American Cribbage Congress rulebook does not even carry the idea of a wrap-around run. Its rank table lists the cards from king at the top down to ace at the bottom, and its straight definition asks only for consecutive ranks, so a sequence stops where the pack stops.

Sequences that turn the corner, sometimes called round-the-corner runs, do exist in other card games, and in poker an ace-high hand outranks a king-high one. Most plausibly the queen-king-ace question walks in from those ace-high habits, and cribbage simply does not share them.

Queen, king, and ace still score nothing as a trio: they total 21, which is no fifteen, and they form no pair and no run. The cards can work separately, though, since each face card makes fifteen with a 5, and any of the three can pair a card of matching rank.

Is an ace worth 1 or 11 in cribbage?

An ace is worth 1 in cribbage, always. The 1-or-11 choice belongs to blackjack, where the holder counts an ace either way. Cribbage fixes the value at 1, with no option anywhere in the game. The rest of the pack is just as fixed: number cards count face value, and jack, queen, and king count 10 each.

That value matters only where cards are added together, in fifteens and in the running count of the play. Pairs and runs go by rank, not value. The ace's suit works like any other card's, counting in a flush and nowhere else, and there is no ace version of the jack's nobs point.

Does an ace win the cut for the first deal?

Yes. The cut for first deal uses the same order, king high down to ace low, and the low card takes the deal. Turning up an ace cannot be beaten, only tied, and a tied cut means the whole pack is reshuffled and cut again.

Players sometimes run the rule backwards and assume a low card loses the cut. It is the reverse: because the deal goes to the low cut, the ace is the best card you can turn. The full opening sequence, from this first cut to 121, is on how to play cribbage.

How do aces work in the play to 31?

The play caps the running count at 31, and a card that lands the count exactly there pegs 2. The full rules of the phase are on go and 31. An ace played on a count of 30 makes exactly 31, so it collects those 2 points. At 30 the ace is also the only card anyone can legally play, because every other rank counts 2 or more and would push past the cap.

The ace is also the one card that never forces its holder to say "go". A sequence ends the moment it reaches 31, so the count at any player's turn is at most 30, and an ace raises that by only 1. A player still holding an ace always has a legal card.

What do four aces score?

In the play, all four aces can land in one unbroken sequence, since even the fourth brings the count to just 4. Matched cards escalate when they fall in immediate succession: the second ace pegs 2 for the pair, an immediate third pegs 6, and an immediate fourth pegs 12. Only the ranks from ace through 7 can fit a whole four of a kind under the 31 cap like that.

In the hand, four aces count exactly 12, and no starter can change that. No rulebook states this outright; it falls out of the arithmetic.

The four aces total just 4, so no starter can complete a fifteen. A run needs three consecutive ranks, and only two ranks are present. A flush is impossible with all four suits in hand, and nobs needs a jack.

Every other four of a kind can gain from the right starter: four 2s meet a 9, for instance, and 9+2+2+2 suddenly makes fifteen. Four aces are the only four of a kind whose score the starter cannot touch.

How do aces make fifteens?

An ace can never be half of a two-card fifteen. No card counts more than 10, so an ace plus any single card reaches 11 at most, and every fifteen that includes an ace needs at least three cards. An ace with two 7s (1+7+7) and an ace with a 4 and a king (1+4+10) each make fifteen for 2 points.

Each distinct fifteen scores 2 at the show, and how to score a hand covers where fifteens sit in a full count. Aces even have a named hand of their own: the American Cribbage Congress glossary nicknames 8-7-6-A-A Raggedy Ann, and that hand counts 13 points.

Is there a cribbage variant where aces are high?

Not in any source this site checks against. The American Cribbage Congress rulebook, pagat's cribbage pages, Bicycle's rules, and Cribbage Corner's variants index cover the standard game and a shelf of variants between them. None documents a form of cribbage that ranks aces high or changes the ace's value of 1.

A table that counts queen-king-ace as a run is playing a private house rule with no published basis behind it. That works the moment everyone at the table agrees, and nowhere else, so settle it out loud before the deal rather than during the count.

Arguing the point mid-game at a real table? Muggins is a digital cribbage board for iPhone and iPad: lay the device flat, play with your own deck, and pull the knobs to peg. It keeps the score and stays out of the ruling.

By the Nobs Cribbage team Last reviewed 2026-08-09