Cribbage 29 Hand

The highest possible hand score in cribbage is 29 points -- three Fives and a Jack in hand with the starter card (or cut card) beinga Five of the same suit as the Jack - for "One For His Nobs".
The odds of getting a highest 29 Cribbage hand are 1 in 216,580!

Cribbage 28 Hand

The second highest score in cribbage is 28. This 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 odds of getting a 28 Cribbage hand are 1 in 15,028.

Cribbage 24 Hand

The third highest cribbage hand is 24 Examples: Ace with four Sevens, Nine with four Threes, etc.

Impossible Cribbage Hands

It is impossible to get scores of 27, 26, 25 and 19 in cribbage hand point totals. 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

There are 12,994,800 possible cribbage hands if the cut card cariations 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".