29 points: three 5s and a jack in your hand, with the fourth 5 cut as the starter in the jack’s suit. That’s 16 for fifteens, 12 for pairs and 1 for nobs.
The perfect cribbage hand is 5, 5, 5 and a jack, with the starter being the remaining 5 in the same suit as the jack.
- Fifteens — 16 points. The jack plus each of the four 5s makes four fifteens, and each of the four ways to choose three 5s makes four more: eight fifteens for 16.
- Pairs — 12 points. Four 5s form six pairs, 2 points each.
- Nobs — 1 point. The jack matches the starter’s suit.
Counted aloud: “fifteen 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and a double pair royal is 28, and his nobs is 29.”
How rare it is
You get a 29 about once in 216,580 six-card deals and cuts. Counting every four-card hand with every starter, only 4 of 12,994,800 combinations make 29, one for each suit of the starter 5.
The next best hands
- 28: all four 5s plus any ten-card (10, J, Q or K), where the cut is either the ten-card or the last 5. The only ten-card that scores 29 instead is the jack matching the cut 5’s suit, held in your hand. 76 combinations make 28.
- 24: two pairs next to a card that joins them into a double-double run, 7-7-8-8-9: four fifteens for 8, two pairs for 4 and the runs for 12.
Nothing scores between 24 and 28, and 25, 26 and 27 are impossible. See what a 19 hand is for the other end, and the cribbage scoring and strategy guide for how every score is built.