Cribbage Flush Points

The flush in your hand

In the show your four hand cards are counted together with the starter. The flush is the one score where the starter is treated differently from the other four: it may extend a flush but never create one. The test is simple:

1. Are all four cards in your hand the same suit? If not, there is no flush. Stop.
2. If they are, score 4.
3. Is the starter that suit as well? Then score 5 instead of 4.

Example: you hold 3♦ 7♦ 9♦ Q♦ and the starter is the 5♣. Fifteens: 3 + 7 + 5 and Q + 5 make two for 4. No pairs, no runs. All four hand cards are diamonds, so the flush scores 4; the club starter does not match, so it stays at 4. Total 8. Had the starter been the 5♦, the flush would be 5 and the hand 9.

The flush in the crib

The crib is counted like a hand for fifteens, pairs, runs and nobs, with one exception: a crib flush needs all five cards, the four in the crib and the starter, to be one suit. Then it scores 5. Four suited crib cards with an off-suit starter score nothing for the flush, however tempting it looks.

The reason is practical. The crib is built from two players' discards, so four cards of one suit arriving there is partly luck and partly the dealer deliberately throwing two of a suit. The stricter rule keeps the crib flush rare. It also makes a difference to discarding: two suited cards to your own crib give you only a small chance of the five-card flush, so a flush is never a reason on its own to break up a scoring hand. The discard guide covers what to throw and when.

No flush in the play

During the play (pegging) suits are ignored entirely. Four hearts laid in a row score nothing for being hearts. The only things that peg are fifteen, thirty-one, pairs, runs, the Go and the last card, all listed in the scoring guide. A flush is counted once, in the show, and that is all.

The two flush mistakes

• Counting the starter into a three-card suit. A♠ 6♠ 8♠ K♥ with a 4♠ starter has four spades on the table, but only three of them are in the hand. No flush, 0 points for it. The hand must be four of a suit before the starter is looked at.
• Counting a four-card flush in the crib. Four clubs in the crib with a diamond starter is worth nothing for the flush. Only all five clubs would score, and then 5.

Both slip past new players because the four matching cards are right there on the table. If you play with the muggins rule, overclaiming a flush is the kind of error an opponent will pounce on, so check the hand, not the table.

What a flush is worth when discarding

A four-card flush in hand is a sure 4 with a chance of 5, which is respectable but usually less than a hand built around fifteens, a pair and a run. A hand like 4-5-6 plus a seventh suited card is worth keeping for the run and fifteens, not for the flush. Keep the flush when it comes with points already (suited 6-7-8-9, for instance, is two fifteens, a run of four and a flush: 4 + 4 + 4 = 12) and let it go when keeping it costs a fifteen or a pair elsewhere.

How CardCouch counts a flush

On CardCouch every hand and crib is counted for you and itemised. A four-card hand flush shows as Flush: 4, five with the starter as Flush: 5, and the crib only ever shows the five-card version. Four suited cards in the crib with an off-suit starter show no flush line at all, which is the standard rule applied, not a miscount.

Frequently asked questions

Keep learning