Cribbage is a card game, usually for two players, in which each player tries to form various counting combinations of cards. Each player receives six cards, and the score is kept by moving pegs on a narrow rectangular board. (There is also a five-card variant, as well as four-hand and three-hand variants.) Cribbage was invented by the 17th-cent. English poet and courtier John Suckling. The rules of play, though somewhat involved, are simple enough to make cribbage a popular pastime, particularly in Britain and the United States. The game usually ends at 121 (twice around the board plus one).