What is Back-up 10?
Back-up 10 punishes a hand that holds nothing. Whenever a hand or a crib is counted and scores no points at all, its owner is pegged back 10 holes. Everything else is played exactly as in the standard game: the deal, the discard to the crib, the play of the cards and the counting.
Only the count of the cards decides: the fifteens, pairs, runs, flush and nobs that the cards make with the starter. Points pegged during the play, and the 2 for his heels when the starter is a jack, do not save a hand, so a hand that counts 0 goes back even if its owner pegged well in the play. A crib that counts 0 pegs the dealer back in the same way, after the dealer's own hand, so a dealer can lose 20 holes in one deal.
The pegs never go behind the start: a player with fewer than 10 points goes back to the start, and a player still at the start does not move. Moving back never ends the game. Each time it happens, a line under the board says whose hand or crib scored nothing and how many holes it went back.
In partnerships both partners peg one shared score, so a scoreless hand or crib of either partner moves the whole side back. With three or four players playing alone the rule works the same way, and the crib still belongs to the dealer.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Cribbage | Back-up 10 |
|---|---|---|
| A hand that scores nothing | Standard CribbageNothing is pegged; the score stays where it is. | Back-up 10Its owner is pegged back 10 holes. |
| A crib that scores nothing | Standard CribbageNothing is pegged for the dealer. | Back-up 10The dealer is pegged back 10 holes, after the dealer's own hand has been counted. |
| What counts as nothing | Standard CribbageA hand scores for fifteens, pairs, runs, a flush and nobs, counted together with the starter. | Back-up 10The same count decides. Points from the play and his heels do not count toward it. |
| Near the start | Standard CribbageScores only ever move forward. | Back-up 10The pegs never go behind the start: with fewer than 10 points you go back to the start, and at the start you stay where you are. |
| Partnerships | Standard CribbageEach side pegs one shared score. | Back-up 10A scoreless hand or crib of either partner moves the whole side back 10 holes. |
| Muggins | Standard CribbageYou announce your own count, and the opponents may answer it. | Back-up 10The true count decides, once the answers are in. A hand that holds nothing goes back 10 even if its owner announced points, and any points announced for it stand unless an opponent calls an overcount. A hand that held points never goes back, even if its owner announced 0. |
| Lowball | Standard CribbageThe first player or side to reach the target loses. | Back-up 10Back-up 10 can be played with Lowball too. Moving back takes you further from the target, so there a scoreless hand helps its owner. |
| Game length and players | Standard CribbageA game to 121 or 61, with two, three or four players. | Back-up 10Back-up 10 works with both game lengths and with two, three or four players. |
History
No rulebook or other published source is known to describe Back-up 10 as it is played here. In the standard rules of cribbage a hand or crib that scores nothing simply pegs nothing. Back-up 10 is a house rule, and some cribbage apps offer it as an option.
Similar house rules have been published. One of them, called Nineteen, makes a player whose hand or crib scores nothing peg backward 19 points. The name comes from the habit of calling a scoreless hand a nineteen, because no hand can score exactly 19. Another pegs a crib that scores nothing 5 points backward.
The rule here takes the same idea with a smaller step of 10 holes. The details, that the pegs never go behind the start, that partners go back together and that in Muggins the true count decides, are this site's own choices.