What is the third hole at the start of the cribbage for?
It's shown behind the 2 pegs in the image below:
That is for the Game Peg (also known as a spilikin). At the bottom of the board, you see the three straight stripes - those are for keeping track of the number of games you have won. Until you have actually won a game, your spilikin for tracking wins is stored in that third hole.
Consider the following picture: it appears blue has just won the game, and is awarded two game wins for skunking the red player. The red player has yet to win a game, so his spilikin is still in the starting position.
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