Tarneeb rules

The partnership game of the Arab world, played across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Gulf. Four players, thirteen tricks, and an auction that names both the target and the trump.

Getting ready

A 52-card deck, aces high. Thirteen cards each, the whole deck dealt.

Partners sit facing each other. Tarneeb is traditionally played anticlockwise: the deal, the bidding and the play all pass to the right.

The bidding

Starting with the player next to the dealer in the direction of play, each player bids a number of tricks from seven to thirteen, or passes. Each bid must be higher than the last. Once three players pass, the highest bidder names the trump suit — the tarneeb.

A player who has passed may not bid again.

The play

The highest bidder leads to the first trick. You must follow suit if you can; if you cannot, you may play anything including a trump. Highest trump wins, otherwise the highest card of the suit led. The winner of each trick leads to the next.

Scoring

The bidding side needs the number of tricks bid.

Make it and score the number of tricks actually taken. Fail and lose the amount bid.

The defending side scores the tricks they took, but only if the contract was defeated — some tables score their tricks regardless, which is worth agreeing before you start.

An example

Your side bids eight and takes ten: you score 10 and the other side scores nothing. Had you taken only seven, you would lose 8, and the other side would score the 6 tricks they took.

A bid of thirteen, made, wins the whole game outright. Some tables score it as a large number of points instead.

Game is 31 or 41 points.

Playing well

Because a made contract scores every trick taken, bidding low costs nothing when you make it, while bidding one too many loses the whole bid. Count on your partner for about two tricks, not more, and bid what the two hands can make together rather than what yours can.

Tarneeb 41

A common variant where the bid is in points rather than tricks and the ace, king, queen and jack carry values, played to exactly 41.