Once you’ve read through these Tarneeb rules, you should discover a card game that may seem tricky at first but gets easier and funner the more rounds you play.
Played in 2 pairs, Tarneeb is a head-to-head battle of prediction, strategy, and forward-thinking – the best players are usually 3 moves ahead of the competition.
This can lead to epic strategic battles with your friends, so follow this guide below to learn how to play Tarneeb so you’ll have everything you need to know before you begin playing.
What Is Tarneeb?
Tarneeb is a team-based head-to-head game of 2 parts – predicting how many tricks your team will make and doing the tricks with the cards in your hand.
Points get awarded depending on both players in a team performance until one team reaches the score limit.
It’s more complex than other card games like the Pitty Pat card game or Follow the Queen poker, so it’s ideal if you’re after slightly more of a challenge.
Originating from the Middle East, Tarneeb is Arabic for ‘trump,’ which is apt considering how important trumps are to the game.
Number of Players Required: 4 players.
Who Can Play It: Teens and Adults best suited for this one.
Difficulty: Medium difficulty.
Length of Play: 10 – 20 minutes per game.
Similar to: Pinochle; Conquian; Hand Knee & Foot; Bezique
Main Objective: Score 31 points before the other team.
Why We Love It: Tarneeb is a fast-paced trick-taking card game that is simple to play if you have three other players, even if it may be slightly difficult to pick up when first playing. Games are unpredictable and can change at any moment, depending on how strategic players are.
Playing Tarneeb – What You’ll Need.
All you’ll need to play Tarneeb is a standard set of 52 cards, which makes the initial set-up that much easier.
If you don’t have a deck of cards lying around the house, be sure to pick up a 12 pack of playing cards to ensure you always have a pack handy when you need one.
It’s also a good idea to have a playing area where all 4 players can sit in a circle with a table in between.
How To Set Up Tarneeb
Choose the dealer at random, using any metric that you and your pals usually use to pick the starting dealer.
Shuffle the entire deck of cards, minus the jokers, and hand out 13 cards to each player.
Players can look at their cards but must keep their cards hidden from other players at this stage.
Split the 4 players up into 2 teams of 2 and ensure that teams are sat opposite each other in the circle.
Tarneeb Rules
As Tarneeb is a trick-based game, players must be aware of certain aspects of these game types, such as bidding, trumps, and tricks.
Worry not, though, because if you are unfamiliar with these concepts, we’ll explain them to you.
It’s also worth noting that aces are high in Tarneeb as well.
Starting the Game.
Each game of Tarneeb starts with bidding.
Bidding is where players guess the number of tricks that they think their team can make.
Bidding starts from the dealer’s right and goes counterclockwise. Players can also only bid between 7 tricks (the lowest) or 13 tricks (the highest).
The player who is the highest bidder sets the trump suit for the round. The trump suit is the suit that players must follow throughout the round.
So if the player who is the winning bidder places a Hearts, then the trump suit is Hearts.
How to Play Tarneeb
A trick is what we call the winning card after every round in Tarneeb.
Players place 1 card per round, and as each player starts with 13 cards in total, there is a maximum of 13 tricks players can win.
Hence why there is a 13 trick limit when players bid at the start of every game.
Each player lays a card down counterclockwise from the winning bidder in an attempt to place the highest-ranked correct suit in each round.
Whoever out of the 4 manages to place the card, both the trump suit and the highest number, wins the trick and chooses the next trump suit.
Players can play whatever card they would like even if it doesn’t follow the trump suit, although doing this means they cannot win the trick.
Scoring In Tarneeb
Scores get worked out depending on the number of tricks each team wins after all 13 cards get used and the highest bid at the beginning of the game.
The team who won the bidding would win the same number of points as their bid if they were successful in guessing correctly.
So if they bid 8 tricks and win 8, they get 8 points, and the other team scores 0.
If the team cannot correctly guess the number of tricks they’ll win, then they lose the same number of points as their bid was, and the other team gains the points equal to the number of tricks that team won.
The game restarts after each round and continues until a team achieves 31 points or more than wins them the game.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most number of points that a team can win in 1 round of Tarneeb?
If a team wins all 13 tricks, they earn 13 points, and if they bid 13 tricks, they win another 13 points.
So 26 points is the most that players can win in a single round.
Alternative Games to Tarneeb
If you’re after more games that you can play with a standard deck, then take a look at the Go Fish rules for a more straightforward game that is ideal for introducing to kids, or for a more advanced game, check out the Palace card game rules and Bezique card game rules.
For other easy-to-play card games that you can pick up and play, relive a classic by reading our guides to the classic UNO rules.
It’s also a good idea to see the versatility of UNO cards by discovering other games you can play with UNO cards.
