How to Play Tarneeb
Tarneeb is a team game for 4 players, popular across the Middle East. You and your partner bid against the other team. The highest bidder picks which suit is the most powerful — then both teams fight to win tricks.
Quick version: Teams bid how many tricks they’ll win. Highest bidder picks the trump suit. Win enough tricks to make your bid.
What You Need to Know First
- 4 players in 2 teams — your partner sits across from you
- Each player gets 13 cards
- The highest bidder picks the “trump” suit — that suit beats all others
Card Strength (weakest to strongest)
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace
Step 1: Bidding
Players take turns making bids. A bid is a promise that your team will win at least that many tricks.
- Bids go from 7 to 13 (you can’t bid lower than 7)
- Each bid must be higher than the last, or you pass
- Once 3 players pass, the remaining player wins the bid
- If nobody bids, the dealer must bid 7
Example: Player 1 bids 7. Player 2 bids 8. Player 3 passes. Player 4 passes. Player 1 passes. Player 2 wins the bid at 8 — their team must win at least 8 tricks.
Step 2: Pick Trump
The bid winner chooses any suit as trump. Pick a suit where you have lots of strong cards.
K
Q
9
5
← Making Spades trump is a great choice!
No restriction on leading trump — you can play trump cards whenever you want (as long as you follow suit when required).
Step 3: Play Tricks
13 tricks, each one works like this:
- Bid winner leads first — plays any card
- Follow suit — play a card of the same suit if you have one
- Can’t follow suit? — play anything, including trump
- Trump beats everything — highest trump wins. If no trump, highest card of the led suit wins
Example Trick
← no Clubs, plays trump!
Scoring
Teams score together.
For the bidding team
| What happened | Points |
|---|---|
| Won enough tricks | You score the number of tricks you won |
| Fell short | Negative your bid amount |
Example: Bid 8, won 10 → score 10. Bid 8, won 6 → score -8.
For the other team
- If bidders make their bid → defending team scores 0
- If bidders fail → defending team scores the number of tricks they won
Special Scoring
| Situation | Points |
|---|---|
| Kaboot — win all 13 (bid less than 13) | 16 points |
| Bid 13 and win all 13 | 26 points |
| Bid 13 and fail | -16 points |
How to Win
First team to 41 points wins the session.
Tips for Beginners
- Bid on your best suit — 5+ cards in a suit with high cards is a great foundation
- Help your partner — lead trump to force out the other team’s trump
- Count the trump — once all 13 trump cards are played, high cards in other suits become very powerful
- Don’t overbid — failing gives you negative points AND lets the other team score