Description

Tarneeb, طرنيب‎, literally meaning trump, and called hakam حكم‎ in the Persian gulf region. The game may be considered an variation of Whist.

The aim of tarneeb is to win a set of continuous hands. There are four players in partnerships of two teams. A standard 52 card deck is used, each suit ranking in the usual way from Ace (high) down to two (low).

The two members of each team are seated across each other, often on a table in such a way that no player can see the cards of other players. Either player of a team may collect the winning tricks.

The first dealer is chosen at random and after each hand the turn to deal passes to the right. The cards are shuffled and cut, and are all dealt out, one at a time or in groups of thirteen (13), so that everyone has 13 cards.

The objective of the bidding team is to take at least the number of tricks that they bid. The objective of the other team is to hinder the declarer team from reaching their declared bid.