Tarneeb 41 vs 61
The numbers after the name confuse everyone once — here is what they actually mean.
Ask three Tarneeb players what "Tarneeb 41" is and you may get three answers. That's because the number after the name is used two different ways around the Arab world: usually it is just the target score of the classic partnership game, but in some regions "41" names a separate variant with its own bidding. This page untangles both.
Meaning one: the race target
Classic partnership Tarneeb — one auction, the winner names trump, tricks score for the bidding team — is played as a race to an agreed total. Different tables simply race to different numbers:
| Name | Target | Feel |
|---|---|---|
| Tarneeb 31 | 31 points | The quick coffee-break game — often decided in a few hands |
| Tarneeb 41 | 41 points | The most common table standard — long enough for comebacks |
| Tarneeb 61 | 61 points | The long evening game — momentum matters, one kaboot won't decide it |
The rules of play are identical across all three — same auction, same tricks, same scoring per hand. Only the finish line moves. A longer race rewards steady bidding over hero calls: at 61, a failed 13-bid is a wound you have time to heal; at 31 it can be the whole game.
Meaning two: the individual-bidding variant
In parts of the Levant, "Tarneeb 41" also names a distinct game — sometimes called Arba'een wahed — that changes the auction itself:
- Everyone bids — each of the four players calls their own trick count, rather than one team bid.
- The four bids must reach a minimum combined total before play can start (commonly eleven), or the hand is redealt.
- Each player scores for their own bid: make it and it counts toward your team, miss it and it counts against — so a partnership can win and lose on the same hand.
- The winning post is 41 points, and many tables require you to make your bid on the crossing hand — you can't back into victory.
House rules vary from city to city (bonus values, whether a 13 call doubles, how trump is chosen), so if you sit at a live "41" table, ask which rules are in force before the first deal — no shame in it, every traveling player does.
What this table plays
Our Tarneeb is the classic partnership game, raced to 41: one auction of 7–13 tricks, the winner names the tarneeb, made bids score the tricks won, and the kaboot (all thirteen) pays its famous premium. The full rules are spelled out in How to Play Tarneeb — the same rules the engine enforces.
Keep reading
- How to Play Tarneeb — complete rules of the classic game.
- Tarneeb Variants — more regional twists.
- Tarneeb Scoring — bids, kaboot, and worked examples.
- قواعد الطرنيب بالعربية — the rules in Arabic.