Syrian Tarneeb 41

How to play

1. Four players, partners sitting opposite, 13 cards each, ace high.
2. The dealer's last card is shown to everyone, and trump is the other suit of its colour: clubs make spades trump, spades make clubs, hearts make diamonds and diamonds make hearts. The card stays in the dealer's hand.
3. Each player bids once, starting on the dealer's right: the number of tricks they alone will take, 2 to 13. There is no pass.
4. The four bids must add up to at least 11, or the cards are dealt again.
5. The player on the dealer's right leads. Follow suit if you can, otherwise play anything. The highest trump wins, otherwise the highest card of the suit led.

Scoring and winning

• Make your bid or more and you add the bid; fall short and you lose it. Extra tricks score nothing, and scores are per player.
• A team wins when one partner has 41 or more at the end of a hand and the other is above 0. If both teams qualify together, the higher team total wins.