Arba'a Turub

Players and equipment

Arba'a Turub is a trick-taking game for exactly four players, in two fixed partnerships of two. Partners sit across the table from each other, as in Whist. It comes from Somalia, where its name means "four [packs of] cards," and it is an adults' game — children don't play it.

You need four standard 52-card decks shuffled into one pack. Throw out every card below a six from all four decks first, so what's left is nine ranks across four suits, four identical copies of each: thirty-six cards a deck, times four decks, is a hundred and forty-four cards in play. Cards rank from the top: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. Because four copies of every card are in the pack, the same card can turn up twice, or more, in a single trick.

The deal

Before the first deal of a sitting, any player deals one card face up to each of the four players; whoever is dealt the highest card deals first.

The dealer shuffles the whole pack and the player on the dealer's left cuts it. Dealing then runs round the table in batches of three. As soon as the player on the dealer's left — who will lead the first trick — has their first three cards, dealing stops. That player looks at those three cards alone and calls the trump suit out loud, naming it off a sixth of the hand they'll end up holding. Dealing then resumes until all four players hold their full thirty-six cards each.

With 144 cards changing hands, a miscount is easy to make. Once the deal is finished, the dealer shows the table the last batch they dealt themselves; if it isn't exactly three cards, the whole deal is thrown in and dealt again from scratch. Most tables sort a hand this size by suit as it comes in, alternating red and black suits along the fan, so a card's suit is easy to spot at a glance.

There's some doubt about which way the deal and the play run — the single-deck game this one grew from, Turup, ran counter-clockwise. What's written here assumes clockwise; agree at your table if you're used to the other direction.

Who deals next depends on how the last deal went. If the dealer's side won it, the deal moves to a player on the other side. If the dealer's side lost, the two partners on that side take the deal in turn, hand to hand. If the last deal was a draw, the same dealer deals again.

Play

The trump-caller leads the first trick of the game; after that, whoever wins a trick leads the next one. Follow the suit led if you can. Holding none of it, you may play a trump or throw away any other card — nothing forces your hand either way.

The trick goes to the highest trump played, or, if nobody played one, to the highest card of the suit led. Because every card exists in four copies, a card can meet its own twin in a trick: when two or more cards tie exactly on suit and rank, the one played earliest to that trick counts as the higher of them.

Partners may signal each other, but only the player who leads a trick's first card. The usual signals are a single knock for "this is my strong suit" and a click of the fingers for "this is my weak suit," given by the player who led the trick and by nobody else.

Scoring

A deal is one match on the sheet: all thirty-six tricks of it, played right out. SquareScores never deals a card or sees a trick: once the last trick is down, each partnership counts how many of the thirty-six tricks it took between its two players. Tap whichever side took more tricks as the winner on the match table, and that files the match outright; the next deal opens on its own, ready to go.

A worked deal

North-South and East-West are partners for the deal. North-South's long trump suit runs hot early and they lead 14 tricks to 4 by the halfway mark, but East-West's own trumps claim nine of the next ten, and the last eight tricks run six to East-West and two to North-South as East-West's long suit pulls them level and then ahead.

North-South

17

tricks taken

East-West

19

tricks taken

East-West took 19 of the 36 tricks against North-South's 17, so East-West is tapped as the winner of that match.

A deal that splits 18 tricks to 18 is a draw: nobody wins it, and play carries on. On the sheet, tap End match without tapping a side, and it is banked as a draw.

Ending

A match — one deal of Arba'a Turub — ends the moment its last trick, the thirty-sixth, is played. Tap whichever side took more tricks and the match files itself, and the next deal opens on its own: there's no fixed number of deals in a sitting, so the table keeps dealing for as long as it likes.

Traditionally, Arba'a Turub is played for a stake, agreed before the cards come out, and the side that wins the wider contest takes it. The traditional contest is won by whichever side is first to win two deals without losing one in between them, with its second winning deal beating the count of its first win, which stays the mark to beat however many drawn deals come between. A deal where the tricks split evenly, or where the same side wins again without clearing that bar, counts as a draw and the contest plays on. None of that escalating rule lives on the sheet — it only ever tracks which side won each deal. A table still playing for the old stake will want to watch for it themselves, deal by deal, alongside what the sheet shows.

End match is any player's call, not only the dealer's or the leading side's — tap it with no side marked to bank a tied deal as a draw, the way the worked example above shows, or to close a deal your sitting stops before its last trick falls. Whatever deals you've played stand as the result.

Calling trumps on a sixth of your hand

The trump call falls to whoever sits on the dealer's left, and it's made blind off just three cards — a sixth of the thirty-six you'll end up holding. Call the suit those three cards best support rather than waiting for a stronger hand that may never come; a short wait buys you nothing, since the call has to happen before the rest of your hand is even dealt.

Count the duplicates, not just the cards

Ordinary Whist tells you a card is gone once it's played. Here, with four copies of everything in the pack, a card you've just seen led can still turn up two or three more times before the deal is done. Keep a rough tally of how many of a rank have already appeared, especially in the trump suit — a card you think is safely high may have a twin still out there waiting to catch it.

Read your partner's knock

A knock means your partner's suit is strong; a finger-click means it's weak — and only on the suit they've just led. Use it: lead into a suit your partner has signalled strength in when you get the chance, and avoid forcing them to follow into one they've told you is weak. The signal only comes from the leader of a trick, so listen for it at the start of every trick, not partway through.

Play for the whole deal, not just the trick in front of you

Thirty-six tricks is a long hand, and the side that wins is the side that's still winning tricks at the end, not just early on. Don't burn your best trumps chasing small tricks in the first third of the deal — hold back strength for the stretch where the pack has thinned out and every trick starts to matter more to the final count.

Watch who leads a duplicate first

Because the tie-break favours whoever played a matching card earliest, there's a real edge in leading a card you suspect has a twin still in play, rather than holding it back. If you think an opponent holds the other copy of your card, lead it first and the tie falls your way if it comes to that; wait, and the advantage is theirs instead.

Playing counter-clockwise

There's real doubt over which way the deal and the play should run, since the single-deck parent game, Turup, was played counter-clockwise rather than the clockwise order assumed in this brief. Either direction is a fair way to play Arba'a Turub; just agree at the table before the first deal so the trump-caller and the lead are never in question.

Settling the stake deal by deal

The traditional stake rule (first to two wins without a loss between them, the second win bigger than the first, with anything short of that counting as a draw) takes some tracking. If your table would rather, agree before the first deal to settle a stake on each deal on its own. That is a house choice, not part of the game as reported, so say which rule you are playing to before the cards come out.

How many cards do you need for Arba'a Turub?

A hundred and forty-four. Take four standard 52-card decks, throw out every card below a six from each, and shuffle what's left — thirty-six cards a deck — into one combined pack.

How do you win a game of Arba'a Turub?

By your partnership taking more of the deal's thirty-six tricks than the other side does. Play the whole deal out, count up each side's tricks, and whichever side holds the bigger number wins that deal.

Who calls trumps in Arba'a Turub?

The player sitting to the dealer's left. Dealing pauses the moment that player has their first three cards, they look at those three alone, and they name the trump suit before the rest of the hand is dealt to anyone.

What happens when two identical cards land in the same trick?

The one played earliest to that trick counts as the higher card, whichever of the two or more looks stronger. With four copies of every card in the pack an exact tie on suit and rank is common, and the later copy never beats the earlier one however good it looks.

How do you win the stake at Arba'a Turub?

Traditionally, by being the first side to win two deals without losing one in between, with your second winning deal beating the count of its first win, which stays the mark to beat however many drawn deals come between. SquareScores doesn't track this escalating rule itself; it only tallies which side won each deal, so a table still playing for a stake needs to watch for it by hand.

Is Arba'a Turub related to another game?

Yes — it's a four-deck expansion of a single-deck, four-player trick game called Turup. Turup's own rules aren't set out in full alongside this one, so there's nothing more to say about how that smaller game is actually played; Arba'a Turub's own rules are everything given here.