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Card and tile games in Somalia

This page is part of the National and Regional Card Games Index of the Card Games Web Site.

The only Somali card game I know of is Arpaa Turup (which means "Four Cards"), which was described to me by Alexey Lobashev, who learned it from Mohamed Hassan of Mogadishu. This is a plain trick game for four players in partnerships, using a 144 card pack in which there are four copies of each of the cards A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6 in the usual French suits hearts, diamonds, clubs and spaces. All the cards are dealt in threes; the first player must choose trumps on the basis of his first three cards. The object is to win two successive deals, taking more tricks than the other team, and more tricks in the second deal than the first.

The Somali Domino Federation (Xiriirka Dubnadda Soomaaliyeed) in Mogadishu has sent me some information about the domino games played there.

Usually there are four players in two fixed partnerships, and a form of Block Dominoes is played, using a 6-6 set with all the dominoes dealt at the start - 7 to each player. The winners are the team of the player who first plays all his dominoes, or if the game becomes blocked, the team of the player whose remaining domino(es) have the lowest total spot value. The winning team score the total spot value of all unplayed dominoes, including those belonging to the winner's partner, and those belonging to the winner himself if the game was blocked.

The game is played to an agreed target score: the first team to reach that score wins the game.

Sometimes two players will play Draw Dominoes. Seven tiles are dealt to each player and a player who is unable to play draws from the boneyard of 14 undealt tiles until able to play or until they are exhausted. The game then continues until one player plays all his dominoes or the game is blocked. The winner scores the total of all unplayed dominoes as in the 4-player game.

There is also a game known as Russian Dominoes for 2, 3 or 4 players. In this game the score does not depend on the value of the unplayed dominoes; the object is simply to win as many games as possible. In case of a tie for number of wins, the player or team who won the latest game of the series is the overall winner. This game seems to be similar to Sebastopol or maybe to Block Dominoes with a Spinner in that players can continue the layout in all four directions from the first double played (or possibly from all doubles?) As usual the winner is the player who first plays out all his dominoes or the player who has the least number of spots on his unplayed dominoes when the game become blocked. There is the possibility of playing a tile face down in some circumastances. I am trying to obtain more information about this rule.