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Why the Jack beats everything
In most card games the Ace is the boss. In Tarabish, the moment a suit becomes trump, the Jack takes the throne and the 9 slides in right behind it. Most of the game follows from that.
Two orders, one deck
| Suit | Strongest to weakest |
|---|---|
| Trump | Jack, 9, Ace, 10, King, Queen, 8, 7, 6 |
| Plain suits | Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 |
The plain suits work the way you'd expect, Ace high. Trump is the one that surprises people. The Jack beats the Ace, and the 9 beats it too.
The points back it up
The order isn't just about who wins a trick. The Jack is worth 20 and the 9 is worth 14, so the top two trump carry 34 of the suit's 62 points. Add the Ace and you have the three best cards in the game, worth 45 between them. That's more than a quarter of the 162 in play.
Compare that to a plain suit, where the Jack is worth 2 and the 9 is worth nothing. Same cards, completely different weight. See the full point table.
What it means when you hold them
- With the Jack and the 9, only one card in the deck can beat your 9. It's the Jack, and you're holding it.
- Holding the Ace but not the Jack or 9 is a different story. The Ace is only third, and either of the cards above it can take it down.
- A hand of middling trump can still be dangerous. Cards like the 8, 7 and 6 rank low, but any trump beats any plain-suit card, so length in trump wins tricks by itself.
The trap: runs ignore the trump order
When you count a run, you go back to the ordinary sequence: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace. That means Jack, 9 and Ace are not a run, even though they're the top three trump. But Jack, Queen and King in trump are a run. Mixing the two orders up is one of the most common beginner mistakes. More in Runs and Bella.