What Is a Turkey in Bowling? 3-Strike Name

A turkey in bowling is three strikes in a row. That is the whole definition: knock down all ten pins on three consecutive first balls and you have bowled a turkey. It is one of the most famous nicknames in any sport, and it comes from an old prize, not from anything about the game itself.

The name is a leftover from American bowling more than a century ago, when three straight strikes was rare enough to earn you an actual turkey. The tradition faded, but the word stuck. Below is where it really came from, what longer streaks are called, and how those strikes stack up on the scoresheet.

Where the name comes from

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, bowling alleys and tournaments in the United States handed out prizes to keep bowlers coming back. A common reward for rolling three strikes in a row was a live turkey, or later a turkey dinner.

That prize was especially popular around the Thanksgiving holiday, when a turkey was a genuinely valuable gift. Rolling three in a row to win one was a real feat on the equipment of the day, and the achievement carried the name long after alleys stopped giving away birds. Today no one gets a turkey for it, but every bowler still calls it one.

What longer streaks are called

Three strikes is only the start. Bowlers have names for longer runs, and once you pass the turkey the system becomes simple counting with the “-bagger” suffix.

Strikes in a row	Common name
2	Double
3	Turkey
4	Four-bagger (or hambone)
5	Five-bagger
6	Six-bagger
7	Seven-bagger
12 (a full game)	Perfect game (300)

The turkey is the only streak with a nickname that has nothing to do with numbers, which is exactly why it stands out. Four in a row picked up “hambone” from television commentary, but from five onward bowlers just count: five-bagger, six-bagger, and so on.

How consecutive strikes actually score

The reason streaks matter so much is scoring. A strike is worth 10 pins plus whatever you knock down on your next two rolls, so strikes feed off each other.

That means when you bowl a turkey, the first strike in the streak is worth the full 10 plus 10 plus 10, a maximum of 30 points for that single frame. String enough of them together and the score climbs fast, which is how a perfect game reaches exactly 300 from twelve strikes. If the bonus-roll math is new to you, our full breakdown of how bowling scoring works walks through it frame by frame.

The knock-on effect is why streaks feel so valuable. A single strike surrounded by open frames is worth far less than one buried inside a turkey, because it borrows scoring power from the balls around it. A bowler who converts three in a row does not just add three good frames; they inflate the value of the first two strikes as well, which is how averages jump when someone starts stringing strikes together.

How to bowl a turkey

There is no trick to a turkey beyond repeating one good strike three times, but consistency is exactly the hard part. The bowlers who string strikes are not the ones who throw hardest; they are the ones who repeat the same delivery, the same starting spot, the same target and the same speed, ball after ball.

Most consistent strike-throwers aim at a spot on the lane, an arrow or a board, rather than at the distant pins, because a nearby target is far easier to hit repeatedly. They also favour a ball that enters the pocket, the gap between the head pin and the pin just behind it, at a slight angle with some hook, which scatters the pins more reliably than a straight ball hitting flush. Under pressure, the temptation is to change something after two strikes; the players who get the third simply trust the delivery that got them the first two.

The turkey in bowling culture

Few sports nicknames have travelled as far as the turkey. It shows up in casual league nights, on televised broadcasts and in video games, and most people who have never kept score in their lives still know that three strikes in a row is a turkey.

That staying power says something about the achievement itself. It sits at a sweet spot of difficulty: hard enough that a recreational bowler remembers the night they got one, but common enough that it happens somewhere on the lanes every session. The prize turkeys are long gone, but the little jolt of getting three in a row, and calling it out, is the part that never went away.

Why the turkey still matters

For a casual bowler, a turkey is often the highlight of a night out: three strikes back to back is uncommon enough to feel special, but achievable enough to chase. That mix of rarity and reachability is why the term has survived so long in the culture.

It also marks a real skill threshold. Repeating the same clean strike three times in a row means your line, speed and release held steady across three frames, which is harder than it looks under pressure. Landing one is a small milestone worth celebrating, in the same spirit as nailing the rules and rhythm of any casual game, from tetherball to a good round of dodgeball.

The short version: a turkey is three strikes in a row, named for the turkeys once given as prizes, and longer streaks are counted as four-baggers, five-baggers and up to a perfect 300.