Durak encyclopedia topics

Set up

The game is typically played with a deck of 36 cards (numerical cards 2 through 5 inclusive as well as the 2 joker cards are removed prior to play) and is played among 2 to 6 people. The deck is shuffled, and each player receives six cards. The top card on the remaining deck is made visible and placed at the bottom of the deck across it (so that its denomination is seen). This determines the trump suit and the revealed card is actually part of the deck, the last card to be drawn. The player with the lowest trump is the first attacker. A deck of 36 cards limits the number of players to 6, although some variants allow more than one deck. A six player game with one deck is not optimal because it gives a considerable advantage to the player who attacks first, and a considerable disadvantage to the player who defends first. If multiple games have been played, often the loser of the previous game shuffles.

If, after receiving their six cards, a player has all red-suited cards or all black suited-cards, or five cards of the same suit, the game is reset. The deck is shuffled, each player receives six new cards, and there is a new trump suit.

Gameplay

The starting player is the first attacker. The player to the attacker's left is always the defender. After each turn play proceeds clockwise. If the attack succeeds (see below) the defender loses his or her turn and the attack passes to the player on the defender's left. If the attack fails, the defender becomes the next attacker.

Attack

The attacker opens the turn by playing one card face up on the table as an attacking card. The player to the attacker's left is the defender.

In basic podkidnoy (подкидной, "throw-in"), and most other variants of durak, the defender has to immediately attempt defense in response to the initial attack. In the perevodnoy (переводной, "passing") variant, the defender may choose to attempt defense or to pass the attack on clockwise around the table. In this case, the defender may only pass on the attack if he has in his hand a card of the same rank (number) as the attacking card(s). To pass on the attack, he adds this card to the attacking card(s). The defender now becomes the new attacker, and the player to his left becomes the new defender. The new defender must decide upon a response for this new initial attack. In games involving four or fewer players, it is perfectly possible for the attack to pass all the way around the table, so that the original attacker ends up defending against his own attack (and against three other attacks of the same rank).

Aces are high. Trumps are always higher than non-trump cards (e.g., a trump 6 beats a non-trump ace).

Defense

The defender attempts to beat the attacking cards by playing defending cards against them from their hand. One card is played in defense for each attacking card. Non-trump attacking cards may be beaten by either a) a higher card of the same suit or b) a trump. Trump attacking cards may only be beaten by higher trumps. Play the defending cards on top of the attacking cards so that you can keep track of which card is defending against which.

At any point during a defense, the attacker or any third party can pitch in extra attacking cards, provided that for each new attacking card, there is already a card of the same rank on the table (either defending or attacking), and the total number of undefeated attacking cards does not exceed six or the number of cards in the defender's hand, whichever is less. The defender defends against these new cards also.

If the defender is unwilling or unable to beat all attacking cards, he must pick up all the cards on the table — including all the cards the attackers pitched in — into his hand and abandon the defense. The defender may choose to abandon the defense at any point during the turn. This immediately ends the turn. The failed defender loses his turn to attack; hence the player to the defender's left attacks next.

If the defender has beaten all attacking cards, and no other players are willing or able to add more, the defender has triumphed. The turn ends, all cards on the table are discarded from play to a discard pile, and play passes to the left: the successful defender opens the next turn as the new attacker.

End of turn

At end of turn, whether or not defense was successful, the following action is performed: starting from the main attacker, followed by anyone else who contributed cards, and culminating with the defender, each player with less than 6 cards in their hand must draw cards from the deck until they have 6 cards in their hand. If/when the deck runs out of cards, play simply carries on without any more cards being drawn. When someone runs out of cards, they are done with the game, and everyone else continues. Each player draws as many cards as they need (i.e. if there are 6 cards left in the deck and the attacker has just spent their entire hand, they draw the entire deck and no one else draws any cards). The order in which this is done is strategically important since the last card in the deck is necessarily a trump.

No players may examine the discard pile at any point.

Winning / Losing

There are no winners, only one loser. Whoever is the last person left in the game with cards in his/her hand, is the loser, the fool, the durak. That person is the dealer for the next game, and the person to the left of the fool is the first attacker of the next game.

Team Play

With 4 (2v2) or 6 players (2v2v2 or 3v3), it is possible to play with teams. The members of each team sit opposite one another (with 2 players on each team), or alternating (with 3). The members of each team do not put down cards for their teammate to cover, but focus on piling up on the other team(s) instead.

Options / variants

Before the start of a game, you can request to play with "perevodnoy durak" ("durak with transfers") option. This means that once an attacker places the first card down for you to beat, you have the choice to put down a card of the same value from your deck beside it and send both cards to the next player to beat. Whether or not this next player is able to beat the cards or is forced to place them in his/her deck, he/she takes the cards he/she needs first and you go on the next turn.

You can also request to play with "Flash". The idea is similar to "perevodnoy". However, instead of placing a card down besides your opponent's and sending it along the circle, you can simply "Flash" your card (with the same value) instead of setting it down, if yours is a trump. You can only do this move once with the same card throughout the game,the second time the card must be placed into the play.

There is also a "Pairs" variation of the game, which can be played with four players. In this version, teammates sit across each other, and the game goes normally. The difference is that a player cannot add to an attack on his/her partner. The team which has both their players lose all their cards is the winner.

"Fool with Epaulettes"

If the very last card played by an attacker is a "6" (the lowest denomination in the deck for Durak) and the defender loses the defender is cheerfully pronounced "durak s pogonom" (дурак с погоном, a fool with an epaulette), and the "6" may be slapped onto the shoulder of the loser. This ending is even more insulting than simply declaring the loser "durak" (fool), because often the winner essentially makes himself handicapped by keeping a low-value "6" card through the final part of the game thus demonstrating his higher skill. If the attacker plays two "6"es, this means an even more cheerful occasion of "epaulettes on both shoulders".

In fact, there is a version of the game when the "epaulettes" ending are an actual score point. If someone has got a "6" as an epaulette, the next time he is supposed to get a "7" as an epaulette for the opponent(s) to score, and so on until an ace card is landed onto someone's shoulder. This version may be played one against one or teamwise: two against two.

External links

Kurnik Online Games has Durak game to play against other people.