Durak

Players and equipment

Two to six players and a 36-card pack: a standard pack with the twos, threes, fours and fives taken out, so each suit runs ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six. The ace is high and the six is low. One suit is trumps for the whole game, and any trump beats any card of another suit.

Durak means fool, and the game is played to find one. Nobody wins; the last player still holding cards loses, is the durak, deals the next game and takes whatever teasing the table hands out. Everyone else simply got away. It is the card game every Russian household knows, and Podkidnoy Durak, the fool with throwing in, is the game people mean when they say Durak.

It is best with four playing as two pairs, partners sitting opposite, when the pair still holding cards loses together. Any number from two to six can play each for themselves, and six can play as two teams of three sitting alternately. With two it is a quick, sharp duel.

SquareScores keeps the record and nothing else: it deals no cards, sees no cards and does not know which suit is trumps. A game of Durak is one match on the match table, and the host taps players as they go out. More on that under Scoring.

The deal

The first dealer is chosen any way you like. After that the durak deals. The pack is shuffled and not cut; a cut is a house rule, not the game's.

Deal six cards to each player, one at a time, clockwise. Turn the next card face up on the table: its suit is trumps. Put the rest of the pack face down across it, so the trump card shows from underneath. That stack is the talon, and the turned-up trump is its bottom card, drawn last of all.

With six players there are no cards left over. The dealer turns their own last card face up to set trumps, shows it round, and keeps it in hand.

Play

In the first game the player holding the lowest trump attacks first: whoever has the six of trumps, or the seven if nobody has the six, and so on up. In later games the player to the dealer's left attacks first, which means the player to the left of the last durak.

The game is a series of bouts. In each bout one player attacks, the player on their left defends, and the attacker may be joined by the other players throwing in cards. Play goes clockwise.

The attacker opens by laying any card face up in front of the defender, or several cards of the same rank together. The defender must beat each attacking card by covering it with a higher card.

Any card of a plain suit

Or by any trump

Beaten by a higher card of the same suit

A trump

Nothing else beats it

Beaten by a higher trump only

Several cards at once

Any order

Each beaten on its own

You never have to follow suit in Durak: a trump beats a plain card of any suit, and that is usually how a high plain card goes down.

While the bout is on, the attackers may throw in more cards, one or several at a time, and each new card must be of a rank already on the table in this bout, whether it was played as an attack or as a defence. If the defender beats a seven with a jack, sevens and jacks can now be thrown in. The defender beats each new card as it comes, or gives up.

Who may throw in is the principal attacker first, and the others only with their leave: the attacker who opened says wait, I am still playing, or go ahead, and the table respects it. With four playing each for themselves the second attacker is the player on the defender's left, the third the player opposite. With five or six playing singly, most tables let only the defender's two neighbours throw in, so the defender is not mobbed. In a team game your partner never attacks you and never helps you defend.

There is a limit, and it is the rule beginners forget.

Six cards

The defender never faces a seventh

The most the attackers may play in one bout, however many they beat

The defender's hand

A player with two cards can be attacked with two

If the defender began the bout with fewer than six cards, no more attack cards than that

First bout

Not everywhere

At tables of four or more playing singly, a common house rule holds the first defender of a game to five cards

The defender wins the bout when every attacking card is beaten and nobody can or will throw in another, when six cards have been beaten, or when the defender runs out of cards having beaten everything played so far. All the cards of the bout, attacks and answers together, are turned face down and put aside out of the game; nobody takes them. The defender who beat off the attack becomes the next attacker, and the player on their left defends.

The defender who cannot or will not beat a card gives up and picks up every card on the table into their hand. Before that happens the attackers may throw in any further cards they could legally have played, up to the limit, and the defender takes those too. A player who picked up does not attack next: the attack passes to the player on their left, who attacks the player beyond.

After every bout players refill their hands to six from the talon, and the order matters: the principal attacker draws first, then the other attackers in clockwise order, and the defender draws last. A player holding six or more draws nothing. When the talon runs out, the turned-up trump is the last card drawn, and from then on you play with what you hold.

One small privilege: the original holder of the six of trumps, whether dealt it or drawn, may swap it for the turned-up trump card at any time before that card is drawn. It is the only exchange in the game.

Scoring

There is no score in Durak. There are the cards in your hand, and the only number that matters is whether you are holding any when the game ends.

Out

Safe

No cards in hand after a bout, the talon empty

Still in

The durak

The last player holding cards

Once the talon is empty, a player who sheds their last card is out of the game and is skipped in the order; if they were the next defender, the attack passes over them. Play goes on among the rest until, at the end of a bout, only one player holds cards. That player is the durak.

On SquareScores a game of Durak is one match on the match table, and the game is set up as a podium: tap a player's name the moment they go out, and the taps run first, second, third. The first player out tops the podium, and the tap that fills the last place there is files the match: the third at a table of four or more, the durak's own at a smaller one. At a table of four or more the durak reads out below the podium. With three or two players, or two pairs, the podium is simply the order: the last tap, the durak's, fills it and files the match. The Leaderboard carries three, two and one points to the podium. End match is the door when the table stops short of a full podium, and the door for a drawn game, which nobody wins and nobody loses: bank it unmarked and nobody takes a place. A host who only cares that somebody was the fool can choose winner takes all at launch instead, which is one tap on the first player out. For a game in pairs, tap the pair: the Players section arranges the table in teams, a tap on a side records both partners at once, and the second tap, on the pair still holding cards, files the match. SquareScores deals nothing and never sees a card: the talon, the trump and the bouts are all on the table, and the app only hears who is out.

A worked game

Four players: Alice, Ben, Cara and Dev, each for themselves. Hearts are turned up for trumps. Dev holds the six of hearts and attacks first.

Dev attacks Alice

Alice covers with the king of spades

Nine of spades

Ben throws in

Alice covers with the seven of hearts, a trump

Nine of clubs, a rank on the table

Cara throws in

Alice has no diamond above the king and no trump left; she picks up all five cards

King of diamonds, matching Alice's king

Refill

Ben attacks Cara next

Dev draws first, then Ben, then Cara; Alice drew nothing, she holds nine

Alice spends the rest of the game shedding that pick-up, and it costs her. The talon runs out with the ten of hearts, the trump card, going to Cara. Ben beats off an attack of six cards, is left with nothing and is out first. Ben would attack next, so the turn passes over him to Cara, who attacks Dev, on her left, with a ten; Dev covers it with his last card, a trump, and is out second. Dev would attack next, so the turn passes over him to Alice, and with Ben gone the player on her left is Cara. Alice attacks Cara with a jack; Cara beats it with her last card and is out third. Alice is left holding three cards.

Ben

Out first

Beat off six cards and was left empty

Dev

Out second

Covered Cara's ten with his last card, a trump

Cara

Out third

Beat Alice's jack with her last card

Alice

The durak

Three cards still in hand

Three taps on the match table: Ben, then Dev, then Cara. Cara's tap was the third podium place and filed the match, and the next match table was already waiting under it. Ben carries three points on the Leaderboard, Dev two, Cara one, and Alice reads out; she deals the next game. On a winner-takes-all table the only tap is Ben's.

Ending

The game ends the moment only one player holds cards at the end of a bout, and that player is the durak. If the last attack is beaten off and nobody at all has a card left, the game is a draw: nobody is the fool, and the previous durak deals again. In a game of pairs, play on until every player of one pair is out at the end of a bout, and the other pair has lost. The durak shuffles and deals the next game, and the player on their left attacks first. On the sheet the next match is already waiting under the one just filed; nothing to tap.

Keep your trumps for the end

The talon runs out, and the game is decided in the hands held after it does. Trumps are what wins the endgame, so beat plain cards with plain cards while the talon lasts, even at the cost of a pick-up of two or three cards, and hoard the trumps. A player who spends the ace of trumps on a seven in the second bout will be the fool more often than not.

Pick up early, never late

A pick-up while the talon is still full costs little: the extra cards are low, you would have drawn to six anyway, and you have the whole game to shed them. The same pick-up after the talon is gone is the game lost. Give up cheerfully in the first few bouts to keep your good cards, and defend to the last card once the drawing stops.

Attack with what the defender cannot have

Watch what each player picks up and what they cover with. A player who took a pile of diamonds will cover any diamond you lead; a player who beat a ten with a trump has no tens and no higher diamonds, or they would have used them. Open with low cards in pairs or threes, so the defender spends several cards and you spend rubbish.

Throw in to empty the defender, not to annoy them

Throwing in is for the moment it finishes the defender: when they are down to a trump or two and a card of the right rank forces them to use it, or when a sixth card means they cannot beat the lot. Throwing in a card the defender can beat easily just hands them the next attack with a clean hand and leaves you a card lighter at the wrong time.

Count the trumps and read the bottom card

There are nine trumps, you can see one of them under the talon from the start, and every one played or picked up is one fewer in the hands around you. Whoever draws the turned-up trump gets a known card last, which is why the attacker who draws first in the final bouts would rather not be the last to draw. When the trumps left are all in your hand, attack hard: nobody can stop you.

Transfer Durak

Perevodnoy Durak, the transfer fool, is the other game people call Durak, and it is the same game with one addition. If the defender holds a card of the same rank as the attack, they may lay it beside it instead of beating it, and the whole attack passes to the next player, who is now the defender and may transfer again with another card of that rank. A transfer is only allowed while nothing has yet been beaten in the bout, and only if the new defender holds enough cards to be able to beat everything on the table. It is always played each for themselves, never in pairs. It is faster and crueller, since an attack can go round the table gathering cards, and a four of a rank can send a six-card attack to a player who did nothing to deserve it. Play it from the same match table.

Five cards in the first bout

At tables of four or more playing singly, many rule that the first defender of a game cannot be attacked with more than five cards, so nobody is buried before the game has started. The six-card limit stands for every bout after, and pairs and small tables play six from the first bout.

Cutting the pack

The pack is normally not cut in Durak. Some tables let the player on the dealer's right cut before the deal, and a few insist on it; nothing else changes.

Who attacks the fool

Tables differ over who starts the second game. The rule here is that the player on the durak's left attacks first, so the fool defends last. Some tables prefer that the player on the durak's right attacks first, so that the fool is taught by being attacked at once. Settle it before the deal.

Only neighbours throw in

With five or six playing singly, a defender attacked by everybody at once is overwhelmed, so the usual rule is that only the two players beside the defender may throw in. Some tables play it with four as well; it makes the game gentler and longer.

The six of trumps

Under the rule here its original holder may exchange it for the turned-up trump at any time before the talon is drawn. Some tables allow the exchange only when the turned-up trump is the ace; others allow no exchange at all, which is simpler and takes nothing much from the game.

Fifty-two cards

With five or six players some tables use a full pack, the two low. The talon lasts longer, there are thirteen trumps, and the two of trumps becomes the card that may be swapped for the turned-up trump. Two players sometimes go the other way and play with 24 cards, nine to ace, with the nine of trumps as the card that may be exchanged.

Two trump suits

In Durak Severnyi the suit of the last card drawn from the talon becomes the new trump suit for the rest of the game, and the old trump suit is an ordinary suit from then on. Everything held changes value at once, and a hand full of safe trumps becomes a hand full of rubbish.

How do you play Durak?

Each player holds six cards from a 36-card pack and one suit is trumps. In turn, one player attacks the player on their left with a card, and the other players may throw in more cards of any rank already on the table, up to six. The defender beats each card with a higher card of the same suit or with a trump, or picks the whole lot up. After each bout everyone draws back to six from the talon. Once the talon is gone, players drop out as they shed their last card, and the last one holding cards is the durak, the fool, and loses.

How many cards do you deal in Durak?

Six each, from a 36-card pack of sixes up to aces. The next card is turned face up to show trumps and the rest go face down across it as the talon, which players draw from after every bout to get back to six. With six players there is nothing left to turn, so the dealer's last card shows trumps and stays in the dealer's hand.

Can you throw in cards in Durak?

Yes, that is what the full name, Podkidnoy Durak, means. Once a bout is on, the other attackers may add cards of any rank already on the table, from either the attacks or the answers, and the defender must beat those too. The attacker who opened the bout has first call, and the attackers may never play more than six cards in a bout or more than the defender held when it began. At tables of five or six it is usual that only the defender's two neighbours may throw in.

What happens when you cannot beat a card in Durak?

You pick up every card on the table, the ones you beat included, and add them to your hand. The attackers may first throw in any more cards they could legally have played, and you take those too. You do not attack next: the attack passes to the player on your left.

Is there a winner in Durak?

No. The game finds a loser, the durak, which is Russian for fool, and everybody else is simply safe. The fool shuffles and deals the next game and is laughed at a little. On SquareScores the order players went out in is the podium, so over a few games the Leaderboard says who got away first most often and who kept being the fool.

Can you play Durak with two players?

Yes, and it is a good two-handed game: six cards each, the usual pack, and each player attacks the other in turn. The six-card limit and the hand-size limit still apply, and the player left holding cards after the talon is gone is the fool. Some pairs play with a 24-card pack, nine to ace, for a shorter game.

What is the difference between Podkidnoy and Perevodnoy Durak?

Podkidnoy, the fool with throwing in, is the standard game: other players may add cards to an attack, and the defender beats them or picks up. Perevodnoy, the transfer fool, adds a third choice: a defender holding a card of the same rank as the attack may lay it down and pass the whole attack to the next player, as long as nothing has yet been beaten and the next player has enough cards to answer. Everything else is the same, except that Perevodnoy is always played each for themselves, never in pairs.