Durak is the most popular card game in Russia. The Russian deck of cards is different from the standard French 52-card deck as it utilizes the 36 card deck.

Durak

In this game, there’s no winner, only a loser; 'The Fool'. The Fool is the player who has cards after everyone else has no cards left. Durak is usually played with teams, two against two sitting opposite to their teammate. The game is played in 'a series of bouts of attack and defense.' Everyone is dealt six cards and the bottom card of the deck is turned over on the table, which will determine the ‘trump suit.

The rest of the deck is placed perpendicularly on top of this card, so that the trump suit can be seen. This draw pile is called the talon or prikup and discarded cards from successful defense moves are placed in a pile next to the talon.

Attacking

The game begins with the player with the lowest card of the trump suit, as the first attacker. Gameplay proceeds clockwise with the player to the attackers left always the defender. If the attack succeeds, the attack passes to the player on the defenders left. If it fails, the defender becomes the next attacker. Wikipedia describes attacking and defending as such:

The player with the lowest trump 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 , the defender loses their turn and the attack passes to the player on the defender's left. If the attack fails, the defender becomes the next attacker.

Defending

Much like the game War played in the States, the defender attempts to beat the attacker by playing a higher valued card of either the trump suit or the attackers suit. The defender attempts to beat the attacking cards by playing higher-valued defending cards from their hand. One card is played to defend against each attacking card, and it must be in the same suit as the attacker’s card or the trump suit. The defending cards are placed on top of the attacking cards so that players can keep track of which card is defending against which.

“At any point during a defense, all players other than the defender can add 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 attacking cards does not exceed the number of cards in the defender's hand. The defender must also defend against these new cards. If at any point multiple players wish to add cards simultaneously, the first attacker has first priority, then the player to defender's left, and so forth clockwise. Some variants only allow cards to be added to the attack once the first defending card has been played’

The defender can give up their defense by picking up all of the cards on the table, which will also end the turn and since they’ve lost, they don’t get to attack, the attacker is the next player to the left. When the defender has been able to beat all of the attacking cards, they win and the cards are placed in the discard pile with the successful defender now as the attacker.

The Fool

The last player with cards in their hand is the loser - The Fool

Hope you enjoyed learning a little about a different card game!

xoxo, @bethalea
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