Throw-in Durak rules
Durak seems simple until you hit the disputed points: how many cards can be thrown in, when you may beat with a trump, what happens to the last card in the deck. Let's go through it in order.
What you need
A 36-card deck: six through ace in four suits. Two to six people can play, but the most common game is two or three players. The more players, the fewer cards each one gets and the faster the deck runs out.
Card ranks are the usual ones: the six is the lowest, then seven, eight, nine, ten, jack, queen, king, ace. Classic Durak has no special cards like jokers.
The deal and the trump
Each player gets six cards. The rest of the deck goes on the table face down, and the top card is turned over and slipped crosswise under the deck so everyone can see its suit. That suit is the trump for the whole game.
The trump card under the deck is in play like any other card. It goes to whoever draws the last card from the deck, and it often decides the game.
The player with the lowest trump goes first. If nobody has a trump, the player to the dealer's left starts, though in a computer version this is usually decided automatically.
How a round goes
One player attacks, and the player to their left defends. The attacker puts a card on the table, and the defender has to beat it.
There are two ways to beat a card:
- with a higher card of the same suit;
- with any trump, if the attacking card is not a trump.
A trump can only be beaten by a higher trump. An eight of hearts will not beat a ten of hearts, but any trump six will handle a non-trump ace.
Throwing in
Once the first card is beaten, every player can throw in, not just the attacker. There are two limits, and they matter.
You may only throw in a card of a rank that is already on the table. If a nine and a jack have been played this round, you can throw in nines and jacks, and nothing else.
The second limit is about quantity. You cannot throw in more cards than the defender has in hand. If they have two cards left, they will defend against two at most. In the first round of a game there is one more rule: no more than five cards can be thrown in, even if the defender has a full hand.
Done and take
If the defender beats every card, the round is over. Everything on the table goes to the discard pile and never comes back into play. This is called "done" (in Russian, "bito"). The turn passes to the player who defended.
If there is nothing to beat with, or the defender would rather not, they say "take" and pick up every card on the table, beaten and unbeaten alike. After that, the opponents may throw in more cards to them under the same rules. The player who took skips their turn, and the next player attacks.
A detail people often argue about: until the defender says "take", nothing can be thrown in except cards of a rank already on the table. And the other way round: once they have said "take", they cannot change their mind and start defending.
Drawing cards
After each round, all players draw back up to six cards until the deck is empty. The attacker draws first, then the others in turn, and the defender draws last.
The drawing order matters more than it seems. The player who draws last more often misses out on the trump card from under the deck.
Once the deck runs out, nobody draws any more, and the game is played from the hands. This is usually where the game is decided.
How the game ends
A player who runs out of cards when the deck is empty leaves the game. They have not won in the usual sense, they have simply got out, and that is already good.
The last player still holding cards is the durak, the fool. If everyone runs out of cards at the same moment, the game is a draw. It is rare, but it happens.
Common disputed situations
Can you beat with a trump if you have a card of the same suit?
Yes, the defender decides what to beat with. Nobody is required to save trumps, though it is usually wise.
Do you have to throw in if you can?
No, throwing in is a right, not a duty. Sometimes it is better to hold a couple of cards for the next round.
What if the defender took the cards and the deck is empty?
Nothing special: there is simply no drawing. The game goes on from the hands, and the player who took is in a tough spot.
Is it a loss if you are the last one with cards but only have a few?
Yes. The number of cards does not matter, only the fact that you are last.
Try it in practice
The rules stick after a single game. "Durak: The Journey" has a Mentor who suggests a move and explains why.