Durak card game rules

The 36-card deck, the deal and the trump suit

Durak is played with 36 cards: six to ace in four suits. The ranks run as usual: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace. Everyone is dealt six cards. The next card of the deck is turned face up and placed crosswise under the deck so that it stays visible. Its suit is trumps for the whole game, and the card itself stays in the deck and goes to whoever draws it last. With six players the whole deck is dealt and the last card dealt shows the trump suit.

Who starts and how an attack works

The player with the lowest trump starts, for example the six of the trump suit. If nobody holds a trump, the first player at the table starts. The attacker lays any card in front of the next player clockwise. That player is the defender and must beat every card laid against them or pick up every card on the table.

Throwing in and the card limit of a bout

Once an attack is on the table, the attacker and the other players, never the defender, may throw in more cards. Only a card of a rank already on the table may be added, in the attack or in the defence: if the defender beat an eight with a ten, any eight and any ten may follow. The main attacker throws in first, then the other players clockwise.

• In the first bout of the game there may be at most five attacking cards, in every later bout six.
• There may never be more attacking cards than the defender held at the start of the bout.
• There may never be more unbeaten cards on the table than the defender holds right now.
• Anyone may stop throwing in at any time, and the bout ends when nobody wants to or can add anything.

The discard pile, picking up and who attacks next

When the defender has beaten every card and nobody throws in more, the bout ends. The cards on the table go to the discard pile, set aside for the rest of the game. The player who defended successfully starts the next bout.

A defender who cannot or will not beat declares that they take. The others may still throw in matching cards within the same limit, then the defender picks up everything on the table. They lose their attack as well: the next bout is started by the player sitting after them.

Drawing cards and the end of the deck

After every bout, players with fewer than six cards draw from the deck back up to six. The main attacker draws first, the other attackers next, and the defender always last, so when the deck is running out the defender is usually the one who gets nothing. The last card of the deck is the face-up trump. Once the deck is gone nobody draws any more, and a player who runs out of cards leaves the game and is safe.

The end of the game: who is the durak

The game goes on while more than one player holds cards. The last player left with cards is the durak. If the last two players run out of cards in the same bout, for example when the defender beats the attacker's last card with their own last card, nobody is the fool and the game is a draw. In the game on klyo it is also a draw when, after the deck is gone, the defender only picks up for 40 bouts in a row and nobody leaves the game.

Transfer Durak: the rules of the variant

In transfer Durak, also called passing or perevodnoy Durak, the defender has one more option. As long as they have not beaten any card yet, they may lay a card of the same rank as the attacking cards instead of beating. The whole attack then passes to the next player, and the player who passed it becomes the attacker. The new defender may pass it on in the same way, so an attack can travel round the whole table.

• You may pass only while every card on the table has the same rank and none of them is beaten yet.
• The next player must hold at least as many cards as will lie on the table after the pass, and the table may hold at most six cards.
• After the first card is beaten there is no more passing: only a normal defence or picking up.

How to play Durak on klyo

On klyo you play Durak at a club table of leather armchairs, against the computer or online with people, as a two, three or four player game. In the menu you pick the mode: classic throw-in, transfer, a daily deal that is the same for everyone, or a learning game with hints. A card that does not fit at the moment tells you why, so you learn the rules while you play instead of reading a manual.

Durak strategy: how not to be the fool

Durak is not about going out first, it is about not being last. What matters most is the hand you take into the endgame, once the deck is gone and there is nothing left to draw. Strong players stick to a few rules:

• Keep your trumps for the end. Every trump spent on a plain card early on is a trump you will miss when there is nothing left to draw.
• Attack with low cards, ideally in pairs. A pair of sixes or sevens is a good attack, because two weak cards leave your hand at once.
• Pick up when the table holds only low cards and defending would cost you high trumps. A few sixes taken early in the game can still be passed back.
• Throw in ranks the defender most likely lacks. If they recently picked up nines, you know they hold more of them.
• Count who will draw the face-up trump under the deck. The defender draws last, so near the end of the deck they usually get nothing.

Counting cards: what to remember

In Durak no card vanishes without a trace: what goes to the discard pile never comes back, and what someone picks up, the whole table has seen. After a few bouts you can know quite precisely what your rivals still hold. Trumps matter most: how many are gone and who keeps the rest. Then aces and kings, because they decide the defence in the endgame. Last, the cards someone picked up, because they now sit in that hand and you know exactly which they are. The strongest Durak bots on klyo do exactly this: they remember who took which cards.

The most common Durak mistakes

• Beating with a trump a card you could have beaten with a plain card of the same suit.
• Attacking with an ace or a king early in the game while the deck is still thick.
• Throwing high cards and trumps at a player who is picking up while the deck lasts: you strengthen their endgame hand.
• Forgetting that picking up costs you your attack and the next bout starts with the player after you.
• In transfer Durak: passing the attack to a player who holds the same rank and passes it on, sometimes straight back to you.

What 6,900 games by our bots show

To check how much trumps and the first move really matter, the game engine on klyo played 6,900 games of classic Durak: 3,000 with two players, 2,300 with three and 1,600 with four, all with bots at the gentle level. Here is what came out:

• Trumps in your opening hand matter most. With four players, a player without a single trump ended up as the fool in 31% of games, a player with three trumps in only 18%, where even odds would be 25%.
• With three players it was similar: no trump meant the fool in 37% of games, three trumps in 26%, against even odds of 33%.
• With two players the gap is smaller but clear: no trump, the fool in 55% of games; three trumps, 45%.
• Going first is no punishment. The player with the lowest trump, who opens the game, was the fool slightly less often than chance would say: with two players in 47.7% of games instead of 50%.
• Draws are rare: about 2% of games with two players and 1% with four, when the last two players go out in the same bout or the cards keep circling.
• The more players, the longer the game: on average 30 bouts with two, 36 with three and 42 with four.