At the end of each turn, even if the attack was unsuccessful, each player draws more cards until they have six, or until they deplete the draw pile. Remember, the attack always goes to the left. If the attack succeeds, the player to the left of the losing defender becomes the next player on the defense. If the attack fails, the defender becomes the next to attack. The person to the left of the attacker is always the defender. The player with the lowest trump card that is the lowest card with the same suit as the card face up in the middle of the draw pile is the first to attack.

This forms the draw pile and is called a prikup, or ‘talon,’ and the trump card is the last card drawn at the end of the match. This card determines the trump suit of the match, and the remaining cards are placed around the face-up card at a 90-degree angle. The ranking goes high-to-low: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6.Īfter the 36 remaining cards are shuffled, each player is handed 6 cards, and the bottom card from the remaining deck is placed face up on the table. Durak is played with 36 cards from a standard 52-card deck, with the numerical cards 2-5 removed. How to Play Durakĭurak is a strategy card game played with 2-5 people in which the aim of the game is for each player to get rid of all the cards in their hand by the time the deck runs out. The point of Durak is not to win, but rather to find the ‘fool.’ Durak means ‘fool’ in Russian and is a game where the loser is teased as the ‘fool’ of the game. Durak is one of the most popular card games played in Russia, and very few people outside of Russia and Ukraine know about this game.

Russian game durak