Welcome to 2 Player Durak

Hey there! Have you ever heard of Durak? It’s a super popular card game in Russia. Durak means “idiot” in Russian, and it’s what they call the loser of the game. You can play it with 2 to 5 players, either individually or in teams. If it’s just you and a friend, the rules below are perfect for a 2-player game.

This game is all about tricks, but not the magic kind. Each trick is like a battle between an attacker and a defender. The goal is to get rid of all your cards and be the first one out of the game. The cool part is, unlike most trick-taking games, you don’t have to follow a certain suit or use trump cards.

Durak is a really exciting game that really makes you feel like you’re in the middle of a battle. It’s tons of fun!

Here’s What You Need to Know about the Cards and the Deal:

Durak is played with a special deck of 36 cards. If you’re using a normal deck of cards, just take out the 2’s through the 5’s and you’re good to go.

When playing this card game, we all start by picking a card from the deck. The person who gets the lowest card will be the dealer for the first round.

The dealer then takes all the cards, gives them a good shuffle, and hands out six cards to each of us, one at a time. The remaining cards are placed face down on the table as the draw pile. The top card is turned over to determine the trump suit for the round and placed under the draw pile, making sure we can all see it. And remember, the person who loses the round will be the dealer for the next one.

Let’s Get Playing!

The person with the lowest trump card becomes the attacker and starts the game. For example, if hearts are trump, the person with the 6 of hearts will go first. If nobody has the 6, then the person with the 7 goes first, and so on. In the next round, the person who didn’t deal the cards will become the attacker and lead the way.

In Durak, every trick involves attacking and defending. When it’s my turn to lead, I get to attack by playing any card from my hand. You have two options as the defender: you can defend against my attack or pick up the card.

When I lead, I can choose any card I want from my hand. And you don’t have to play a card of the same suit if you don’t want to.

If you decide to accept my attack, you simply pick up the card and add it to your hand.

But if you choose to defend against my attack, you have the freedom to play any card from your hand. It doesn’t have to be the same suit as the card I led with, and it doesn’t have to be a trump card either.

If a defender successfully defends against an attack, they have two choices. They can either end the attack or continue it. If they choose to end the attack, the cards that were played in the trick are taken out and added face down to the discard pile. If they choose to continue the attack, they must play a card that matches the rank of any of the cards previously played. For example, if they play a 9 of clubs and the defender blocks with a Jack of clubs, they can keep going by playing either a 9 or a Jack.

This keeps going until the attacker decides to stop the attack or the defender gives up. If the defender gives up, they pick up all the cards that were played. If the defender successfully defends against all the attacks and the attacker chooses to end it, the cards are put in the discard pile.

Once the attack is over, we all need to get some new cards. This is why each player takes cards from the draw pile until they have six cards in their hand again. The attacker has the first go at drawing cards.

If the attacker won the round, they get to keep going and attack again with a new lead. But if the defender won, they become the attacker now and can choose any card from their hand to start the next attack.

This goes on until all the cards from the draw pile are gone. The player who manages to empty their hand after using all the draw pile cards wins the game. The person who is left with cards in their hand is called the “durak”.

WINNING THE GAME

Emptying your hand is how you win the game. If you want to keep score for multiple rounds, you can give one point to the winner of each round. The first player to reach 5 points wins the whole series.