Rules for card game Durok?

March 20, 2006 2:31 AM

Help me rediscover the rules to a Russian card game I learned when I was a kid.

One summer when I was younger, my friend's grandmother came over from Russia to visit family. While she was here, she taught us a fun, fast-paced card game called "Durok". The only problem is that now neither I nor my friend can remember the rules, and Internet searches only turn up programs stuffed with viruses - however, it does confirm that this is the actual name of the game. The only detail I remember is that you'd yell, "Durok!" ("Idiot") at the loser. Does anyone know this game...or at least have better Google-fu?

posted by lhall to sports, hobbies, & recreation (5 comments total)

I wrote up a lengthy explanation below that explains everything, so that nothing is left out. If you read it, you know how to play. However, I wrote this quickly, without editing it to make the explanation the clearest possible, so read carefully and be patient!

Ok you've got your deck of cards and an unlimited number of players.. shuffle the deck and give out 6 cards to everyone... players take turn challenging another player with any card that he has to beat with a card of the same suite but with a higher number...

for example jack diamond beats 3 diamond, King heart beats Jack heart.

if the 2nd player beats the card of the player who challenged him... the first player can offer up for a challenge a card of a different suite, as long as its of the same number... so if jack diamond beats 3 diamond, the first player can throw in any 7 or jack of any other suite for a challenge. If there are multiple players, they can offer cards of a different suite but same number for challenge to the attacked player even though its not their turn to challenge. Otherwise, they have to wait for their turn.

Now, a player that can't beat the cards he was attacked with has to take them into his posession. The point of the game is to get rid of your cards by the time the deck is used up, so he who can't beat his challenges will get rid of his cards the last and will lose. The cards that are beat are put off to the side and never used again in the same again.. I guess you can say discarded

After a player finishes challenging his cards, whether he ends up taking or successfully fights them all of, its the next player's turn to attack... However, if the next player to attack is supposed to be the one who ended up losing the previous round, he is skipped as a penalty for losing.

Now remember everyone has 6 cards dealt out to them at the beginning of the game so until the deck is cleared, everyone is compensated for the cards they last to the discard pile during an attack or a defense. So if a player has 2 cards cause he discarded 4, he takes these 4 from the shuffled pile before it's the next player's turn to attack
posted by gregb1007 at 3:26 AM on March 20, 2006

It's pretty minimal but there's this too.
posted by bim at 3:36 AM on March 20, 2006

thanks bim, the one thing i forgot to mention was that in addition to later adding a card of the same number but different suite to an attack on your opponent after he beats the first one, you can also lay down two (in some varations of durak even three) cards of the same number but different suite for your opponent to beat.
posted by gregb1007 at 4:54 AM on March 20, 2006

btw you can download the game at http://takegame.com/gamblings/htm/fool.htm, it has an english interface, and one more thing i just remember now..... At the beginning of the game, you are supposed to pick up a random card from the middle of the deck and turn it upwards, placing the deck on top of it. The suite of the card becomes a special wildcard suite that can beat cards of any other suite, even if they are higher in denomination... a wildcard 2 could beat for example an ace of another suite
posted by gregb1007 at 5:02 AM on March 20, 2006

It's actually Durak (with an a: Russian Дурак). The Russian Wikipedia article says it uses a 36-card deck (and gives several variants).
posted by languagehat at 6:56 AM on March 20, 2006