Section

Durak

How to play, how to stop losing, and the variants people argue about.

• How to play Durak: your first game, one bout at a time

  Durak looks chaotic the first time you watch it. Played slowly, it falls into a simple loop of attack, defence and drawing back up.

• When to spend a trump in Durak, and when to keep it

  New players lose most rounds the same way: by beating a small card with a trump in the first bout and having nothing left at the end.

• Transfer Durak: the variant that sends the attack round the table

  In the transfer variant a defender can pass the whole attack on with one card. It sounds small. It changes almost every decision.

• Agree these five things before a game of Durak

  Durak is played from memory, so no two households quite agree. Settle these before the first card goes down.

• Keeping track of cards in Durak without a memory trick

  With only 36 cards, a player who keeps half an eye on the discards can often name an opponent's last three cards.