Durak

About this board game

Durak is a card game of skill for 2–6 players, with a typical play time of 15 minutes. Its name means “fool” in Russian, a title given to the last player who still has cards.

Players can compete individually, or four people can form two teams of two. The central goal is to get rid of your cards before everyone else. Whoever is left holding cards at the end earns the unenviable title of durak.

Durak uses the Russian 36-card deck. It can also be played with a standard deck by removing cards numbered 2 through 5, making the game easy to set up with commonly available cards.

• Players: 2–6
• Play time: approximately 15 minutes
• Formats: individual play or two teams of two
• Deck: Russian 36-card deck, or a standard deck with the 2–5 cards removed

Several popular variants add different ways to approach an attack. In Podkidnoy Durak, also called Throw-In Durak, players use the throw-in format. In Perevodnoy Durak, or Transfer Durak, the defender can pass the attack to the next player by playing a card that matches the attacking card’s rank.

These variants give Durak a flexible identity while preserving its defining challenge: avoid being the final player with cards. Whether played as a quick individual contest or a four-player team game, Durak remains one of Russia’s and Ukraine’s best-known and most popular card games.