The quick version
Keep 6 through ace, deal six cards each, and show a trump suit. The dealer's left neighbor attacks the next player clockwise. Beat a card with a higher card of its suit or a trump; beat a trump only with a higher trump. Additional attacks must match a rank already on the table. Each exchange is capped at six attack cards or the defender's starting hand size, whichever is smaller. A successful defender discards the exchange and attacks next; someone who takes the cards misses that attack turn. Refill to six after each exchange, attackers before defender. When the draw pile is empty, finish the current exchange before deciding who is last with cards.
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Deal six and show trumps
Host 2–6 people playing individually, with everyone able to reach and see the center. Use an ordinary deck: remove every 2, 3, 4 and 5 and both jokers, leaving 36 cards. From low to high, ranks are 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace. Suits are clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades.
This guide uses 36-card throw-in Durak, with no partnerships or transfers. Before dealing, agree to these documented rule choices: the player to the dealer's left starts every deal, and the trump six cannot be exchanged for the face-up trump. Some groups use the lowest trump to choose the first attacker or permit that exchange; those rules are not used here.
Choose a dealer. Shuffle and deal one card at a time clockwise until each person has six. With 2–5 people, turn the next card face up and place the remaining draw pile crosswise on top of it, leaving its rank and suit visible. Its suit is trump for the whole deal. That face-up card is part of the draw pile and will be drawn last. With six people, all 36 cards are dealt: show the dealer's final card to set trumps, then put it into the dealer's hand. There is no draw pile in this six-player game.
Keep hands private. Leave room for attack cards with their covers and a separate face-down discard pile. Discards never return to play. Cards go onto the table and into hands; no score sheet, phone or timer is required.
Attack, cover or take
Start an exchange
The player to the dealer's left is the first principal attacker. The next player clockwise is the defender. Count the defender's cards before the exchange: the attack-card limit is the smaller of that count and six. It stays fixed for this exchange, including any cards added after a pickup. The principal attacker puts any one card face up in front of the defender. Multiple opening cards are allowed if they all have the same rank and fit the limit.
Cover a card
The defender works alone. Cover each attack card with one higher card of the same suit, or with any trump if the attack is not trump. A trump attack requires a higher trump. Equal rank never beats a card; a non-trump of another suit never beats it. You may use trump even when you hold the attacked suit. Offset each covering card so both indexes remain visible. Attack cards and their covers are not tricks to collect.
Add matching ranks
After the first attack card is covered, more attacks may be added. Every added card must match the rank of any attack or covering card already in this exchange; suit does not matter. The principal attacker has first choice and can say to wait or invite others. With 2–4 players, any other player except the defender may help, in clockwise priority starting with the defender's left neighbor. With 5–6 players, use the customary neighbor-only rule: only the principal attacker and the defender's next active clockwise neighbor can attack. Keep this restriction for the whole deal. Play one card at a time while learning. Count attacking cards only: three attacks with three covers are three attacks, not six.
Complete a successful defense
If every attack is covered and all eligible attackers decline to add another legal card, the defense succeeds. It also succeeds when every attack is covered and the attack limit is reached. Put all attack and covering cards face down into the discard pile. Refill hands as described below. The successful defender becomes the next attacker against the next active clockwise player; skip the defender if they have gone out after the draw pile is exhausted.
Take the exchange
At any point, the defender may choose to take rather than cover, even if a legal cover is available. Say 'take' and leave the exchange visible while eligible attackers have their final chance to add matching ranks in the same priority order and within the original attack limit. The defender cannot resume covering after that declaration. Then put every attack and covering card from the exchange into the defender's hand. There is no six-card maximum for a hand. Refill the other hands. The player clockwise after the unsuccessful defender attacks next, against the next active player after them. In a two-player game, this means the same attacker attacks again.
Refill in order
When the exchange has ended, the principal attacker draws from the top of the pile until holding six, or until it runs out. Then the other people who contributed attack cards refill in clockwise order, and the defender refills last. A non-attacker has spent no cards and needs no refill. Someone holding six or more draws nothing. The face-up trump is the final draw. If the pile runs out midway, later players receive only what remains, possibly nothing. Never draw during an exchange or from the discard pile.
Hearts are trump. An attack with 7 of clubs can be covered by 9 of clubs. That exposes ranks 7 and 9, so an eligible attacker could add 7 of diamonds or 9 of spades. A 10 of diamonds cannot be added yet. A 6 of hearts could cover the non-trump 9 of spades, but could not cover a higher heart.
Run out after the draw pile does
While the pile still contains cards, an empty hand must refill; it has not finished. After the pile is empty, resolve the entire exchange before removing players whose hands are empty. Continue clockwise past those people, using the successful-defense or pickup rule to choose the next attacker. If a successful defender goes out, the next active player clockwise takes the attack turn. Recalculate the next exchange's limit from its defender's hand.
The deal ends after a completed exchange when only one person still has cards. That person loses and deals next. There is no first-out winner, point total or required match length in this format. If the last active players all use their cards in a successfully covered exchange and nobody has cards afterward, the deal is a draw; the same dealer deals again. Never announce a loss midway through an exchange: the defender may still clear their final cards.
For another deal, gather all 36 cards, shuffle and deal afresh. Set a new trump suit. The player to the new dealer's left starts again. Play another deal only if the group wants to.
Make the table easy to follow
Before the first attack, point to the trump indicator and say the ranks from low to high. Ask the defender to announce their starting hand count when below six. Keep each attack paired with its own cover, and agree that 'done' means an eligible attacker is passing for this exchange. As a host suggestion, close the exchange once all eligible attackers have passed; do not reopen it after cards are being gathered.
Keep a pickup on the table until the last throw-ins are resolved. Ranks from covering cards still qualify for those additions, and the limit counts all attacks already made, including covered ones. Taking three attacks and three covers means adding six cards to your hand, but uses only three of the attack limit.
A player can choose a small pickup to preserve good defensive cards for later. That is a legal decision, not a failure to know the rules. In the endgame, pay attention to other players' hand counts as well as your own. A strong cover can create a new rank that opponents can attack with.
Reject a wrong-rank attack or an invalid cover before continuing, returning it to its owner. If attackers exceed the limit, the defender chooses which legal attack cards within the limit to cover or take; return the excess attacks to their owners. These are corrections, not extra-card penalties. If a mistaken cover is noticed only after the whole exchange has been collected or discarded, this guide suggests a house remedy: keep that exchange settled, clarify the rule and use it correctly next time.
Use the agreed opening rule, attack priority and no-exchange rule consistently. Do not import an app's point scoring, a five-card opening cap or transfer permission halfway through a deal. Keep the result friendly: finishing last is the game result, not an invitation to mock someone.
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Ideas & Twists
Choose a variation together before you start.
Durak · See main rules
Traditional transfer variation · 2–4 peoplePass the attack
Before dealing, agree to play transfer Durak with the same 36 cards, opening rule and no trump exchange. Before any attack card has been covered, the defender may add a card of the same rank as all the attack cards and pass the whole attack to the next active clockwise player. The former defender becomes principal attacker. The new defender may transfer again with that rank, cover all attacks, or take. A transfer is legal only if the total attacks, including the transfer card, are no more than six and no more than the new defender's current hand size. Use that hand size to set the new limit. Once anyone covers an attack card, no further transfers are allowed in that exchange; ordinary matching-rank throw-ins continue. In two-player play, transferring sends the attack back to its original attacker. Refill the original attacker first, then other contributors in clockwise order, then the final defender; if the original attacker became the final defender, they still draw first and only once. Use the final defender's successful defense or pickup to choose the next attacker. Stock, going out, last-person loss and draw rules stay the same. Do not combine this with the opening-buffer twist.
Durak · See main rules
Documented 24-card variation · exactly 2 peopleA leaner two-player deck
Before shuffling, remove 6s, 7s and 8s too, leaving 9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace in each suit: 24 cards total. Deal six each and use the normal face-up trump under the remaining draw pile. Nine is now the lowest rank; the order is 9–10–jack–queen–king–ace. Keep this guide's no-exchange choice, so the trump nine cannot be swapped. All attack limits, covers, refill order, pickup turns and finish rules stay the same. A smaller stock brings the game into its no-refill phase with fewer cards in circulation; it does not guarantee a particular duration.
Durak · See main rules
Documented opening-limit variation · 4–6 peopleGive the first defender a buffer
Agree before a deal that its first exchange allows at most five attack cards rather than six, or the defender's starting hand size if smaller. This limit includes any last throw-ins after a pickup and counts attacks, not covers. Whether that first defense succeeds or fails, every later exchange returns to the normal smaller-of-six-and-hand-size limit. Keep ordinary attacker eligibility, refill order and finish rules. Use this with the main throw-in game, not the transfer twist, so the first-exchange protection has one unambiguous defender.
About this guide
Durak is a traditional game with differing table conventions. This guide selects individual 36-card throw-in play, the documented dealer-left opening and no-trump-exchange options, and neighbor-only attacks for a 5–6-person table. Pagat supplies the detailed rules and three variations; Denexa cross-checks the individual attack, pickup and refill flow. Passing to close an exchange and the late-error remedy are explicit host suggestions. Community discussions informed the explanations, not a claim of universal rules or popularity. Partnership turn inheritance, changing-trump games and app points are separate formats.
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