It began with a casual, “What were the rules again?” followed by 20 minutes of dubious misremembering and became a fun and apparently unique variant of a card game “popular in post-Soviet states.”

For the uninitiated, Durak (Russian for “fool”) is a simple and flexible card game with subtly deep strategy. The standard game can accommodate as few as two players and as many as six, making it a situationally appropriate game for most groups, and only has a single loser (the durak if you will), which tends to result in more happy players. It also works very naturally as a drinking game.

Understanding this variant which I’ve dubbed “Siege Durak” requires knowledge of the standard rules, which you can read about in full here, or learn by watching the following video:

Overview

Standard Durak is played with a single attacker at a time, and a single attack card at a time. Siege Durak forgets this rule and allows both for multi-card attacks, and for players to simultaneously attack. The result is brutal pig piling attacks (inspiration of the “siege” designation), less time for decision making, and generally more fast and casual gameplay.

The rules

Siege Durak changes surprisingly few rules yet substantially changes the pace and experience. It’s still played with a normal playing card deck with jokers and ranks 2–5 removed (leaving 36 cards), six-card hands, and a single trump suit. Throughout, the most important differences between standard and Siege Durak will be bolded.

The opening attack

In standard Durak, the opening attacker attacks with a single card at a time. The defender then either picks up the cards in play, or defends them one at a time. In the opening attack, after each successful defense, the attacker may attack again with any card in their hand.

In Siege Durak, the attacker may attack with multiple cards of a single rank (e.g. a single six, or up to all four sixes— one from each suit). However, the attacker cannot begin additional attacks with cards of different ranks until those ranks are opened by the defender (explained further in next the section).

Defending from an attack card

Defeating an attack card works the same in both standard and Siege Durak. The defender may defeat an attack card by placing a card of the same suit that is also of higher rank.

Also like in the standard variant, defense cards played open the defender up to further attack. For instance, after being attacked with a six, the defender is open to further attacks from sixes, but after defending from a six with an eight, the defender is now also open to attacks from eights.

At any time if the defender is unable or unwilling to continue the defense, they may opt to take all of the in-play cards and add them to their hand. This ends the attack but results in them losing their turn and the attack goes to the player on their left.

Ongoing attacks

In standard Durak, the opening attack continues until the defender has either chosen to take the cards, or until they have successfully defended from all the opening attacks and the attacker has decided to stop playing additional attack cards. It is only at this point that the attack passes to the next player.

In siege Durak, after the opening attack has been played and the defender has chosen to attempt a defense rather than taking the cards, the attack is now open to all players simultaneously.

Maximum lines of attack

In standard Durak, the defender may only be attacked by a maximum of six cards. Because attacks are done one card at a time, it is impossible for a defender to ever be attacked by more cards than they have in their hand.

In siege Durak, a defender may be attacked with as many cards as they have in their hand as long as they continue to choose to defend.

Successful defense

In both variants, successful defense results in all the cards used for attack and defense that round being discarded. The defender then gets to be the next attacker and attacks the player to their left.

In standard Durak, defense is successful after the defender has defeated every attack card and every other player has either declined or is unable to attack further. It also ends when the defender plays their last card.

In Siege Durak, if the defender has successfully defeated all of the current attack cards, they may begin to count down at a reasonable speed from three to zero. If no attackers have played additional attack cards, then the attack is over and the defense is successful.

Passing the attack

Attack passing is technically considered a nonstandard rule, but was one used during the design of Siege Durak.

In most Durak variants with passing, the defender may pass the attack to the player on their left if their first defense card is of the same rank as the attack (e.g. if the opening attack is a six of hearts, the defender may play a six of clubs and pass the attack to the next player). The only condition in which this is not allowed is if the next player does not have enough cards in their hand to defend from the attack (e.g. if the next player has only one card in their hand, you cannot pass a two card attack onto them).

In Siege Durak, the attacker may make an opening attack with any number of cards of the same rank, and the defender may pass with any number of cards of the same rank (e.g. the attacker could attack with the six of diamonds and spades, and the defender could pass the attack by playing either the six of hearts, the six of clubs, or both).

Conclusion

Durak is an exceedingly fun card game that is in my American experience severely underexposed. Anyone looking for a good card game should learn the rules and give it a try, but to those looking for something a little faster and more casual, I hope you will try and love Siege Durak.