How to play Durak

Learn to play Durak card game!

About Durak game

On this page you will learn how to use this website. Rules of Durak card game are explained in the next page.

Enter the durak24.com

Once you login to the durak24.com website, you get into "Lobby" page. You should see something similar as is displayed in the picture. Here, in the lobby you can see a list of all players, that are also logged-in, and you can invite them to play.

Notice the pink bar attached to the bottom of the page. It is called "Game Dock". Actually it is not only displayed in the Lobby page, but also in any other page of the site when you are logged-in. We will return to Game Dock latter, but for now all you have to know, that all games you are currently playing are displayed in the Game Dock, (Also if some player invites you to play, you can see an icon of the game with the player in the Game Dock).

Start a new game

Now that you are familiar with Lobby screen, we move forward to get to know with Game Window. Pick a player from player list in the Lobby, and click on the player to start to play with. The Game Window should appear. You have just invited the player to play with you. The game is not started yet. Now you have to wait while the player you are inviting to play, will confirm this game (The player may refuse the game, in this case the game will not be started, just try to play with another player then). Game window displays a message saying that you hawe to wait a little while another player makes a decision of whether or not to start the game with you.

Here I would like to note, that it is safe to close the Game Window at any time. If there is a game in progress it will not go away. A game can be closed by clicking outside the Game Window, or the close link. Once you close the Game Window, you can see Game Dock again, and the game you have just closed, should appear in the Game Dock. You can click game icon in the Game Dock to re-open the closed game back.

Meanwhile, another player - that you just invited to play can see an icon with your game blinking in Game Dock. So the other player can click on it and Game Window appears. This time Game Window displays a question, which asks what to do - to confirm and start the game, or refuse it. If the player decides to refuse the game, then you would be shown with a screen saying that the user refused to play with you. But if the player decides to confirm the game, it will immediately start.

In the game

When game started, then a deck of 24 cards is deployed to the players and on the table. You can see your cards opened, but you can not see what cards your opponent has. Just like another player can not see your cards. Either you and your opponent are given with 6 cards at the beginning of the game.

On the right side of the game boar you can see the cards from the rest of the deck, all stacked on one another face down. Only the one on very bottom of the deck is layed face up and pulled a little bit, so both players can see what card is it. The suit of this card is considered as a trump-suit for this game.

Game controlls

Outside the game board, in the rightous bar of the window you can see a game Situation Indicator. It can appear in two different forms:

means that you are in attacking situation;
you are in defending situation;

If this indicator is black, then it is your turn - you have to make a move. If the indicator is grey color, then you have to wait while your opponent moves.

Now, if it is your move (indicator is black), it despite wether you are attacking or defending when you click one of your cards then you are going to play with that card. If you are in defence situation then the card you clicked will try to cover the last card on the table. Or if you are attacking card will be tried to be put on the table. Of course you can only attack or defend with those cards that comply with Durak rules, or you will only cause "Illegal move" error message to be flashed. If you do not want or are not able to play with a card, you then have to make a move by clicking "End attack" or "Take cards", deppending on if you are in attacking of defending situation.

If you are playing with more than one player at the time, you can see icons of other games in the Game Window, you can click on the icon to switch to that game, as if the icon was in Game Dock. Also note that game icons in either Game Switcher and in Game Window strats to blink when another player make their move. Blinking indicates that player is waiting for you in that game, so you should switch to blinking games and make your moves there as soon as is possible.