Since we're going to play дурак...

I figured I'd post a summary of the game for those of us who have no idea what it is, myself included. 

Setting up

You have to take out all the cards from 2-5 plus the 2 jokers, so there should only be 36 cards total. 

There should be 2-6 players, each player gets 6 cards. After the cards are given out, the top card of the remaining deck is revealed. This card's suit becomes the trump suit and the card should be placed at the bottom of the deck with the suit showing. This card is part of the deck, it will be the last card drawn. (I'm a little confused but that's what Wikipedia does when it tries to explain stuff). 

Apparently playing with 6 players isn't optimal, so don't play with 6 players.

After the cards are dealt, if one player has all black-suit or all red-suit or 5 cards of the same suit, then the game is reset.

Gameplay

So the player that has the lowest trump is the first attacker and the starting player. The dude to the left of the attacker is now the defender. After each turn, it goes on like this clockwise around the group. If the "attack" prevails, then the defender loses his/her turn and the "attack" goes on to the person on the loser's left. If the attack epic fails, then the defender now becomes the attacker. 

Attack? 

In basic terms, the attacker begins the turn by playing a card face up on the table, or apparatus that you feel like playing on, as the attacking card.

Here's where дурак gets fun:

подкидной: the defender has to immediately attempt defense (???)

переводной: the defender can opt to pass the attack on clockwise or attempt defense. When passing the attack on, the defender must add his card as an attacking card. The defender becomes a cross-dresser and is now the attacker, while the person to the cross-dresser is the newly promoted defender. Realistically, the attack could go all around the table. Okay?

Aces are high. Trumps are always higher than non-trump cards. For example, a trump 6 is higher than a non-trump ace. Got it?

Defense

Should be self-explanatory, but if not here is a really confusing explanation. (then again it might be confusing for me since its 1:30am and I've been reading Russian stuff all day) The dude who is the defender tries to beat the attacking cards by playing defending cards against them (once again, thank you Wikipedia for being so ...redundant). 

Non-trump attacking cards can be beaten by 1) a higher card of the same suit or 2) a trump

Trump attacking cards can only be beaten by higher trumps/

Play the defending card on top of the attacking cards so that special people can keep track of which card is defending against which. 

Here's where I get a little confused, but that just might be me: At any point in a defense, the attacker of any third party (geez way to be a pain) can pitch in extra attacking cards, provided that for each new attacking card, there is already a card of the same rank on the table (either defending or attacking), and the total number of undefeated attacking cards does not exceed six or the number of cards in the defender's hand, whichever is less. The defender defends against these new cards also.

If the defender is unable or (being a butthead) unwilling to demolish all attacking cards, he or she must pick up all the cards on the table--including all the cards the attackers pitched in--in his or her hand (Wikipedia is really sexist, it just uses he) and abandon the defense. The defender can choose to abandon the defense at any point in the turn and this immediately ends the turn (party pooper!!!). The failed defender loses his or her turn and the person to his or her left becomes the new attacker. Yay!

If the defender epically beats all the attacking cards, and no other players are willing or able to add more, the defender triumphs! (victory dance ensues) The turn ends, all cards on the table are discarded from play to a discard pile, and play moves on to the left: the successful defender opens the next turn as the new attacker. (way to be bi-polar)

End of Turn

When a turn ends, despite whether a defender was awesome or sucky, people must do stuff. Starting with the main attacker, followed by anyone who contributed cards, and ending with the defender, each player with less than 6 cards in their hand must draw cards from the deck until they have 6, not 5 or 7, but 6 cards in their hand. If/when the deck runs out of cards, play carries on without any more cards being drawn. When someone runs out of cards, they are done with the game and everyone else continues on. Each player draws as many cards as they need. The order in which this is done is apparently strategically important since the last card in the deck is at trump.

No players may examine the discard pile at any time. Punishment is dismemberment. :D

Winning/Losing

EPIC! There is only one loser, so of course this game is Russian!!! Whoever is the last person left in the game with cards in his or her or its hand is the loser, the fool, the durak. You are allowed to yell "epic fail" in their face and do a victory dance as well. That person becomes the dealer for the next game, and the person to the left of the fool is the first attacker of the next game. 

There are a bunch of variations, but why be complicated?

I look forward to our durak tournament.