How to play Fool

Prerequisites

The game of Fool (Russian: Дурак, transliterated Durak) is played usually by 2 to 6 players, with standard French-suited deck, either full (52 cards, without jokers) or stripped (36 cards, aces to sixes in each suit, or 24 cards, aces to nines in each suit), using usual card ranking (ace high, then king, queen, jack, 10 etc.)

Dealing

The dealer (in the first hand he or she is selected randomly, and in the next hands it's usually the loser in the previous hand) shuffles the deck and deals 6 cards to each player (usually 1 by 1). The remaining cards form the talon. Then the dealer places the upper card of the talon below it, face-up (so it becomes the last card in the talon). The suit of this card becomes trump in that hand.

Gameplay

The gameplay consists of a series of turns, each of them has an attacker and a defender (which is always the player sitting to the left of the attacker). The first attacker in the first hand is the player holding the lowest card of the trump suit (i.e. the 2; if nobody has the 2, then the 3; if nobody has 2 and 3, then the 4 etc.); in the next hands, the first attacker is usually the player sitting to the left of the dealer (playing "from under the fool").

At the beginning of each turn, attacker leads (places on the table) either a card (any one) from his or her hand, or multiple cards of the same rank (sometimes the latter is not allowed directly, but the other cards of the same rank can be thrown later (see below), so it does not actually affect the gameplay).

The defender must beat all of the attack cards, either:

• with a higher card of the same suit as the attack card;
• with a trump (trumps can only be beaten with higher trumps).

For example, if the trump suit is diamonds (♦), ♣J beats ♣10 (same suit, higher rank), but does not beat ♣Q (lower rank) or ♥5 (different suit). ♦2 beats ♠A (any trump beats any non-trump), but does not beat ♦8 (because it's a higher trump).

(Sometimes, lowest card in the suit (the 2) beats an ace of the same suit; so, trump deuce beats all aces, including the trump one, and the trump ace is no longer unbeatable).

During the turn (the beating) the attacker may throw (i.e. add onto the table) new cards for the defender to beat. The only requirement is that the cards to be thrown must be of one of the ranks already present on the table. For instance, if the ♦2 was beaten with ♦5, one can throw any two or any five. If ♣5 was thrown and beaten with ♣6, then one may throw a six (in addition to deuces and fives), etc.

If the attacker cannot (or doesn't want) to throw any more cards, he or she says "Done" (or "(It's) beaten"), after that all other players except the defender (or only defender's neighbours, depends on the variation) can throw.

The maximum limit for throwing is 6 cards, however if the defender had had less cards before the turn, the limit is that number of cards (otherwise he or she would have no cards to beat). Usually, if the limit is exceeded, the defender is able to select which cards to beat.

If the defender cannot (or doesn't want) to beat at least one cards, he or she announces "I take", after that all other players can throw some more cards (not exceeding the limit), and then the defender takes (picks up) all cards from the table and adds them to his or her hand (unsuccessful defence).

If all thrown cards are beaten, and the opponents cannot or don't want to throw more cards (or the limit is reached), then all cards from the table go to the discard pile (they take no part in that hand anymore; successful defence).

In both cases, the turn is ended. All players who have less than 6 cards, starting from the attacker and ending with the defender, replenish their hands from the talon (unless it's empty).

The player sitting to the left of the defender becomes the new attacker after the unsuccessful defence (picking up). Otherwise, the defender becomes the new attacker.

If a player has got rid of all his or her cards and the talon is empty (so he or she cannot receive any more cards), this player becomes the winner. The game continues (skipping this player) until only one player with cards is left. This remaining player becomes the loser (and the dealer for the subsequent hand) and is declared Fool.

TODO: Passing, examples