Card game Durnius - rules and gameplay

The rules of Durnius

How many players play in Durņu?

The card game Durnius is usually played between 2 and 6 players. The game usually lasts about 8-10 minutes.

Instruments needed for the game

Traditional Durnius is played with a 36-card firewood. The cards are in ascending order of rank, starting with a six, then seven, eight, nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace.

A 36-card game with 6 players can be predetermined because the first player becomes the first attacker and has an advantage over the defending player, while the first defending player has a disadvantage, so other variations are possible. For example, it is possible to play with a full deck of cards, including deuces, threes, fours and fives, as well as all special cards - joker (Laughs). In this case, the black joker beats any black card and the red joker beats any red card.

It is also possible to play with multiple decks, again discarding the hole cards (2s, 3s, 4s and 5s) and keeping all cards from the 6. In this case, the game will be played with as many as 72 cards.

Card game Durnius - the ultimate goal

The main and most important objective of the game is to discard all your cards. It doesn't matter how many cards you discard in the game - the most important thing is not to be the last one standing.

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How to play Doorman?

Game progress

The rules of Durnius are not complicated. Let's say we are playing a traditional game with a 36-card deck and 4 players. The deck is carefully shuffled and each player is dealt 6 cards. The dealer can decide whether to deal 6 cards at once or to vary 3+2+1, 3+3, 2+2+2. If there are more than 4 players playing "Doormen", usually fewer cards are dealt - 5 or 4 - to make the game more interesting and to prevent the players from spending too long in one attack. The cards are dealt clockwise. The remaining cards are placed on the table.

The top card of the firewood is turned over and placed under the deck, it indicates kozirio type. The card should be placed in a position where it is slightly visible, which will help players to keep the trump card in mind. The player with the lowest trump card starts the game. Let's say the trump card is hearts and you have a six of hearts - that means you start the game. Also, to avoid unnecessary anger, the person with the lowest trump may not necessarily start the game. As in a traditional clockwise card game, the player to the left of the dealer starts the turn and throws whatever card he wants. The unwritten rule is that the lowest available non-cosyringe card is usually dealt.

Start of the game

The first player to throw a card on the table is called the "attacking player" and the player to his left is called the "defending player". The defending player on the left must cut off the card thrown to him - he may throw a card of the same type but of a higher rank. If the player does not have a higher rank card but has a trump card, he may cut a lower rank trump card with it, or a card of any other rank.

In short, the trump card can be called all-powerful. This is where the game becomes more interesting, more intriguing and more strategic, as the players have to pay attention to the card that was thrown to the defending player and the card with which the defending player cut the thrown card. For example, the defending player has been dealt a seven of clubs, and trumps in this game are wines. If the defending player hits a card either way (either with a higher card of the same rank, say an eight of clubs, or with a trump, say an eight of wines), the other players have to check whether they have cards of the same rank (any kind of eight or seven), or trumps (wines), and may throw these cards to the same defending player, who will have to counter them again. It is up to the players to decide whether they want to "attack" a player to the end. Another rule is that trumps can only be countered with trumps.

It is important to note that a player cannot be given more cards to cross than were dealt at the start of the game, in this case, 6 cards. On the other hand, other variations of the game are possible, where there is no limit to the number of cards that can be drawn. In this case, it is advisable to agree on the rules before the game.

There are 2 possible endings to the attack:

1. If the defending player has cut off all the cards dealt to him on the table, he has the honour of attacking the player on his left. In addition, the cut cards are placed in a separate pile and are not used again in the same game.
2. If the defending player is still unable to cut off all the cards dealt to him, he must take them all for himself. It is important that the cards that were countered are also collected. Once the cards have been collected, the player to the left of the opponent continues the game.

At the end of a defending player's pick, all players must take it in turn to draw from the community pile the number of cards that were dealt at the start of the game (in this case, 6, so if you have 4 cards left, you must draw 2 more). A player who discards all his cards is not out of the game and must also take 6 cards from the discard pile. The first player to make a move in the game is the first to "replenish" the cards. If the game is played with unlimited card picking (players throw cards until a player has something to counter), then the player who made the move starts with a bounce instead of a move.

Who won?

If a player's stack of cards does not reach 6, only then is he or she out of the game and the rest of the players continue. The player who draws all his cards wins the game, and the loser and the player who is last to have even one card left in the deck is the loser and is referred to as the "Fool". If the game is played again, the losing 'doorman' collects all the cards, shuffles them thoroughly and deals them back to the players. 

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There are more known variations of the Durnius game

Card game Durnius in pairs

The most popular game in Lithuania is the game of crosses. It is usually played by four players (two against two), sitting opposite each other. In this case, the cards are thrown alternately by the players of each pair - one pair attacks one player of the other pair, while the latter's partner does not take part in the game. If a player hits all the cards thrown to him, he is said to have defended himself and then attacks the opponent on his left. His partner can now help him. If the player does not cut all the cards, he takes them into his hand and the player to his left attacks the partner of the player who has gathered the cards.

Card game Durnius counterclockwise

This "Durnius" game is one of the more common ones. This kind of this card game The anticlockwise mode is particularly common in the southern regions of Europe, mainly in Italy, Spain, Portugal and other countries speaking these languages.

The Turning Doorman

In a game of "Passing the Doorman", a player can pass cards to another player if he has a card of the same rank.

A crazy doorman

In this game, the drums are always the trump card and the wines can only be cut with the wines.

Card game The Gentleman Without Trumps

The game is played without trumps.

Wines against wines

In this game, wines are a special type of card that can only be beaten by other wines. Trumps cannot be defeated by wines, but wines cannot defeat Trumps either. In addition, in this case, wines cannot be trumps.

The Albanian Doorman

The player can play the card that is on top of the wood.

Replacing a trump card

The other card, which is invisible, is placed under a visible trump. When one of the players takes a visible trump, the invisible card is revealed - this sets the trump card for the rest of the card game.