Durak: How to Play this Russian Card Game

Durak is the name of the most popular card game in Russia. Durak means fool and it refers to the person who loses the game. There are two variations of Durak: Podkidnoy Durak and Perevodnoy Durak. In this article, you can find the basics for playing Podkidnoy Durak.

With How Many Cards Do I Play With?
Reduced poker deck with 36 cards from 6 to Ace.

What is the object of the game?
To get rid of all your cards.

How Should I Deal?
Each player is dealt 6 cards face down. The top card of the remaining deck is placed face-up. This card defines the trump suit for the game. The rest of the deck is placed above the face-up trump card. The first time it does not matter who deals. The following times the dealer will be the person who lost the previous game.

How Should I Play Durak?
Like in many other card games such as poker and rummy, the first person to play is the one who holds the lowest trump suit in his hand. The game proceeds in a clockwise direction. The player who started to play acts an attacker and the player sitting next to him in a clockwise direction acts as a defender. The attacker throws any card he wishes from his hand and the defender must beat this card.

A card can be beaten by a higher card of the same suit or any card of the trump suit, unless the card is itself from the trump suit. In the latter case it can only be beaten by a higher trump. If the defender cannot or does not want to beat the card of the attacker he must collect it and add it to his hand. If the defender beats the card the attacker can add another card of the same rank of one of the cards on the table. The defender must beat this card too.

Apart from this, other players at the table can attack the defender if they had cards from the same rank of one of those on the table. The defender cannot be attacked by a number of cards that exceeds the number of cards in his hand. Besides, in the most common variation of Durak this number cannot exceed 6, even if the defender has more cards.

If the defender cannot beat one or more cards he has been attacked with he must collect all the cards at the table and add them to his hand. If the defender succeeds to beat all the cards, these cards are discarded and placed in a separate heap called otboy. In the next turn, the defender will attack.

After the turn is over, no matter whether the defender succeeds to beat all the cards or has to take them, the players who have less than 6 six in their hands compensate their hands from the remaining deck, so everyone at the table will have at least 6 cards.

The cards are taken by the attackers of the previous turn in the clockwise direction starting with the person who has attacked first. The defender is the last person to take cards. If there are no cards left in the remaining deck the face-up trump card is taken by the person whose turn is to take cards. After this no more cards are taken and the game continues until all people one by one get rid of their hands. The person who remains with the cards is called Durak.

Born and brought up in Moscow, Alexei Polotnikov writes about online games such as Durak, sic bo and war. He graduated with a BA in Anthropology from Harvard in 1989, and is now part of the online casinos review board for http://www.gambling-portal.com

By Jack Reider

Tips to Successfully Learn a Board Game the First Time

Over the course of my life I have learned many board games. They are fantastic way to improve critical thinking and problem solving skills. I love strategy board games and naturally tend toward more complicated games that have tons of pieces and a novel as a rule book. This habit of getting the complicated games can be both a good and bad as each one is unique and challenging. The bad thing is that each game takes so long to learn.

I believe that people would play more games if they knew how to play them. The best way to learn a game is to have someone teach it to you, unfortunately if you are like me you are the instigator and must learn it from the rules. As I have gone through this process many times I have come up with some great tips to learn a board game fast.

Less is more

The biggest mistake that I see new gamers make is trying to understand all of the rules all at once. I have even seen a couple people try to learn a game and all the expansions at one time. (Not a good idea) Instead of taking it in all at once separate the learning into 3 different sets: setup, players turn, and wining the game.

When you get a new game simply open it up unwrap all the cards, and pop out all the pieces. Also take a minute to breath in that new game smell…Nothing like it in the world! Now suppress the desire to grab the rules and read through them all. Just look for the set up section. Get the board and players set up and arranged as necessary.

Now most new games rules come with express rules and detailed rules. For this first play remember less is more, and just try to get by with the express rules. Again you are trying to get a feel for the game. When you have played it once you will go back and read the rest of the rules.

Play as you read

A second tip that I would get new gamers is to play as you read. Before starting a new game make sure that the people you are playing with are patient enough to get through the first couple of rounds. The first play is critical, and it is important to play as your read. So for example you will read the instructions to roll the dice. I want you to pick up the dice and through them, now you don’t know why you are rolling the dice and that doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you are doing it.

Most new games have colorful instructions with pictures and details. In fact some have little play by play cards that you can pass out to each player. Just go through the motions a couple of times to get the hang of the play of the game.

Once the first player has completed all of the actions proceed to the next player and so on and so on. Read each action and perform them to the best understanding that you have. If you must consult the instructions just do it enough to get the general sense of what you're supposed to do and then do it. You'll find that as you read and apply the instructions that you will learn the game much quicker than just reading the instructions alone.

Once completed your first game read the detailed instructions

After you have completed your first game then is the time to go back and read the instructions in detail. In this manner will be able to understand more fully what the author of the board game is trying to tell you and you'll pick up several mistakes or assumptions that he made during your first game play. As correct those mistakes during the second time you play the game you will learn it much faster and understand the complete game as it was meant to be played. In my experience doing it this way is almost increased the amount of fun that we get playing the game because we play it the simple version and then the second and third times we begin to see the strategy of the game. Sometimes our initial assumptions made the game easier or harder and when we read the true rules it gets us exited to play it again.

Again, these games are complicated, but there is no reason that you cannot enjoy a great strategy board game. Learning a new game not need take four hours as long as you remember that less is more and to play as you read.

By Stephanie Watson Published: 3/31/2010

Copy XBOX 360 Games - 360 Game Downloads

I recently chanced upon a website that offers a solution to my XBOX 360 problem. You can actually legally copy Xbox 360 games provided they are originals and not pirated games. You are allowed one copy for every Xbox 360 game. Whew! What a relief!

It was a little strange because when I looked at what I needed to copy Xbox 360 games, the requirements were pretty simple: a DVD-R drive, DVD-R DL discs, the original game, the copying software and a flashed XBOX 360.

Just remember that if you do exactly as I say, you will be able to save your 360 game download and original DVDs without any hassle. Keep in mind that DVDs need to be used and handled carefully, so your back-up copies do not get damaged. Also, prepare beforehand the DVD labels in case you have more than one Xbox 360 game.

Alright, if you’re set to go, and you have the copying software (imgburn works best), start by stealth patching the game (see the website below), then open the game, and save it to your DVD-R DL. Set the layer break (in options) to 1913760.

Now, here are some other words of warning:

- Make sure you have a flashed XBOX 360.
- Also make sure you STEALTH PATCH your games so that you can't be detected on XBOX Live with burned games.

If you want to know how to flash your drive and stealth patch the games before you burn them to disc, go to this website: XBOX 360 website here.

It makes it easy to get any game you want, then play it as if it were any normal game with video tutorials and guides, etc.

If you master the art of copying your original 360 games, then you'll never have to worry about damaging your old ones.

By David Harst Published: 4/16/2010

What Will I Make as a Video Game Tester and What Will I Do?

Professional video game testing is without a doubt way better than the majority of jobs out there. However, being a paid beta tester, like any other job, does have a few downsides. As you can probably guess, these downsides are not too terrible to put up with, but they do actually exist and every single game tester has to put up with them.

Earnings of a video game tester
There isn't a specific amount of money you'll begin making once you decide to begin professionally testing video games. Wages vary from developer to developer, so it's hard to give an exact figure on what a video game beta tester can or will be paid. Having said that, don't fully believe advertisements that say beta testers are paid $120 an hour. Even though it's not a full blown lie, it's not really truth either - Game testers can earn a very good living, just not THAT good of a living.

At a rate of $120 per hour, a professional game tester could earn $600 per day just working a minuscule 5 hours. In all honesty, you'd have a really tough time finding a professional beta tester that gets paid even half that amount for a complete days work.

Average Wages: Annual earnings of a paid beta tester can range from a low $15,000 to an immense $80,000 or more. Monthly salary can range from $1000 to a high $9500. Weekly wages can be anywhere from $350 to a whopping $2000.

The wages you are paid as a professional beta game tester relates directly with the gaming developer you're employed with, not to mention the amount of work you can take on.

What you will be paid to do as a professional game tester
Contrary to what you may have heard, video game testers are not paid to just sit on their behinds all day long and play the coolest video games. In truth, testing a video game and playing a video game are two ENTIRELY different things. Even though you will still likely have fun doing the job, it will not be nearly as much fun as you first thought. Why is this? Simply because game testing, as mentioned, is NOT all fun and games - there is actual work involved.

Instead of merely being paid to judge the "fun"aspect of a newly developed video game, testers are paid to locate what most coders and programmers can't, which happens to be bugs & glitches. Video game programmers will easily find & identify the bigger, more problematic glitches and bugs; but when it comes to the smaller and much less obvious ones, video game developers solely rely on the best game testers to get the job done as quickly and as efficiently as possible. In light of that fact, as a professional video game tester it is YOUR JOB to play the assigned video game however long it takes so that you can find, re-find, and then document all possible in-game bugs & glitches!

If you're truly ready to make a full time living playing & testing video games, then you need check out the "Become a Game Tester" e-course. It will tell you everything you need to know and it will even show you how to jump-start your game testing career both quickly & easily. To find out more about the guide, visit GameTesting Paradise.