What is 24-card deck?
The standard game uses a 36-card pack, the Six to the Ace in each suit. With the 24-card deck the Sixes, Sevens and Eights are left out, so each suit has six cards: Nine, Ten, Jack, Queen, King and Ace, ranked in that order from low to high.
Everyone is still dealt six cards, so the short deck is for two to four players. With two players 12 cards are left in the talon, with three 6, and with four the whole pack is dealt and there is no talon at all: the last card dealt sets the trump suit and stays in that player's hand. Everything else is unchanged: the holder of the lowest trump attacks first, attacks are beaten and thrown in as usual, and the last player holding cards is the fool.
With only six cards in each suit, trumps are scarce and the game is short. It also rewards memory: with 24 cards you can follow almost every card that has been played and work out what your opponents still hold.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Durak | 24-card deck |
|---|---|---|
| Cards | Standard Durak36: Six to Ace in four suits. | 24-card deck24: Nine to Ace in four suits. |
| Players | Standard DurakTwo to six. | 24-card deckTwo to four. At a table of five or six, the 36-card pack is used. |
| Talon after the deal | Standard Durak24 cards with two players, 18 with three, 12 with four, 6 with five and none with six. | 24-card deck12 cards with two players, 6 with three and none with four. |
| Trumps | Standard DurakNine trumps; the lowest is the Six. | 24-card deckSix trumps; the lowest is the Nine. |
| Other options | Standard DurakTransfers, partnership play and a five-card first bout can be chosen. | 24-card deckAll of them work with the short deck. In a partnership game all 24 cards are dealt at the start. |
History
Norbert Steinkellner has reported that Durak works as a two-player game with a 24-card pack of Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten and Nine. In that version it is the trump Nine, rather than the Six, that can be exchanged for the turned-up trump card. The standard game here has no such exchange, so neither does the short deck.
The same pack is offered here for three and four players too, since it still deals six cards to each of them. For larger tables the opposite change is known, a full 52-card pack for five or six players, which is not played here.