D'RAK is the most popular card game in the former Soviet Union. It's fast-paced and requires strategy and luck.

Woe to the unlucky (or unskilled) player who becomes the D'RAK, because the game is designed to put the D'RAK at a disadvantage for ensuing hands. It's not unusual for a player to remain the D'RAK for the rest of the game (which ends by mutual consent of all the players), but it's not always the case, or the game wouldn't be any fun.

The odd thing about D'RAK is that no one player actually wins; you just try to avoid losing. The point is to have fun and tease the D'RAK.

Below are the basic rules. The strategy is for you to discover.

Turn a normal poker deck into a D'RAK deck by taking out the two through five cards, leaving six through ace.

You need at least three players. The object is to empty your hand of cards; a player who accomplishes this sits back and waits for the next hand. Ace is high.

• Each player is dealt six cards by the dealer, who turns the next card (after all hands are dealt) face-up and slides it partially underneath the remaining deck. This card reveals the trump suit for the hand.
  
  
• In the first hand, the player with the lowest card of the trump suit begins. She (Player A) challenges the person on her left (Player B) by laying out any card.

  After the first hand, the D'RAK deals and is challenged first.
  
  

• Player B must beat the card laid down by laying down a higher card of the same suit or a trump card. She can also opt not to meet the challange and keep all of her cards.
  
  
• If the challenge is met, Player A can challenge Player B again by using a card of the same value as one of the cards out. For example, if Player A challenged with a six of hearts and Player B beat it with an eight of hearts, Player A can lay down a six or eight of any suit for the next challenge.
  
  
• If Player A doesn't have a card of the same value as the cards that were played, the player to the left of Player B (Player C) can join in the challenge.
  
  
• If neither Player A nor Player C can challenge because they don't have a card of the same value as the cards that are out, the cards that were used in the challenge are "dead" and placed to the side.
  
  
• If Player B can't (or doesn't want to) meet the challenge, she takes all the cards that were played and adds them to her hand.
  
  
• Player to the left of the player who lost the challenge* begins the next challenge -- but first anyone with fewer than six cards in her hand must draw from the deck to make a hand of six cards. Draw in this order: first challenger, second challenger, challenged player.

  *i.e. if Player B has survived the challenge, she challenges next.
  
  

• If the challenged player meets six challenges, she is rewarded: the cards die and she makes the next challenge.
  
  
• If the challenged player loses the challenge, the challengers can give her cards they would have given her had the challenges continued. But no more than three (total), and none at all if the challenged player was down to only one card before losing the challenge.
  
  
• The last person left holding cards while all others are out is the D'RAK.