The jack or knave is a playing card with a picture of a young man on it. The usual rank of a jack is as if it were an 11 (that is, below the queen and above the 10) although in some games - such as Blackjack - it is equal to a 10. However, jacks are the highest possible cards in the German game Skat, and are lower than 10s in many other games, like Pinochle. In some countries/cultures, the jack is ranked above the queen. As the lowest face (or "court") card, the jack often represents a minimum standard - for example many poker games require a minimum hand of a pair of jacks, often called simply "Jacks or better". As early as the mid-1500s the jack was called the knave. A knave is a male servant of royalty in this instance. The card came to be known as the jack during the middle of the 19th century, when card manufacturers began to label playing cards to indicate their value with 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A. The obvious confusion between "Kn" and "K" led to the renaming of the knave, being out-ranked by the king. However, books of card games published in the third quarter of the 19th century evidently still referred to the "knave", and the term with this definition is still recognized in the United Kingdom. (Note the exclamation by Estella in Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations: "He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy!") In the standard English playing card deck, the jack and the other face cards represent no one in particular - this is in contrast to French decks, where each court card represents a named person. The jacks in a French deck are as follows:
- Jack of Spades: Hector, (mythological hero of the Iliad)
- Jack of Hearts: La Hire (French warrior)
- Jack of Diamonds: Ogier the Dane (fictional hero of the chansons de geste)[1]
- Jack of Clubs: Judah Maccabee
Confusion often arises because the suits in an English deck came from the French deck as well. In the game 500, the four suits are ranked in a specific order for the purposes of bidding. The order is Hearts, Diamonds, Club and then Spades.
Example cards
| Jack of Spades | Jack of Clubs | Jack of Hearts | Jack of Diamonds |
|---|---|---|---|
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References
See also
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- One-eyed jack
- The Jack, a song by AC/DC, in which this playing card is a metaphor for a sexually transmitted disease.
