Jack (playing card)

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Jack cards of all four suits

A jack or knave is a playing card with a picture of a young man on it. The usual rank of a jack, within its suit, is as if it were an 11 (that is, between the queen and the 10).

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 ("jacks or better") in order to start the bidding.

1 History
2 Representations
3 In terminology
4 Example cards
5 References
6 See also

[edit] History

As early as the mid-1500s the jack was called the knave (meaning a male servant of royalty). 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!")

[edit] Representations

In the standard English playing card deck, the jack and the other face cards represent no one in particular — this is in contrast to the historical French practice, in which each court card is said to represent a particular historical or mythological personage. The jacks in a French deck are traditionally assigned names as follows:^[1]^[2]

Jack of Spades: Ogier the Dane (legendary hero of the chansons de geste)^[3]
Jack of Hearts: La Hire (French warrior)
Jack of Diamonds: Hector (mythological hero of the Iliad)
Jack of Clubs: Lancelot

[edit] In terminology

Last man Jack (sometimes referred to as every man Jack) is a euphemism that has crossed into mainstream English from the sport of cricket.

The term has come to mean "every single person", as in the following examples: They're scoundrels... to the last man Jack You're to rescue them... every man Jack of them

The term originates from a cricket pun. In the cricket batting order, the worst batsman is listed at number 11. The "last man" (to bat) can therefore be referred to using playing cards terminology; following numbers 8, 9 and 10 comes Jack.

[edit] Example cards

These card designs are based on those from a historical French deck, and include the historical and mythological names associated with the French cards. The Anglo-American designs can be seen in the photo at the top of the page.