Jack (playing card) Jack (playing card) A jack or knave is a playing card which, in traditional French and English decks, pictures a man in the traditional or historic aristocratic dress generally associated with Europe of the 16th or 17th century. The usual rank of a jack, within its suit, plays as if it was an 11 (that is, between the 10 and 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 ("jacks or better") in order to continue play. The
Unter (playing card) card was a marshal (cavalry commander) who held his suit sign hanging down. It is likely that the horses were dropped to simplify production in the late 14th or early 15th centuries. In the Spanish deck, jacks are known as "sota" which also means "under", a vestigial remnant of their common origin. The most common motifs used to depict the Unter are simple knights or even farmers. Decks of four "Unters" are used in card games such as Skat, Mau Mau, Bavarian Tarock and Schafkopf, while decks used in games such as Gaigel and Doppelkopf use eight "Unters". In Skat