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
Deuce (playing card) picture of a hog or sow. While Friedrich Kluge is unsure, how the card came to be called the "Daus", because he avers that there are no game rules that have survived from the Middle Ages, Marianne Rumpf is clear: "The word 'Daus' is a term that has been taken over from the dice game." However, unlike dice games, in which the 2 was a low throw and did not count for much, the deuce card played a special role as a trick card, because it could even beat the King. The Early New High German author, Johann Fischart, says