Jacks Rule Game Rules

Winners & Losers

Jacks Rule

By DirtyBoardGame.com

 

There are many variations of this game, the following are the suggested rules for our version, Jacks Rule. The object is to form rows of five pegs on the board, by placing pegs in the board squares that correspond to cards played from your hand. As with any game…House Rules prevail!

Equipment

Two decks of standard poker playing cards including jokers are used - 108 cards in all

2 colors of game pegs (45 of each color are included)

Game Board

Players

The game is to be played with an even number of players, forming two teams. (With 2 players each person is their own team, with four players there are two players on each team, etc.) Each team will have their own color of pegs to use as markers. Note: if you wish to have 3 teams another pack of colored pegs can be purchased here.

Setup and Deal

Each player or team takes the pegs of one color. The cards are shuffled, and the dealer deals a hand of 7 cards to each player if there are 2 players, 6 each if there are 3 players, and 5 each if there are 4 or more players. The undealt cards are stacked face down to form a stock pile from which cards will be drawn during the game.

Play

Players take turns in clockwise order, starting to dealer's left. At your turn, you play one card from your hand face up on the table and place a peg of your color (or your team's color) on an unoccupied square on the board whose card corresponds to the card you played. A joker entitles the player to put a peg on any unoccupied corner square. A peg placed on a joker square cannot be removed by a one-eyed jack. Then you replenish your hand by drawing the top card from the stock pile and it is the next player's turn.

Two-eyed jacks are wild. Playing a two-eyed jack (clubs or diamonds) entitles the player to place a peg on any unoccupied square on the board.

One-eyed jack to remove your opponents' peg. Playing a one-eyed jack (hearts or spades) entitles the player to remove from the board any one peg belonging to an opponent and place your color peg in its place.

Exceptions: (1) A one-eyed jack cannot be used to destroy a completed five-peg row by removing one of its pegs. (2) A one-eyed jack cannot remove a peg from a joker square.

A dead card, refers to a card that cannot be played because both spaces are already occupied. The player would discard it (during their turn) and draw a replacement from the stack, without placing a peg on the game board. Then it becomes the next players turn.

Winning

The object is to form rows of five (or more) pegs in an unbroken straight line – vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. These rows can intersect in one space, in which case only 9 pegs are needed for the winning formation. Or a player or team can win with 10 pegs forming two separate rows.

In a two-colors (two-player or four-player partnership) game the first player or team that has two straight rows of five pegs of their color on the board wins the game.

In a three-colors game, the winner is the first player/team to form one straight row of five pegs wins the game.