How to Play Jacks

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Jacks is a fast, portable hand-eye coordination game played with ten small metal or plastic six-pronged pieces called jacks and a small rubber ball. Players take turns bouncing the ball and scooping up an increasing number of jacks with one hand before the ball bounces a second time. A single turn can last several minutes if a player is on form, making it compelling to watch as well as to play.

The game requires no table, no board, and virtually no setup, which is why it thrives on pavements, kitchen floors, and any other firm, flat surface. Children tend to pick up the basics in a single session, yet the higher rounds demand genuine dexterity and concentration, giving the game lasting appeal well beyond the early years.

A little history

Games involving small objects tossed and gathered date back thousands of years and appear in records from ancient Greece, Rome, and Asia, often played with knucklebones or stones. The modern form with metal jacks and a rubber ball became widely popular in the United States and Britain during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its precise origins and the path by which it settled into its current form are unclear, though the game is traditionally regarded as a children's playground pastime and has been played largely unchanged for well over a century.

Setting up

1. Choose a firm, flat surface free of cracks or slopes that would cause the ball to bounce unevenly.
2. Decide the order of play, typically by each player tossing the jacks and seeing who picks up the most in one swoop, or simply by mutual agreement.
3. One player holds all ten jacks loosely in their playing hand ready to scatter them.

How to play

1. The active player holds all ten jacks in their playing hand, then tosses them onto the surface so they scatter naturally. The jacks should land within comfortable reach.
2. The player then tosses the ball upward with the same hand (or throws it down to bounce off the surface, depending on the agreed rule) and must pick up the required number of jacks and transfer them to the other hand before the ball bounces a second time.
3. In the first round, called Onesies, the player picks up exactly one jack per throw. They repeat this until all ten jacks have been collected one at a time, completing the round.
4. In the second round, Twosies, the player picks up two jacks per throw. If ten jacks cannot divide equally (for example, Threesies leaves one over), the final throw collects the remainder.
5. Play continues through Threesies, Foursies, Fivesies, Sixies, Sevensies, Eightsies, Ninesies, and finally Tensies, in which all ten jacks must be picked up in a single throw.
6. A fault is called if: the ball bounces more than once before jacks are picked up; the player picks up the wrong number of jacks; any jack is moved or knocked out of position by the player's hand or the ball (known as 'scratching' or 'hazing'); or the ball is not caught cleanly after the pick-up.
7. On a fault, the player's turn ends immediately. On their next turn they restart at the beginning of the round in which they faulted, not from Onesies.
8. Once a player completes Tensies, their turn ends and they are considered to have finished the game. If playing competitively, they are declared the winner at that point.

Winning and scoring

The first player to complete all rounds from Onesies through to Tensies without faulting out wins the game. In a longer session, players sometimes agree in advance to play a set number of complete games, with overall wins counted; the player who wins the most games is the overall champion. There is no points system in the standard game: completion of Tensies is the sole winning condition.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns whether a jack has been 'hazed', meaning accidentally nudged by the player's hand or fingers during a pick-up. The standard ruling is that if any jack that was not the target moves perceptibly, it is a fault. Players should agree before starting whether the ball must be caught in the playing hand only or whether either hand is permitted after the jacks are secured. Most traditional play requires the ball to be caught in the playing hand, which is the stricter and more widely accepted version.

A frequent question is what happens when jacks land in a cluster that makes picking up the exact number very difficult. There is no rule requiring a player to re-scatter; the player must attempt the pick-up as the jacks lie. Some groups allow a single re-scatter at the start of any round if the throw lands completely outside a mutually agreed play area, but this should be agreed before play begins. Similarly, players must agree upfront whether the ball may bounce once off the floor before being thrown (a ground bounce start) or must be thrown straight into the air.

How to win more often

• Toss the jacks with a gentle, deliberate spread so they land in a loose cluster rather than in a tight pile or far apart. Clustered jacks are harder to separate cleanly on later rounds.
• Keep your non-playing hand close to the surface and ready to receive the jacks immediately after the pick-up; transferring quickly gives you more time to catch the ball.
• Watch the arc of the ball and adjust the height of your toss: a higher throw gives more time to pick up jacks, but a very high throw is harder to catch accurately.
• On rounds with larger numbers, look for natural groups of jacks that are already close together rather than reaching for the nearest ones first. Planning the pick-up order before you throw the ball saves hesitation time.
• Practise the single-bounce ball toss until it is consistent. A reliable, repeatable bounce is more valuable than speed, especially on the higher-number rounds.

Variations

Around the World

Before catching the ball, the player must pass their picking-up hand in a full circle around the ball as it hangs at its highest point, then complete the jacks pick-up before catching it. This is usually added as an extra requirement on every throw throughout the game, making each round significantly harder.

Eggs in the Basket

Instead of transferring picked-up jacks to the other hand, the player must place each batch of jacks into the upturned palm of the non-playing hand, which is held still on the surface like a small bowl. Jacks that fall out count as a fault. This variation reduces the speed advantage of quick transfers and tests control more than pace.

Donkey

A penalty variation in which each fault earns the player one letter of the word DONKEY. A player who accumulates all six letters is eliminated. The last player without a complete word wins. This format works well with three or more players and keeps eliminated players watching closely, as other players' faults can change the standings quickly.

Reverse Jacks

Play runs from Tensies down to Onesies instead of the conventional ascending order. The player must pick up ten jacks in one throw first, then nine, and so on. Because the hardest rounds come first when hands are fresh, this variation tends to produce longer turns in the early rounds and quicker eliminations once fatigue sets in.

Jacks: frequently asked questions