To play Black Jack you need a normal pack of 52 playing cards (the Jokers aren't needed unless you are playing a certain variation). Reality: this game was created as a spin off from another game by myself and a friend in 1980 in my maths class at George Mitchel High School. Everyone I meet who knows how to play seems to have learned the game using different rules from what I usually play with.īlack Jack is also sometimes known as Raps, and I've personally taken to calling it '7 Card Black Jack' when people ask me what game I'm playing so they don't automatically think I mean Blackjack (but then the people who know Black Jack give me funny looks). The great thing about Black Jack is that there are shed loads of variations to the rules and changing just one or two of the rules slightly results in a different game. It is also similar to Uno, a card game you can buy in shops that uses special 'Uno' cards.
It seems to be played exclusively in the UK (as far as I can tell), although I've heard it's similar to the American game Crazy Eights. Not to be confused with Blackjack/21/Pontoon, Black Jack is a totally different game.
