Lucky Jack Review

boardgamequest.com:

Walking through the casinos in Las Vegas, it’s hard not to go on sensory overload with the glittering lights and plinking sounds of the slot machines. They seem, by far, the most popular games in Vegas. However, they are definitely not for me. If I’m going to play a casino game, Craps is my baby: Good odds, you get to roll dice, and it’s mostly cooperative. What’s not to love?

That being said, it’s hard not to see the allure of the flashing lights on the slot machines and the promised riches. And that’s where today’s review of Lucky Jack comes in. Published by Fox Mind Games, Lucky Jack channels the spirit of the One Armed Bandit slot machine and distill it down to a quick playing card game.

The goal in Lucky Bandit is to have the most points after 3 or 5 rounds. At the start of a round, each player is dealt out a hand of 7 cards. Each card will feature one of 7 suits, ranked in this order from lowest to highest: Lemons, Cherries, Grapes, Clover, Bells, Sevens, and a Jack.

On a player’s turn they can take one of 4 actions:

The round ends when one player has only 3 or 4 matching cards in their hand. They gain points based on what suit they have, from 1,000 for 3 lemons up to 10,000 for 4 jacks. After 3 rounds (or 5 if the players choose), the player with the most points wins.

In a time where trick-taking, climbing, and shedding games are selling like flapjacks, Lucky Jack has all the makings of a great card game. The goal is to reduce your hand to just a set of 3 or 4 matching cards. So on your turn, you, ideally, discard a card you don’t need. And I actually really like the discard mechanic.

If you’ve got an equal or higher-value card, you just dump it and move on. If you have a lower value, you have to draw two cards into your hand. So it creates interesting decision points of when to drop a card to just discard and when to get rid of your low-value cards. If you need to fish for that 3rd or 4th card, the best way to do it is with a low-value card. There is the 4th