Jackaroo Rules — the complete rulebook

Jackaroo (جكارو) is the Gulf's favourite board-and-card race game: playing cards drive marbles around a shared track. These are the full Jackaroo card game rules exactly as played on Karooty, where you can play free in your browser.

Setup and teams

• 4 players, 2 teams — you and the player sitting across from you are partners.
• Each player has 4 marbles waiting in their base (the four holes beside the board).
• The race: bring your marbles out of the base, send them once around the shared track, and bring all of them into your goal — the four protected holes branching off the track. The marbles race clockwise around the track.
• The game uses one standard 52-card deck (no jokers). Cards are dealt in cycles of three hands: 4 cards each, then 4, then 5 — a 4-4-5 cycle, 13 cards per player, the whole deck. New hands are dealt when every hand is empty, and after the 5-card hand the whole deck is reshuffled and the deal moves to the next player.

How a turn works

On your turn you play one card from your hand and make the move it allows. If none of your cards gives you any legal move, you must burn a card instead — discard it with no effect and pass the turn. You never simply skip for free. Play then passes to your right (counter-clockwise around the table — the opposite way to the marbles). The player to the dealer's right leads every hand of that dealer's cycle, so the lead rotates with the deal.

Card values table

Card	What it does
A	Bring a marble out of your base onto your start square, or move a marble 1 or 11 steps.
2, 3	Move 2 or 3 steps forward.
4	Move 4 steps backward (track only — never inside the goal).
5	The wildcard: move any marble on the track — yours, your partner's or an opponent's — 5 steps forward (except another player's marble protected on its own start square). See "The 5 wildcard" below.
6	Move 6 steps forward.
7	Move 7 steps, or split the 7 between two marbles (each part at least 1).
8, 9	Move 8 or 9 steps forward.
10	Move 10 steps, or make the next player blindly discard one card and lose their turn.
J	Swap one of your marbles with any other marble on the open track (rival or partner — never one of your own, never a marble protected on its base).
Q	Move 12 steps forward.
K	Bring a marble out of your base, or move 13 steps as the plough: every marble it passes or lands on — friend or foe — is sent home.

Bringing a marble out, and base protection

An Ace or King brings a marble out of your base onto your start square on the track. A 5 never brings a marble out, and a Jack only does at tables that switch on the Jack out of home house rule (it is off by default).

If an opponent's marble is sitting on your start square, it gets captured and sent back to its base. If your partner's marble is there, it is sent back to its base too — friendly fire, exactly like landing on your partner on the track. Only your own marble on the square blocks you until it moves.

A marble standing on its own start square is protected from everyone else: no marble may pass it, land on it, capture it or swap with it, and no other player's 5 can move it. Its owner can still move it off with a normal move, a 5 included. Even the King's plough stops dead at it (that King move is simply illegal).

Movement, blocking and captures

• You may never pass over or land on your own marble (the only exceptions: the King's plough mows through everything, your own marbles included, and the 5 wildcard passes over any marble that isn't protected on its start square and captures whatever it lands on).
• Partners' and opponents' marbles can be passed over freely.
• Capture: land exactly on a marble and it is sent back to its owner's base. This applies to opponents and to your partner's marbles — landing on your teammate sends them home too, so count your steps.

The special cards in detail

King plough (13): the marble charges 13 steps and every marble in its path — passed or landed on, friend or foe — goes back to its base. Only a base-protected marble stops it.

The 5 wildcard: moves any marble on the track 5 forward, except another player's marble protected on its own start square (your own marble on your start square moves off it with a 5, like with any normal move), and it can't pass a protected marble. Pushing an opponent's marble never takes it into their goal — it is shoved straight past their goal entrance along the track, forcing another lap. Whoever's marble sits on the landing square is captured, friend or foe — your own marble included.

The 7 split: divide the 7 steps between two marbles (6+1, 5+2, 4+3 …) or spend all 7 on one. Each part follows normal movement rules. If your part puts your last marble into the goal, the remainder may be spent on your partner's marble.

The 10 skip: instead of moving 10, you may target the next player: pick one of their cards blindly — they discard it and lose their turn.

Jack swap: exchange the positions of one of your track marbles and any other track marble. Marbles in a base, a goal, or protected on their start square can't be swapped.

Entering the goal

• Entering the goal requires an exact count — a move that overshoots the last goal hole is illegal.
• An enemy marble sitting on your goal entrance (the last track square before your goal lane) blocks you from turning in until it moves or is captured. Your own team never blocks you.
• Marbles inside the goal are untouchable — no capture, no swap, no plough can reach them. They can't be jumped either, so a marble ahead of yours in the lane blocks the holes behind it.

Winning — and helping your partner

Once all 4 of your marbles are in your goal, your cards now move your partner's marbles. The game ends when a team gets all 8 of its marbles into their goals — that team wins.

Frequently asked questions

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