A portable reel jack for supporting and lifting large spools of heavy cable, wire and the like includes a hydraulic lift with an extendable piston rod. A stanchion that is pivotally connected to the piston rod carries a spool support and remains vertically oriented during movement of the piston rod relative to the cylinder. Moreover, when the piston rod moves vertically away from the base in a lifting motion, then the stanchion moves laterally away from the hydraulic cylinder. As the spool is being lifted off of the ground by the hydraulic jack, the load-bearing location of the rod that carries the spool moves increasingly farther away from where the operator is standing to operate the lifting action of the portable reel jack. Additionally, the spool support has the flexibility of three different height elevations for carrying the rod on which the spool is in turn carried. This three-tiered configuration permits the operator to select the lowest possible support position for the rod and thus enables the vertical movement of the jack's piston rod to be minimized for a spool of any given circumference.