God, I hate admitting this, but I spent like two years getting absolutely demolished at Sequence by my gaming group. Two whole years! And the worst part? I kept blaming it on bad luck. “Oh, I never get the right cards.” “Tom always draws exactly what he needs.” “This game is just random.” Looking back, I was such an idiot.
The turning point came during one of our Wednesday night sessions. I’d just lost my fourth game in a row – again – and I was getting ready to suggest we switch to something else when Lisa casually mentioned that she’d been tracking which jacks had been played. Tracking them. Like, paying attention to the game state beyond just her own hand. Revolutionary concept, apparently.
See, here’s what nobody tells you about Sequence when you’re learning: it looks like you just match cards to spaces and hope for the best, but there’s actually this whole layer of tactical positioning that most people completely miss. I certainly did. For months I was just playing cards willy-nilly, placing chips wherever my cards allowed, wondering why everyone else seemed so much better at “getting lucky.”
The board has 104 spaces but only 100 unique card positions (the corners are wild spaces). Each card appears twice on the board except for jacks, which don’t appear at all but let you either place anywhere (two-eyed) or remove opponent chips (one-eyed). Basic stuff, except I wasn’t thinking about any of this strategically.
My first real breakthrough was learning to count jacks. Not in some intense card-counting way, just… paying attention. When someone plays a jack, I started making mental notes. “Okay, that’s the jack of spades gone.” Simple as that. But man, what a difference it made. Suddenly I could actually assess whether it was safe to leave a sequence vulnerable or if I needed to protect it immediately.
Then I started noticing how the good players positioned their chips. Take my friend Marcus – dude never seems to get better cards than anyone else, but he wins constantly. I finally figured out why. While I was laser-focused on completing whatever sequence looked most obvious, Marcus was setting up multiple potential sequences at once. He’d place chips in patterns that could develop into wins from several different directions depending on what he drew.
I call this “keeping your options open,” though Marcus probably has some fancier term for it. Instead of committing to one straight line, you create shapes that branch into multiple possibilities. Like if you place three chips in an L-pattern, that L can potentially become part of three different five-chip sequences. Way more flexible than just building straight lines.
Card management was another thing I was doing completely wrong. You hold seven cards, play one each turn, draw a replacement. Seems straightforward until you realize the timing of when you play specific cards matters hugely. I used to just play whatever seemed most immediately useful, then find myself stuck later with cards that didn’t help my position at all.
Now I try to categorize my hand: cards for immediate threats, cards for building future positions, and backup cards for when my main plan gets disrupted. It’s not rocket science, but it keeps me from wasting good cards on mediocre plays early in the game.
Corner control is massive, and I completely ignored it for way too long. Those corner spaces can only be part of sequences running in two directions, unlike middle spaces that work in four directions. Claim a corner early and build from it, and you’re forcing opponents to work around your positioning instead of choosing their ideal spots.
I remember this one game against Sarah where I grabbed two opposite corners in my first few moves. Looked random to her, I’m sure, but I’d noticed that controlling opposite corners would give me diagonal sequence opportunities that would be really hard for her to block. Worked perfectly – she spent most of the game reacting to my threats instead of building her own.
Defensive play requires a totally different mindset than I was used to. You can’t just focus on your own sequences; you need to constantly scan for opponent threats and sometimes sacrifice your own progress to block them. This feels awful in the moment – like you’re wasting turns – but it wins games.
The key is learning to read board positions accurately. When someone has three chips in a row, I immediately look at both ends to see what cards would complete their sequence. If I’m holding one of those cards, perfect – I control whether they can win from that angle. If not, I need to figure out how to mess with their plan or build faster threats of my own.
One-eyed jacks are like tactical nukes for breaking up opponent sequences, but timing them right is crucial. Use them too early and you’re wasting their power on situations that weren’t actually dangerous. Wait too long and someone completes their sequence before you can stop them. I try to hold at least one jack until someone’s genuinely about to win, then destroy their most advanced sequence.
The psychological aspect matters way more than I expected. If you’re constantly blocking the same person, they’ll start targeting you specifically instead of making optimal plays. Sometimes it’s smarter to let someone else do the blocking while you quietly build threats. Other times you need to be the aggressive defender because you’re the only one positioned to stop someone from winning.
Team games (four or six players) add this whole extra dimension. You and your partner share chip colors but can’t openly coordinate strategy. You have to pay attention to what sequences they’re building and support them without duplicating efforts or getting in their way. It’s like playing chess by proxy.
Card probability becomes more relevant as the deck shrinks. Early game, any card has roughly equal chances of showing up. Later, you can make educated guesses about what remains based on what you’ve seen played. Not exact science, but it helps when you’re choosing between multiple possible plays.
Endgame situations require the most careful thought. When multiple players are close to winning, every single card play could end the game. This is where all that early positioning work pays off. If you’ve been building multiple potential sequences throughout the game, you’ll have more ways to capitalize when the crucial moment arrives.
The best advice I can give is to practice reading board states quickly. Players like Marcus can glance at the board and immediately spot all current threats and opportunities. They’re not just thinking about their own cards – they’re tracking what everyone needs to win and positioning accordingly.
Don’t get discouraged by rough card draws, either. Yeah, luck plays a role, but skilled players consistently beat lucky ones over multiple games. Focus on making the best possible play with whatever you’re dealt, and your results will improve dramatically. Trust me on this one – I went from that guy who always complained about bad luck to someone who actually wins games regularly. Turns out the cards weren’t the problem after all.
Thomas lives in Seattle and treats board games like elegant puzzles. He dives into mechanisms, balance, and why certain designs just click. His writing is thoughtful, detailed, and perfect for players chasing that next strategic masterpiece.
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