Sequence Poker
Difficulty: Hard
Players: 2–8
Age: 12+
Time: 2–10 minutes per round
Scoring: Optional
Style: Poker-style hand building with sequences
Before You Play
Sequence Poker is inspired by traditional poker-style hand building, but the ranked hands are based on Sequences between TIC cards.
For this game, you need to understand:
- Mono: one property sequences
- Duo: two properties sequence
- Tripo: all three properties sequence
Each property has an ordered progression:
Numbers
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Shapes
circle – crescent – triangle – square – star
Colours
violet – cyan – yellow – orange – red
For a sequence to count, each sequencing property must change by exactly one increment from card to card.
Each sequencing property must also continue in the same direction throughout that sequence.
The properties may move independently. For example, in a Duo:
- numbers may increase,
- while shapes decrease.
Endpoint reversal, where the end of a sequence starts to reverse such as 2-3-4-5-4, is not allowed within a ranked Sequence Poker hand.
Refer to the TIC Card Principles page or the back of any TIC card for more examples.
Objective
Build the highest-ranking 6-card Sequence Poker hand.
Players use a combination of:
- their own private cards, and
- the face-up community cards in the centre.
At the end of the round, each player chooses the best possible 6-card hand from the cards available to them.
A single card cannot be used in more than one part of the same scoring hand.
Setup
Deal 3 private cards to each player (rotate who deals on subsequent rounds).
Place 2 cards face-up in the centre of the table.
These are community cards and may be used by every player.
Keep the remaining deck with the dealer.
How to Play
The player to the left of the dealer acts first. Play continues clockwise.
The round develops in stages.
First Exchange
Each player may exchange 1 private card.
To exchange:
- discard 1 card from your hand,
- receive 1 replacement card from the dealer.
A player may also choose to keep all 3 private cards and make no exchange.
After every player has acted, the dealer adds 1 new community card face-up in the centre.
There are now 3 community cards.
Second Exchange
Each player again has the opportunity to exchange 1 private card or keep their hand.
After everyone has acted, the dealer adds another community card.
There are now 4 community cards.
Third Exchange
Each player again has the opportunity to exchange 1 private card or keep their hand.
After everyone has acted, the dealer adds another community card.
There are now 5 community cards.
Fourth Exchange
Each player again has the opportunity to exchange 1 private card or keep their hand.
After everyone has acted, the dealer adds the sixth and final community card.
There are now 6 community cards.
Players then reveal their private cards and determine their best 6-card Sequence Poker hand.
Calling
Instead of exchanging a card on your turn, you may call if you think your hand is strong enough to win. Calling is permitted only after at least 3 community cards have been revealed, i.e. after the second exchange.
When a player calls:
- the community cards currently showing are frozen,
- no additional community cards are dealt,
- every other player gets one final opportunity to exchange 1 private card,
- then all players reveal their cards.
Calling therefore ends the normal sequence of community-card additions for that round.
Building Your Best Hand
At the end of the round, each player may use any combination of:
- their 3 private cards, and
- the community cards
to create the best possible 6-card scoring hand.
Not every available card must be used.
Each card may only be used once within the chosen scoring hand.
If a ranked hand contains two separate sequence groups, the groups must use different cards.
Players are responsible for identifying and declaring the rank of their own hand.
Part of the skill in Sequence Poker is recognizing the strongest sequence combination available.
Hand Rankings
Sequence Poker hands rank from lowest to highest as follows.
1. High Card
No higher-ranked sequence hand is formed.
The highest card is determined by adding:
number value + shape value + colour value
For example:
5-star-red = 5 + 5 + 5 = 15
2. Four-Card Mono
Four cards form a sequence in one property.
3. Five-Card Mono
Five cards form a sequence in one property.
4. Three-Card Duo
Three cards form a sequence in two properties at the same time.
Each sequencing property must continue in the same direction throughout the sequence.
5. Four-Card Duo
Four cards form a Duo sequence.
6. Two Three-Card Duos
The 6-card hand contains two separate 3-card Duo sequences.
The two sequences must use 6 different cards.
7. Five-Card Duo
Five cards form a Duo sequence.
8. Three-Card Tripo
Three cards form a sequence in all three properties at the same time.
9. Three-Card Tripo + Three-Card Duo
The 6-card hand contains:
- one 3-card Tripo sequence, and
- one separate 3-card Duo sequence.
The two groups must use different cards.
10. Four-Card Tripo
Four cards form a Tripo sequence.
11. Two Three-Card Tripos
The 6-card hand contains two separate 3-card Tripo sequences.
The two sequences must use 6 different cards.
12. Five-Card Tripo
Five cards form a Tripo sequence.
This is the highest-ranking hand in Sequence Poker.
Sequence Direction Rules
For any scoring sequence:
- each sequencing property must change by exactly one increment from card to card;
- each sequencing property must continue in the same direction throughout that particular sequence;
- different properties may move in different directions.
For example, in a Tripo:
- numbers may increase,
- shapes may decrease,
- colours may increase.
That is valid as long as each property continues consistently in its chosen direction.
A property may not reverse direction during a scoring sequence.
For example:
2 – 3 – 4 – 5
is a valid four-card number sequence.
But:
2 – 3 – 4 – 3
is not.
Likewise:
3 – 4 – 5 – 4
does not count as a four-card sequence in Sequence Poker.
Breaking Ties
If two or more players have the same hand rank, compare the total TIC value of the cards used in each player’s chosen 6-card scoring hand.
For each card, add:
number + shape + colour
Then add the values of all 6 cards.
The higher total wins the tie.
If the totals are still equal, compare the highest-valued card in each scoring hand.
If those cards are also tied, use the TIC property hierarchy:
number trumps shape; shape trumps colour.
If necessary, continue comparing the next-highest cards until the tie is broken.
Winning the Round
The player with the highest-ranking Sequence Poker hand wins the round.
If multiple players have the same hand rank, use the tie-breaking rules above.
Winning the Game
Before starting, decide how many rounds you will play, such as 5 or 10.
At the end of each round, rank the players from strongest hand to weakest.
Award points according to the number of players.
For example, in a 4-player game:
- 1st place = 4 points
- 2nd place = 3 points
- 3rd place = 2 points
- 4th place = 1 point
In a 6-player game:
- 1st place = 6 points
- 2nd place = 5 points
- and so on.
After the agreed number of rounds, add each player’s points.
The player with the highest total wins.
Strategy Tip
Do not look only for the longest sequence.
A shorter Tripo may outrank a longer Duo or Mono.
Also remember that the same available cards may be arranged in several different ways.
Before declaring your hand, check whether:
- another card order creates a stronger sequence,
- your 6 cards can be divided into two separate sequence groups,
- or a sequence you first thought was a Mono is actually a Duo or Tripo.
Because the community cards are shared, a new face-up card may improve several players’ hands at once.
Variation 1: Community Exchange
For a more interactive version, players may choose to exchange either:
- 1 private card from their own hand, or
- 1 face-up community card.
If a player exchanges a community card, the dealer removes that card and immediately replaces it with a new face-up card from the deck.
Changing a community card affects every player.
Because acting later may be advantageous in this variation, rotate the dealer and starting player regularly so that everyone has equal opportunity to act later in the exchange order.
Variation 2: Sequence Draw Poker
For a version without community cards, deal 6 private cards to each player.
There are no face-up community cards.
During each exchange round, a player may discard and replace up to 2 cards from their hand.
Before starting, agree on the number of exchange rounds, such as 3, 4, or 5.
After the final exchange round, all players reveal their hands and rank them using the standard Sequence Poker hand rankings.
The strongest hand wins.
