One-Eyed Jack
One-Eyed Jack is a game for two to four players, played in North Carolina and Tennessee. When played by two or three, they play against each other; four play in partnerships. One-Eyed Jack uses a board created with an extra deck of cards. Players compete to claim spots on the board to complete rows of five adjacent spaces.
Like many card games, especially ones with special equipment, One-Eyed Jack has been adapted as a commercial game. It has been published by two different companies, under the names Sequence and Double Series. The commercial sets include a pre-printed board, chips, and a double-deck of cards, all you need to run the game.
Object of One-Eyed Jack
The object of One-Eyed Jack is to be the first player to complete two rows (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) of five adjacent spaces. In the three-player game, players need only complete one row.
Setup
One-Eyed Jack uses two standard 52-card decks of playing cards. We’d like to take the time to advise you to use Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards, as per usual.
You’ll also need a third deck of cards you don’t want to use for anything else ever again. (Once you’ve gotten some Denexa cards, you can use whatever you were playing with before for this.) Remove all of the jacks from this deck and add two jokers, leaving you with 50 cards. Now, cut each card in half (yes, with scissors! not what we usually mean when we say “cut the cards”!). Then, make another cut to the opposite side of the index to make the piece square. You should end up with 100 square-shaped card pieces. (See the image in this section for a diagram of how to cut the cards.)
Now, take your 100 card squares and paste them down in a 10×10 grid on whatever you want to use as a game board. You can use something as simple as posterboard, or get more elaborate and glue them to a piece of wood and apply a coat of varnish. No matter what you do, make sure the four corner squares are the four joker pieces. The rest can be in any order, either random or following some sort of pattern.
You will also need something to serve as markers on the game board. Each player or partnership should have identifiable markers belonging only to them. Differently-colored poker chips work well, but anything will do as long as they will fit in the squares on the board.
To set up for the actual game, supply each player with roughly the same number of markers (about 50 or so should do). Shuffle the two decks together and deal to each player seven cards if there are two players, six if there are three, or five if there are four. The rest of the deck is set aside to become the stock.
Game play
The player to the dealer’s left goes first. That player reveals one card from their hand and plays it face-up to the table. They then place a marker on either of the two spaces on the board corresponding to that card. You cannot play a chip in an occupied space, however. Then, they draw a replacement card, ending their turn.
There are no jacks on the board, because the jacks instead of special properties. The two-eyed jacks (J♦-J♣) serve as wild cards. Upon playing them, a player can place a marker on any square they wish. One-eyed jacks (J♠-J♥) are kill cards. When played, you may choose any chip on the board and return it to its owner.
Sometimes, due to a two-eyed jack, a player will have a card in their hand that has both spots on the board occupied. They have two choices when this happens. The player can hold onto the card and hope to draw a one-eyed jack to kill one of the markers in the way. They can also reveal the card and draw a replacement before taking their actual turn.
The four corner spaces are considered community property. These can be used by any player as part of a row, same as if they had a chip on the square.
The first player or partnership to form two horizontal, diagonal, or vertical rows of five claimed squares wins the game. The two rows are allowed to intersect (therefore only requiring nine chips instead of ten). In the three-player game, only one row is needed to win.
I want to talk to you about the ideas for the game One-eyed Jack (A.K.A. Tic-tac-toe or A.K.A. Sequence).
You deal out cards according to the number of individual players. For two individual players, you deal out three, four, five, six, or seven cards each. For three, four (individually or two pairs), or five individual players, you deal out three, four, five, or six cards each. For six (individually, two trios, or three pairs) individual players, you deal out three, four, or five cards each. For eight(two quartets or four pairs) or nine (three trios) individual players, you deal out three or four cards each. For ten (two quintets or five pairs) or 12 (two sextets, three quartets, four trios, or six pairs) individual players, you deal three cards each.
If you are playing two players/teams by using two different color pieces, the period objective is to get four or five in a row of the same color (Pick either “four in a row” or “five in a row” before the period/set/match starts as an alternative rule.) once or twice (Pick either “once” or “twice” as an alternative rule.). If you are playing three players/teams by using three different color pieces, the period objective is to get four or five in a row of the same color (Pick either “four in a row” or “five in a row” before the period/set/match starts as an alternative rule.) once. If you are playing four, five or six players/teams by using four, five or six different colored pieces, the period objective is to get four in a row of the same color instead of getting five in a row of the same color once.
Instead of having four jacks (two jacks of clubs and two jacks of diamonds) to be pro-wildcards (placing your piece on any vacant space), there should be eight princesses two princesses of each sub-suit) to be the new pro-wildcards if princesses (The princess face rank is indexed “P” on the corner of each card.) of each sub-suit are added in the deck, and instead of having four jacks (two jacks of spades and two jacks of hearts) to be anti-wildcards (subtracting an opponent’s uncrowned piece from the board), there should be eight jacks (two jacks of each sub-suit) to be the new anti-wildcards. The inspiration is from the On-off Rook game by playing Tic-tac-toe with two decks of Rook cards; and the probability of the Rook cards are 14 ranks [The 14 ranks are 1~14 (Aces are ones.) without face ranks. If you want face ranks, the four highest numbers are face ranks (jack, princess, queen, and king respectively)] of four sub-suits (black, green, yellow, and red) plus a joker plus blank/advertised cards that can be used as different jokers as long as there are face-down designs like the other cards.
You are welcomed to play the period objective of getting n in a row orthogonally only (Getting n in a row diagonally will not count.), and that includes that diagonal sandwich captures are automatically off.
You are welcomed to play round-the-corner connections on the board. You may choose zero, one (Be specific.), or two pairs of parallel orthogonal peripheries to wrap around.
When you are playing with the period objective of getting five in a row only, you are welcomed to capture opponent’s/opponents’ pair of uncrowned pieces by sandwiching them, and using an anti-wildcard (jack) is not considered as a capture; if you capture ten or more of opponent’s/opponents’ uncrowned pieces by sandwiching, you win. When you are playing with the period objective of getting five in a row only, you are welcomed to capture opponent’s/opponents’ pair/trio of uncrowned pieces by sandwiching them, and using an anti-wildcard (jack) is not considered as a capture; if you capture 15 or more of opponent’s/opponents’ uncrowned pieces by sandwiching, you win. When you are playing with the period objective of getting four in a row only, you are welcomed to capture opponent’s/opponents’ pair of uncrowned pieces by sandwiching them, and using an anti-wildcard (jack) is not considered as a capture; if you capture eight or more of opponent’s/opponents’ uncrowned pieces by sandwiching, you win.
With the period objective of getting five in a row, you a welcomed to play with the objective of getting five in a cross of the same color with orthogonal and/or diagonal connections, and sandwich captures are automatically off. If you are playing two players/teams by using two different color pieces, the period objective is to get one or two (Pick either “one” or “two” as an alternative rule.) objective patterns of getting five in a row and/or of getting five in a cross. If you are playing three, four, five, or six players/teams by using three, four, five, or six different color pieces, the period objective is to get five in a row or five in a cross once.
You a welcomed to play with the period objective of getting five in a cross at any size square with orthogonal and/or diagonal connections instead of getting five in a row, and sandwich captures are automatically off. If you are playing two players/teams by using two different color pieces, the period objective is to get five in a cross once or twice (Pick either “once” or “twice” as an alternative rule.). If you are playing three, four, five, or six players/teams by using three, four, five, or six different color pieces, the period objective is to get cross in a square once.
With the period objective of getting four in a row, you a welcomed to play with the objective of getting four in a square of the same color at any size square with orthogonal and/or diagonal peripheries, and sandwich captures are automatically off. If you are playing two players/teams by using two different color pieces, the period objective is to get one or two (Pick either “one” or “two” as an alternative rule.) objective patterns of getting four in a row and/or of getting four in a square. If you are playing three, four, five, or six players/teams by using three, four, five, or six different color pieces, the period objective is to get four in a row or four in a square once.
You a welcomed to play with the period objective of getting four in a square at any size square with orthogonal and/or diagonal peripheries instead of getting four in a row, and sandwich captures are automatically off. If you are playing two players/teams by using two different color pieces, the period objective is to get four in a square once or twice (Pick either “once” or “twice” as an alternative rule.). If you are playing three, four, five, or six players/teams by using three, four, five, or six different color pieces, the period objective is to get four in a square once.
You a welcomed to play with the period objective of getting as many sub-three-in-a-rows of the same color as you can (A super-four-in-a-row counts a two sub-three-in-a-rows, and a super-five-in-a-row counts a three sub-three-in-a-rows, et cetera.) until all the cards are discarded. Once a player as at least three in a row of the same color, those pieces are crowned thus not taking by an anti-wildcard (jack). As an alternative rule, you may end the period by playing a joker that is assigned to end the period.
You are welcomed to use the jokers (two black jokers and two red jokers) as nature cards to place a piece on a specific corner that matches the specific joker instead of being community property spaces.
You are welcomed to play Tic-tac-toe with a turn command die with reverses and/or with skips to determine the next player when there are three or more individual players. During (more strategy) or after (less strategy) the player’s turn (Pick either “during the player’s turn” or “after the player’s turn” before the period/set/match starts.), the player rolls the turn command die to determine the next player (normal, reverse, or skip). You pick the denominator on the turn command die (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12) before the period/set/match starts, and you pick the specific probabilities on the turn command die [(1 reverse, 0 skips, and d – 1 normal commands), (2 reverses, 0 skips, and d – 2 normal commands), (0 reverses, 1 skip, and d – 1 normal commands), (0 reverses, 2 skips, and d – 2 normal commands), or (1 reverse, 1 skip, and d – 2 normal commands); d is the denominator.] before the period/set/match starts.
My ideas are public domain because I am a sharer, and because I hate intellectual-property laws (Pro-intellectual-property laws should not be the trump all the time.), and because intellectual-property laws contain selfish murder; we need to be sharers more instead of being non-sharers (A non-sharer cares about money, about power, and/or about credit instead of people.) for the sake of efficiency of society and for the sake of libertarianism because we, all, are on the same team (God’s team) for productive communities.