Beginner's Guide to Winning Sequences

What counts as a sequence

In Josephine Solitaire a movable sequence is a run of cards that descends by exactly one rank and shares a single suit — for example 9♦ 8♦ 7♦. If any card in the run breaks the rank order or changes suit, the run stops there and only the cards below the break can travel together.

Build sequences where they can grow

A sequence is only useful if there is somewhere for it to go. Before you start stacking clubs onto a 9 of clubs, check whether a 10 of clubs is reachable, either at the bottom of another pile or still to come from the stock. Building a long run with no destination locks the pile it sits on.

Use empty piles as workshops

An empty pile lets you take a sequence apart and put it back together in a better order. This is the main reason to prize empty piles: they are not just storage, they are the only place in the game where you can rearrange freely.

Time your foundation moves

A card sent to a foundation leaves the tableau for good. Send a card home when it no longer serves as a landing spot for anything you still need to move — usually once the next card down in that suit is already safe or already played.

Practise on the first four cards

Every pile starts four cards deep, so the initial layout already contains a handful of same-suit pairs. Finding all of them before your first stock card is the single best habit a new player can build.