How to Put Together a Jenga Tower

Practice a few times on your own. It is a more difficult to see strategy when others are involved. Use the loading tray that comes with the game to pack the pieces in a block like tower. Place three pieces at a time horizontal or from left to right, then stack three pieces on top of them lying these pieces across vertically. Repeat this opposite stacking until all 54 pieces are in place. Tightly pack the tower making sure no blocks are overly loose. Stand the tower up and remove the loading tray from around the tower.

Remove with care, one block from the tower and place it on the top of the pile. There are two things to consider here. First, all blocks visible as center blocks from either side of the tower are considered load bearing blocks. This means that you must be very careful in removing them and they should probably not be your first choice. Second, all of the blocks on the outer edges of the tower can be carefully removed without great risk. Due to gravity and irregularities in the blocks some may feel stickier and not move out of place as easily. Try several blocks by carefully pushing them and choose the outer block that moves easiest.

Place the block you just removed on top of the tower. You should begin thinking about how to place this block in ways that will be to your advantage later as the tower grows. If you were to place this piece in an outside position then the next pieces have to go on the opposite outside slot or the center. It is to your advantage to place this piece in the center position. Whenever possible choose the center, forcing your opponent to place pieces on the outside corner of higher levels where the stability is most compromised. This creates shaky levels for them!

Choose another block. The best strategy for now is to continue to remove outer blocks from the upper layers of the original tower. The lower levels are too unstable. Your competition will be playing against you to make your choices cause the tower to fall. If you can get outer blocks from the upper original and replace them as load bearing blocks in the new tower you will have a better chance of growing the tower without your actions causing it to fall.

Remove and replace more and more blocks in the new upper tower. Using these strategies you will see that there will be fewer outer blocks and many cross-pattern, load bearing ones holding up the tower. This is when your steadiness of hand comes into play along with your strategy. Practice techniques for removal of blocks with a steady hand. You can tap them lightly to dislodge them and then rotate them outwards from the tower to retrieve them.

Knock a few of the center load bearing blocks that you can figure are loose enough and are not supporting the tower. At this point the game is relying on the luck of who will choose one of the remaining poor choices. The tower will be shaky. It will lean. Do your best to be take as many blocks out of the way before the tower falls!