Directions to Play Skip Bo

Skip Bo is a card game played with a special deck containing numbered cards and Skip Bo wild cards.

Skip Bo is a card game from Mattel. In order to play Skip Bo you must keep track of piles of cards in your hand, in a spare pile and in your discard piles. Then you work with and against the other players to create piles of cards numbered sequentially from 1 to 12. In order to win the game you must use all of the 30 cards in your stock pile, regardless of how many cards you have elsewhere.

Things You'll Need

• Skip Bo cards
• Skip Bo game board
• Notepad or score pad
• Pen or pencil

Instructions

1. Choose a dealer; this person should shuffle the cards and deal out 30 cards, face-down, to each player. The 30 cards become the player's Stock pile; he puts them in the Stock pile spot on the game board before beginning the game.

2. Place the remaining cards in the Draw pile in the center of the game board. Each player may now turn over the top card in her Stock pile and place it on top of that stack, face up.

3. Beginning with the left of the dealer, the first person draws five cards from the draw pile. If the player has a card numbered one or a Skip Bo wild card, he places it on the board to start a building pile. Then he may place other cards sequentially on top of this pile, either from the top card of his Stock pile or from his hand. The player's turn ends when he discards one card from his hand onto one of his discard piles.

4. Continue to play in a clockwise direction. Each player must draw five cards and add to the building piles by putting the next numbered card in the sequence from 1 to 12 on top of that pile. To do this, draw from your stock pile, your hand or your discard pile. You may only take the top card from the stock or discard piles. On subsequent turns, draw enough cards to bring your hand back to five cards. Continue to play until you run out of sequential cards.

5. The player who uses his entire stock pile first wins, whether he has cards left in his hand or not. The winner receives five points for every card remaining in the other players' stock piles, plus 25 points for winning. Record the points and play until someone earns 500 points.

Tips & Warnings

• Since the object of the game is to reduce your stock pile to zero, you should always use the cards in this pile first on any turn if possible.

References

• Mattel Games: Skip Bo Deluxe