Skip-Bo
The sequencing game for two to six players, played with a 162-card deck of numbers and wilds. The full rules, the partnership game, the points game from the rule sheet, how other tables play it, and a score sheet that prints with the page.
What you need
Skip-Bo is a Mattel game, and the box holds 162 cards: 144 numbered cards, twelve each of 1 through 12, and 18 Skip-Bo cards. The Skip-Bo cards are wild. Some boxes carry a blank card or two, and those stay in the box.
Two to six people play, each for themselves or in partnerships. There are no suits and no points printed on the cards. The whole game is building piles in the middle of the table from 1 up to 12, again and again, and feeding your own stock pile into them. The first player to play out every card in their stock pile wins.
Skip-Bo is a boxed descendant of Spite and Malice, the old two-player patience race. It plays the same way: a pile of your own to empty, shared piles in the middle to build, and a hand of five to do it with.
The deal
Shuffle the deck and let everyone draw a card. The highest card deals, and a Skip-Bo card drawn here counts for nothing. After each game the deal moves to the left.
With two, three or four players, deal 30 cards to each player. With five or six, deal 20. Each player's cards go face down in one pile on their right. That is the stock pile. Turn its top card face up, and leave the rest alone. Nobody looks through a stock pile, and the only card of yours that is ever visible is the one on top.
The rest of the deck goes face down in the middle of the table as the draw pile. Four players at 30 cards leave 42 in it, two players leave 102, and six players at 20 cards leave 42 again. Nothing else is on the table yet. The four building piles and each player's four discard piles do not exist until someone starts them. The player to the dealer's left goes first.
The turn
On your first turn, draw five cards from the draw pile. That is your hand. From the second turn on, begin by drawing enough cards to bring your hand back up to five. Then play.
- Start or build a pile. Only a 1 or a Skip-Bo card can start a building pile, and there are never more than four on the table. Once a pile is started, each card on it has to be the next number: a 2 on the 1, a 3 on the 2, up to 12. A Skip-Bo card stands in for whatever number the pile needs.
- Play from three places. The face-up card of your stock pile, the top card of any of your discard piles, or any card in your hand. Play as many cards as you can in one turn, from any of the three, in any order. Your stock pile comes first whenever its top card fits, because that pile is the one that wins.
- Empty your hand and keep going. If you play all five cards from your hand, draw five more and continue the same turn.
- Discard to end your turn. When you cannot play, or choose not to, put one card from your hand face up on one of your four discard piles. That discard ends the turn. The discard piles sit to the left of your stock pile, hold any number of cards in any order, and only the top card of each is ever in play.
The discard piles are the only memory you have. A card that goes down on one can come back out when a building pile needs it, and only the top card of each pile is ever available. Four piles of like numbers are easier to work from than one pile of everything.
When a building pile reaches 12, it is complete. Take it off the table, and a new pile can start in its place. When the draw pile runs out, shuffle the completed building piles together and they become the new draw pile.
Two mistakes have fixed penalties. Draw too many cards and the extras are shuffled into your own stock pile. Play out of turn and get caught before the turn is over, and the turn stops where it is and play goes back to the proper order. When your real turn comes, you take it without drawing first. If nobody notices until the turn is finished, it stands, and play carries on from the player to your left.
Partnership play
Partners play as one side, and the rules stay the same with these changes. On your turn you may play from your own stock and discard piles and from your partner's as well. Your partner keeps quiet during your turn. Only the player whose turn it is may speak, and only to call a play: asking a partner to play a Skip-Bo as a 4, or to play the 7. A partnership wins when both of its stock piles are empty. Once one partner's stock pile is finished, both partners keep playing from the discard piles that remain. A player caught cheating takes two cards from the draw pile and puts them in their stock pile without looking.
Between games: shuffling 162 cards
162 cards, two loads.
The Skip-Bo card size fits Lotus, which takes up to two poker-size decks at a time, 104 cards. The Skip-Bo deck is 162, so split it about in half, 81 and 81, and run each half.
A finished game hands you the deck at its most sorted. Every completed building pile comes off the table as a straight run from 1 to 12, and those runs refill the draw pile. The shuffle between games has real work to do. Drop a half in, touch the sensor, and a pass takes about five seconds. Three passes suit a home game, and about seven bring a single 52-card deck to near-random. After each pass, trade half of one load for half of the other, so cards cross between the two on every pass.
Card sizes and finishes are covered in what cards work with a card shuffler.
How to use Lotus for Skip-Bo
The Skip-Bo deck is 162 cards, more than one load, so it goes through a Lotus card shuffler in two halves. Shuffle before each game, and again whenever the draw pile runs out.
| At the table | With Lotus |
|---|---|
| The pack | 162 cards: 144 numbered cards and 18 Skip-Bo cards. |
| Loads | Two, about 81 cards each. The Skip-Bo card size fits Lotus, which holds up to two poker-size decks, 104 cards, at a time. A second sensor inside reads how many cards are loaded, so there is nothing to select. |
| Who shuffles | The dealer for the next game. One touch on the sensor on top starts each pass. No buttons, nothing to grip. |
| When | Before each game. During a game, the completed building piles become the new draw pile when the old one runs out. Stack the finished piles beside Lotus as they come off the table. A stack of about half the deck or less goes in as one load, and a bigger one is split in two. |
| Passes | Drop a half into the center tray and touch the sensor. Lotus deals the cards into two piles. Stack one pile on the other, and that is one pass. A pass takes about five seconds. After each pass, trade half of one load for half of the other, so cards cross between the two. Run several passes. A finished game comes back as straight runs from 1 to 12, and the passes are what break them up. |
| The discard piles | They go back in with everything else. Gather every player's discard piles, stock pile and hand, the building piles and the draw pile, face down, into one deck. |
| The deal moves | To the left after each game. Lotus runs on a 9V battery with no cord, so it slides along to the next dealer. |
Another boxed deck: Phase 10. Every game is in the game table.
Winning and the points game
The game ends the moment someone plays the last card of their stock pile. That player wins. The cards left in hands and discard piles do not matter.
For an evening of several games, the rule sheet gives a points option. Only the winner of each game scores.
| Item | Points |
|---|---|
| Winning the game | 25 |
| Each card left in an opponent's stock pile | 5 |
| The series | First to 500 |
Count every opponent's stock pile, not only the biggest. Cards in hands and discard piles score nothing.
A worked game. Four players, 30 cards each. You play your last stock card while the other three piles still hold 7, 12 and 3 cards. That is 22 cards at 5 points, 110, plus 25 for the win: 135. The next game goes to the player on your left, who finishes with 4, 9 and 15 cards left around the table: 28 cards, 140, plus 25, so 165. After two games the sheet reads 135, 165, 0 and 0.
With four players and 30-card stock piles, the most one game can pay is 475: 25 for the win and 5 for each of 90 untouched cards. Nobody wins the series in a single game.
How other tables play
Skip-Bo has one rule sheet, so what changes between houses is how long the game runs and who shares what. Settle these before the deal.
| Rule | This page | Other tables play |
|---|---|---|
| Stock pile | 30 cards, or 20 with five or six players | 10 each for the short game in the rule sheet. Some tables deal 10 to 15 for a faster evening |
| The table | Everyone plays alone | Partnerships that share stock and discard piles |
| The game | One game, and the first empty stock pile wins | A series to 500: 25 for the win plus 5 per card left in each opponent's stock pile |
| The deck | The 162-card Skip-Bo deck | Three standard decks with their jokers. Ace to queen stand for 1 to 12, and the kings and jokers are the wilds |
Rules as published by Mattel in the Skip-Bo instruction sheet. Skip-Bo grew out of Spite and Malice, recorded by pagat.com, Spite and Malice, which notes that the two games score a series in a similar way.
Common questions
How many cards are in a Skip-Bo deck?
162: 144 numbered cards, twelve each of 1 through 12, and 18 Skip-Bo wild cards.
How many cards are in a Skip-Bo stock pile?
30 for two to four players and 20 for five or six. The short game deals 10.
Can you play Skip-Bo with regular cards?
Yes. Three standard decks with their jokers come to 162 cards. Ace through queen stand for 1 to 12, twelve of each, and the twelve kings and six jokers are the 18 wilds.
What does a Skip-Bo card do?
It is wild. It can start a building pile in place of a 1, or go on any pile as the number that pile needs next. Once played it is that number, and the pile goes on from there.
How do you win Skip-Bo?
Play the last card from your stock pile. In the points game the winner scores 25 plus 5 for every card left in each opponent's stock pile, and the first to 500 takes the series.
Score sheet
Skip-Bo is every player for themselves, up to six at the table, so the points game wants a sheet, not a two-team keeper. The sheet is built into this page. Print the page and the sheet is what comes out: one landscape sheet with ten games across six players, a running total and the line to 500. After each game, write 25 plus 5 for every card left in the other stock piles in the winner's column, and nothing for everyone else. With fewer than six players, leave the spare columns blank.