Card games
Play Skip-Bo online
Everyone has a stock pile to empty first. The four building piles in the middle always run 1 to 12, and Skip-Bo cards fit anywhere. Your four discard piles are storage and trap in one.
Play Skip-Bo nowFree · no download · no ads
Where Skip-Bo comes from
Minnie Hazel Bowman, known to everyone as Skip, developed the game in the 1960s in Brownfield, Texas. Her family sold it themselves at first; Wham-O bought the rights in 1980, and since 1992 Skip-Bo has belonged to Mattel. The underlying idea comes from the older game Spite and Malice, which in turn goes back to Russian patience games.
How it works
Goal
Be the first to empty your STOCK PILE.
Cards
Numbers 1–12 and Skip-Bo wilds. A wild counts as any number.
Setup
- Stock pile: only the top card is visible and playable.
- Hand: you draw back up to 5 cards at the start of your turn.
- 4 build piles in the middle: start at 1 (or a wild), run to 12, then get cleared.
- 4 discard piles of your own: you may stack freely, but only the TOP card is playable – bury a card and you only reach it again once everything above is gone.
Your turn
- Click a card (hand, stock top or discard top) – it gets a yellow outline.
- Then click a build pile to play it there.
- Play your whole hand and you immediately draw 5 new cards and keep going.
Ending your turn
Pick a HAND card and click one of your discard piles – that discards it and ends your turn.
Winning
Empty stock pile = victory.
Three tips for better results
- 1Put equal numbers on the same discard pile – that way you do not block yourself.
- 2Deliberately keep one discard pile empty as long as you can: it is your safety valve.
- 3A Skip-Bo card is too valuable to discard; play it only when it frees your stock card.
Frequently asked questions
Is Skip-Bo free to play?
Yes. Skip-Bo runs straight in your browser, costs nothing and needs no installation. There are no ads and no paywall – the chips in the game are play money and cannot be bought.
Do I need an account to play Skip-Bo?
You create a profile with a name and a PIN, but no account is created on anybody else's server. Scores, chips, achievements and unlocked motifs live only in your own browser.
How do you play Skip-Bo?
Goal Be the first to empty your STOCK PILE.
Where does Skip-Bo come from?
Minnie Hazel Bowman, known to everyone as Skip, developed the game in the 1960s in Brownfield, Texas. Her family sold it themselves at first; Wham-O bought the rights in 1980, and since 1992 Skip-Bo has belonged to Mattel. The underlying idea comes from the older game Spite and Malice, which in turn goes back to Russian patience games.
Does Skip-Bo work on a phone?
The site adapts to the screen size, and anything you can click can also be tapped. Games controlled with arrow keys do need a keyboard, though.
Also known as
These are the terms people use to look for Skip-Bo.
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