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Skip
Bo
SKIP-BO (pronounced /sk?p bo?/) is a
popular card game. In 1967, Ms. Hazel Bowman of Brownfield, Texas
began producing a boxed edition of the game under the name Skip-bo.
International Games, Inc. purchased the game in 1980. The company
was subsequently bought by Mattel. It is a commercial version of
the card-game "Spite and Malice".
Deck
The deck consists of 162 cards, 12 each
of the numbers 1 through 12 and 18 "SKIP-BO" wild cards which may
be played as any number. Alternatively, the 162 cards could be 3
regular decks of playing cards, including the jokers, with ace to
queen corresponding to 1 to 12 and the kings and jokers
corresponding to the SKIP-BO cards. Before 1980, the commercial
game consisted of 3 decks of regular playing cards with 6 SKIP-BO
cards replacing the standard 2 jokers in each
deck.
[edit] Game play
Two to six people can play at a time,
in pairs or individually. The object of the game is to be the first
player to play out his entire stock pile. Players are dealt a 30
card stock pile, with only the uppermost card visible, and a hand
of 5 cards, and the remaining cards are placed face down to create
a common draw pile. The shared play area allows up to 4 build
piles, which must be started using either a "1" card or a Skip-Bo,
and each player also has up to 4 personal discard piles. Each turn
the active player draws until he has 5 cards in hand, and plays on
the build piles. He must play either the next card in sequential
order or a wild Skip-Bo card, using either cards in hand, the top
card of his stock pile, or the top card of any of his 4 discard
piles. If the player can play all 5 cards from hand, he draws 5
more and continues playing. When no more plays are available, the
player discards one card to either an empty discard pile or on top
of an existing one and play passes to the next player. When a build
pile reaches 12, it is removed from the board and that space
becomes empty for another pile to be started; play continues until
one player has played his final stock card.
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