Skip-Bo Junior Card Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

Objective of Skip-Bo Junior

The objective of Skip-Bo Junior is to be the first player to get rid of all of the cards from your Stockpile.

Setup

The oldest player becomes the dealer.
The dealer shuffles the cards and deals ten cards face down to each player. These cards form each player’s Stockpile. If you want a shorter game you can deal less than ten cards. For a longer game you should deal more than ten cards.
Each player takes the top card from their Stockpile, turns it face up, and places it on top of the rest of the cards.

Top Card on Stockpile — This player flipped over the top card from their Stockpile. The top card is a three.

The youngest player starts the game.

Playing Skip-Bo Junior

Drawing Cards For Your Hand

To start each turn the dealer deals three cards to the current player. The dealer will deal these new cards to three face up piles in front of the player (one card to each pile). These cards form your hand.

First Hand in Skip-Bo Junior — For their first hand the dealer dealt this player a one, two and eight card.

Should there be cards in your hand piles from a previous turn, you will place these new cards on top of the previous cards.

Drawing A New Hand in Skip-Bo Junior — This player is about to take their next turn. They will be dealt three new cards. Two of the cards will start new piles. The third card is placed on top of the eight card.

Drawing New Hands — This player received their three new hand cards. The six card is covering up the eight card.

Should the draw pile ever run out of cards, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile.

Playing Cards

On your turn you will try to play cards from your hand and Stockpile to the center of the table. In the center of the table there will be up to a maximum of four Building Piles. These piles will start at zero. To form a new pile you must play a one or a wild ? card. You cannot form a new Building Pile if there are already four out on the table.

Creating a Building Pile in Skip-Bo Junior — To start their turn this player played the one card from their hand to the center of the table to form a Building Pile.

To add to a Building Pile you must play a card that is one higher than the last card played to the pile.

Playing A Card in Skip-Bo Junior — This player played the two card from their hand on top of the one card in the center Building Pile.

You can also play a wild ? card as it acts like every other card.

Wild Card in Skip-Bo Junior — This card is Wild and can be played on top of any other card. It can also be played as a one to start a new Building Pile.

Playing A Card From Your Stockpile

When choosing a card to play you should first try to play a card from your Stockpile. You should prioritize your Stockpile as the ultimate goal of the game is to get rid of all of the cards from your Stockpile.

Playing A Stockpile Card in Skip-Bo Junior — As the top card on their Stockpile was a three, this player played it on top of the Building Pile with a two on it.

If you play the top card from your Stockpile, you will flip over the new top card from the pile.

Turning Over The Next Stockpile Card — After playing the three card from their Stockpile, this player turned over the next card in their Stockpile. The next card was a five.

You can also play the top card from your hand piles.

Building Piles

Each Building Pile starts at one and eventually makes it to ten. Once a Building Pile makes it to ten, one of the players will discard the entire Building Pile.

Completing A Building Pile — The center Building Pile has reached ten. The pile has been completed and it will be discarded.

End of Turn

You can keep playing cards on your turn until you either don’t have any more cards that you can play. The rules specifically mention to “continue playing cards until you can no longer make a play”. I am not sure if this means you can choose to not play a card. Based on the wording I would lean towards you being forced to play a card if you can. At this point play passes to the next player on your left.

Winning Skip-Bo Junior

The objective of Skip-Bo Junior is to play all of the cards from your Stockpile. The first player to play the last card from their Stockpile, wins the game. You do not have to play all of the cards from your hand in order to win.

Year: 2003 | Publisher: Mattel

Genres: Card, Children’s

Ages: 5+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 15 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High

Components: 80 number cards, 16 wild ? cards, instructions

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