How to score Skip-Bo
A single game of Skip-Bo has no points: the first player to play the last card of their stock pile wins. For a longer points game, that winner scores 25, plus 5 for every card left in the other players’ stock piles. Nobody else scores, and the first to 500 wins.
- 2 to 6 players
- 25 for going out
- Points game to 500
- Only the winner scores
Tabletales is free on iPhone and iPad.
This is the real Scorepad, live. Each hand is one game of Skip-Bo: the winner’s score, and 0 for everyone else.
Skip-Bo
A sequencing card game where players build shared piles from 1 to 12, helped by wild Skip-Bo cards, in a race to empty their own stock pile; a single game has no points, but a points game runs to 500.
Year from BoardGameGeek.
How to play Skip-Bo, in brief
In Skip-Bo, the first player to empty their stock pile (the cards dealt to them at the start) wins. Everyone builds shared piles from 1 to 12.
- Deal the stock pilesDeal 30 each to 2 to 4 players, 20 each to 5 or more. Turn the top card up.
- Draw up to 5Start each turn by drawing until you hold 5 cards.
- Build in the middlePlay onto up to 4 shared piles, each climbing from 1 to 12, then cleared. Play from your hand, stock or discard piles; Skip-Bo cards are wild. Empty your hand and you draw 5 more.
- Discard to end your turnPut one card from your hand on one of your 4 discard piles.
- Empty your stockThat wins the game. Or keep score and play to 500.
The winner scores what everyone else is still holding.
A game ends the moment someone plays their last stock card. Then count only the other players’ stock piles: cards in hands and discard piles never count. Playing just one game? There is nothing to add up; the player who went out wins.
What counts in the points game
| At the end of a game | Points |
|---|---|
| Going out (winning the game) | 25 |
| Each card left in another player’s stock pileWork it out first: 12 cards are 60 | 5 |
| Cards in hands and discard piles | 0 |
| Every player who did not go outTheir leftover stock counts for the winner, not against them | 0 |
- Play until someone goes outThe first player to play the last card of their stock pile wins the game.
- Count the other stock pilesLeave hands and discard piles alone: only the cards still in the other players’ stock piles count, 5 points each.
- Score the winner25 for going out, plus the stock cards. Everyone else scores 0 for that game.
- Deal again, to 500Add the game to the winner’s total and play another. The first player to reach 500 wins. Only one player scores a game, so two cannot pass 500 together.
Hand 6: Jonas goes out, and past 500.
Four players with 30-card stock piles. Jonas plays his last stock card with 10 cards still in your stock pile, 13 in Mara’s and 8 in Dev’s. At 5 each, that is 50, 65 and 40. This is hand 6 on the Scorepad above.
| Player | Stock cards left, at 5 each | Hand |
|---|---|---|
| You | Stock pile: 10 cards leftOnly the winner scores | 0 |
| Mara | Stock pile: 13 cards leftOnly the winner scores | 0 |
| Dev | Stock pile: 8 cards leftOnly the winner scores | 0 |
| Jonas | Stock pile empty: he goes out25 for going out, then the cards: 25 + 50 + 65 + 40 | 180 |
One winner a game, one running total.
Tabletales is a scorepad and scrapbook for game night. For a single game of Skip-Bo, pick Who won? and tap the winner. For the points game, keep Highest wins and set Play to a score at 500.
- A row for every gameSwitch to By hand and each game of Skip-Bo is a hand. Fill it in player by player: 0 for anyone who did not go out, then the winner’s score. After the winner, hold 0 to give everyone left a 0.
- Count it on the keypadThere is no times key, so turn each stock pile into points first. Type the winner’s total, or type it the way you count it (25 + 50 + 65 + 40) and Tabletales adds it up.
- 500 is on the padPick Play to a score and tap 500. The total that gets there turns gold, and the trophy is already on it.
- And the night is keptSave it with who played and a photo from the table. Skip-Bo gets a history: how often you play it, who with, and who wins.
- Everyone who was there
- Photos from the table
- Skip-Bo, with its scores
Common Skip-Bo scoring mistakes
- Counting hands and discard pilesOnly cards left in the other players’ stock piles score, 5 each.
- Forgetting the 25 for going outThe winner scores 25 on top of the stock cards, every game.
- Scoring the losers’ stock against themPlayers who did not go out score 0. Their stock cards count for the winner instead.
Skip-Bo scoring, answered
- How do you keep score in Skip-Bo?
- In the points game, the player who empties their stock pile scores 25, plus 5 for every card left in the other players’ stock piles. Everyone else scores 0 for that game.
- How many points do you need to win Skip-Bo?
- 500. Keep a running total game by game; the first player to reach 500 wins. A single game has no points: whoever goes out first wins.
- Do you lose points for cards left in your stock pile?
- No. Cards left in your stock pile score 5 each for the winner of that game, and you score 0. Nobody ever loses points in Skip-Bo.
Skip-Bo score sheet
Print one for the table: six players and fifteen games, with a running total beside every game and the scoring at the bottom.
Score another game
Mattel’s own instruction sheet could not be read, so the points game here follows UltraBoardGames and Wikipedia, which agree on it. Stock piles are 30 cards each (UltraBoardGames deals 20 with 5 or more players), and for a quicker game Wikipedia suggests 10 to 15 each, UltraBoardGames 10. Rules checked on 19 October 2026 against UltraBoardGames and Wikipedia. Skip-Bo is a trademark of Mattel. Tabletales is not affiliated with Mattel.
Keep score tonight. Keep the night for good.
Tabletales adds up every hand, then saves the whole night: the games, the scores, the photos and who was there.
