Skyjo is a fun card game that can be played by 2 to 8 players where the objective of the game is to accumulate as few points as possible by trading, flipping, and collecting cards. Each player has a 3×4 card grid, and their goal is to reveal all the face-down cards by exchanging cards from the deck.
Skyjo Card Game Rules
Each player is dealt 12 cards and they set up their cards with four rows of three cards at the beginning of each round, two cards are flipped over randomly and the player with the highest number goes first.
On a player’s turn, they can either take a card from the discard pile or choose a mystery card face down from the top of the stack. If a player takes a card from the discard pile, they must replace one of their cards with it. If they don’t want to keep the card, they can place it on the discard pile.
The round ends when a player reveals all the cards in their grid. Each player counts up the total card values in their grid, and the player with the least amount of points wins the game. The cards are numbered from one to negative two to positive twelve, and some cards have negative points.
There are special rules in the game as well, if one column of three cards has the same value, those cards will be discarded and will not be scored. If the first player goes out tied with another player or is not the lowest score, that player must double their score for the round.
SKyjo With Regular Deck Of Cards
In case you don’t have a Skyjo deck, you can play the game with a regular deck of cards. The rules are the same, except you’ll need to remove all of the face cards and jokers from the deck, and the aces will count as one point.
A standard deck of playing cards has 52 cards in four suits: clubs, hearts, diamonds, and spades. Each suit has 13 cards, including an Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, and King. Modern decks also usually include two Jokers.
The regular cards used to play Skyjo are the standard deck of playing cards, which consist of 52 cards in four suits: clubs, hearts, diamonds, and spades. Each suit has 13 cards, including an Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, and King and modern decks also usually include two Jokers.
Here are the steps to play skyjo with regular cards:
- Shuffle all the cards and give 12 cards face down to each player.
- Put a card face up in the middle of the table to begin the discard pile.
- Place the remaining cards face down next to the discard pile to create the draw pile.
- Each player should organize their 12 cards into four vertical rows, with three cards in each row.
- At the beginning of each round, every player should personally flip over two cards.
- The player with the highest total points goes first.
On your turn, you can either draw a card from the top of the draw pile or the top of the discard pile OR you can choose to take a card from the discard pile or pick any one of the face-down cards and replace it with something else.
- From the second round onwards, you won’t need to flip over any cards.
- The round ends when a player has revealed all the cards in their grid.
- Count up the total card values in your grid.
- The player with the least amount of points wins the game.
The Skyjo Game Rules And Cards
