Old Maid (card Game) - How To Play

How To Play

There are retail card decks specifically for playing old maid, but it is just as easy to play with a regular deck of 52 cards. When using a regular deck, a card is either added or removed, resulting in one unmatchable card. The most popular choices are to remove the ace of clubs or queen of clubs or to add a single joker. The ace of spades, queen of spades or joker, respectively, becomes the "old maid"; it cannot be matched, and whoever holds it at the end of the game is the loser. It is possible to discard a single card from the deck face-down; if this is done, players cannot know which card is the old maid.

The dealer deals all of the cards to the players. Some players may have more cards than others; this is acceptable. Players look at their cards and discard any pairs they have (e.g., two kings, two sevens, etc.) face up. Players do not discard three of a kind. In common variants, the suit colors of a discarded pair must match: Spades (♠) with clubs (♣) and diamonds (♦) with hearts (♥). When playing with one card removed, this means one unique card is always the old maid instead of it possibly being any of the three remaining cards of that rank.

Beginning with the dealer, each player takes turns offering his hand face-down to the person on his left. That person selects a card and adds it to his or her hand. This player then sees if the selected card makes a pair with their original cards. If so, the pair is discarded face up as well. The player who just took a card then offers his or her hand to the person to their left and so on. A player is allowed to shuffle his hand before offering it to the player on his left. In some variants, all players discard after the dealer has drawn.

The object of the game is to continue to take cards, discarding pairs, until all players except one have no cards. That one player will be left with the lone unmatchable card; they are "stuck with the old maid (your chosen card)" and lose.