Old Maid

Players and equipment

Two or more players and a standard 52-card deck with one queen removed, leaving a pair of queens and one odd one — the old maid. Above about six players, shuffle in a second pack and take out one queen in total, not one from each. A dedicated children's pack with a single unpairable card works the same way. Children can play from about four, as soon as they can hold a few cards and tell a seven from a nine; three to five players is the best game.

The deal

The whole deck, round the table, face down one at a time. Uneven hands do not matter — somebody having one card more than the others makes no difference to the game.

Play

Everybody first looks at their hand and lays down every pair in it, face up: two sevens, two kings, two of any rank. Suits do not matter. Three of a kind lays down one pair and keeps the third card. The two queens that are left pair with each other like any other cards; it is the odd queen, the old maid, that pairs with nothing.

Then, starting with the dealer, each player fans their hand face down and offers it to the player on their left, who draws one card unseen. If it pairs something in their hand, the pair goes down; either way they then offer their own fan to the next player, and the draw travels round the table.

A player who runs out of cards is safe and takes no further part — their seat is simply skipped, and the player on their right offers their fan to the next person still holding cards. Hands get smaller as pairs go down, until the last pair is made and one player is left holding one card, which is the old maid.

Scoring

Nobody wins a deal — somebody loses it. The player left holding the odd queen takes one point, everybody else takes none, and the lowest total over a set of deals is the best one. On SquareScores the lowest total is the best one, one round is one deal, and whoever was caught enters a 1 with a 0 for everybody else.

Every pair

Out of your hand

Laid down as it forms

Out of cards

0

Safe, and skipped from then on

The old maid

1

Left holding the odd queen

A worked set of deals

Four players — Mum, Dad, Sam and Ella — agree to play five deals. In the first deal Sam is left holding the queen and takes a point. In the second it is Dad, in the third Sam again, and Mum and Ella escape the first three deals without a mark. In the fourth deal Ella draws the queen from Mum's hand with three cards to go and cannot pass it on before the last pair is made, so it is Ella's point. Mum is caught in the fifth.

Mum

1

Caught in the fifth deal

Dad

1

Caught in the second deal

Sam

2

Caught in the first and third deals

Ella

1

Caught in the fourth deal

Nobody has beaten anybody; there is no winner. Sam has been the old maid twice and everybody else once, so Sam is the old maid of the five deals, and the only arithmetic in the game is adding up who was caught how often. Play as many deals as you like and count at the end, or stop when somebody has been caught three times.

Ending

When every card is paired and down, one player is left holding the old maid. The traditional forfeit is being laughed at. Over several deals, the player caught fewest times has done best, and the player caught most often is the old maid.

Watch where the queen goes

Everything in Old Maid depends on one card, so keep track of it. If you are holding the odd queen, you know exactly where it is. If you draw a card and it pairs, it was not the queen. If a player draws from you and looks happy, they made a pair; if they look worried and then smile too widely, you may have just passed it on. A child who has been holding the queen knows the moment it is taken from them and can watch it travel round the table from there.

What tells you somebody has it

People are bad at hiding the old maid. A player holding it fans their cards more carefully and pushes one card a little further out than the others, hoping you will take it. A player who has just got rid of it relaxes at once. You do not have to be clever to notice these things, only to look up from your own hand.

Shuffle your hand before you offer it

When it is your turn to hold your fan out, mix the cards up first so nobody can remember where the queen was. If you always put the card you want rid of on the left, the player drawing from you will learn that in two deals. Spread the cards evenly, hold them at the same height, and do not look at any one of them.

Drawing

When you draw, you cannot see the cards, so there is nothing to work out — but you can choose from the middle rather than the card sticking out, because the sticking-out one is the one they want you to take. If the player offering the fan has only two cards left and you know one of them is the queen, it is a coin toss and there is nothing to be done about it; that is the game.

Playing with small children

Let the youngest deal, or at least hand round the cards, and let them stand their hand in a card holder. Say the ranks out loud when pairs go down — "two sixes!" — so the game teaches numbers as it goes. Do not treat the old maid as a punishment: it is a giggle, everybody gets caught sooner or later, and the grown-ups should make a show of being caught themselves. If a child hates losing, count over several deals so that one bad deal is only one point.

Which card is taken out

Any queen will do, and the game is the same whichever one goes. Some families add a joker instead of removing anything, so the joker is the odd card and all four queens pair as usual. A version for very small children uses only the low cards, ace to six, with one card removed, so the hands are shorter.

Le Vieux Garçon

The French version, whose name means the old boy. A jack is taken out instead of a queen, and the odd jack is the card nobody wants. The play is otherwise the same.

Scabby Queen

The Scottish name for the game, played with the queen of spades as the odd card. What makes it different is the forfeit at the end: the pack is cut, and the loser's knuckles are rapped with the pack as many times as the card cut shows. A black card is worse, because then the pack is scraped across the knuckles instead of tapped, which is where the scabby comes from. Play it gently or not at all.

Black Peter

The German version, Schwarzer Peter, played with a special pack of pairs and one Black Peter card, or with an ordinary pack and a joker. The loser has a black mark drawn on their face with soot or a burnt cork, and wears it for the rest of the game.

A dedicated pack

Old Maid packs are sold for children: pairs of pictures — two firemen, two clowns, two farmers — and one Old Maid card with no partner. The pictures are easier for a three- or four-year-old to match than ranks are, and the pack is smaller, so a deal is quicker. The rules are the same.

Draw from the right

Some tables offer the hand to the player on the right rather than the left, so the draw travels the other way round. It makes no difference to the game; agree which way before the first deal and stick to it.

How do you play Old Maid?

Take one queen out of the pack and deal all the cards out. Everybody lays down their pairs face up, then in turn holds their hand out face down and the next player draws a card. Any pair that makes goes down. Keep going until every card is paired except one: whoever holds the odd queen at the end is the old maid and loses.

Which queen do you remove in Old Maid?

Any one. It makes no difference which queen goes, because pairs are made by rank and not by suit, so the two remaining queens pair with each other and the third is left without a partner. Take whichever is nearest to hand. You can add a joker instead and leave all four queens in, and then the joker is the odd card.

How many people can play Old Maid?

Two or more. Three to five is the best game; with two it is very quick and mostly luck, and above six the hands get small and the deal is over in a couple of minutes, so shuffle in a second pack and remove one queen from the two packs together.

What age is Old Maid for?

From about four. A child needs to match two cards of the same number or picture and to hold a small hand, and a dedicated picture pack makes both easier. There is nothing to work out and nothing to remember except where the queen went, which is why it is usually the first card game a child learns.

Is there a winner in Old Maid?

No, only a loser: the player caught holding the old maid. Everybody else is equally safe. If you want a winner, play several deals, give the old maid a point each time, and the player with the fewest points at the end has done best.

Can you play Old Maid with two people?

Yes. Remove a queen and deal the pack between you. Each of you lays down your pairs and then draws from the other in turn. It works, and it is over quickly, but with only one hand to draw from there is no watching the queen travel round, which is most of the fun. Three or more is better.

How long does a game of Old Maid take?

A single deal with four players takes about five minutes, and less with a small children's pack. Families usually play several deals and keep count of who was caught each time.

What happens if you have three of a kind in Old Maid?

Lay down one pair and keep the third card. It pairs with the fourth card of that rank when it turns up, like any other single card.