Old Maid

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Old Maid is a card game for two to eight players, closely related to Chase the Ace. It takes its name from the expression "old maid", meaning a single, usually elderly, woman. The game most likely originated in China or India.

[edit] 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. In this case, one Queen is removed from the deck and the remaining 51 cards are used. Another way is to use all 52 cards plus a single Joker card if the pack of cards includes Joker cards (the game will end when the Joker is the only card left).

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 (i.e., 2 Kings, 2 Sevens, etc) face up. Players do not discard three of a kind.

Beginning with the dealer, each player takes turns offering his hand facedown 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.

The object of the game is to continue to take cards, discarding pairs, until one is left with no cards. The player left with the odd queen (that has no matching queen) is stuck with the "Old Maid" and loses.

[edit] Variants

• One variant, played in the Philippines, is called ungguy-ungguyan. The game is played exactly as Old Maid except any card can be removed at the start of the game. That card is revealed at the end of the game and the person left with its "partner" (the odd card) loses and is called unggoy (Tagalog for monkey).

• Another variant, Baba-Nuki (ババ抜き), is played in Japan. It is played exactly as Old Maid, but instead of removing a Queen or any other card, a Joker is added, and player who is left with it loses. This game is commonly depicted in some scenes in certain anime where the characters play cards.

• Another variant is called Jackass, played with Jacks instead of Queens as the odd amount of cards. It is known in French as Le vieux garçon ("old boy") and inGerman as schwarzer Peter (“black Peter”).

• A variant from the UK is known as Scabby Queen. The concept of this game is identical, with one exception. When the loser (the player with the single remaining Queen) is found, the deck of cards (including the remaining Queen but not the Jokers) is shuffled and the loser cuts the deck. The card on the bottom of the pile they picked up then decides their "punishment". If a red card (heart or diamond) is chosen, then the player is rapped on the back of the hand with the deck. If a black card (spades or clubs) is chosen, then he/she has the entire deck scrapped across their knuckes. The number of times this is performed is decided by the value of the card. Cards 2-10 carry face value, Jacks and Kings have a value of 10, Aces are 11 and Queens are 21. Be aware that this can rip the skin of your hands, and can be extremely painful, hence the name Scabby Queen. It is also better to use old or cheap cards, as the cards can also be damaged (cheap and older cards also tend to be softer and more bendable, so the "punishment" is less severe). However, today the game is often played without this punishment, especially where the pain inflicted is not considered appropriate by the players (such as when parents are playing with their children), though the game is still called Scabby Queen. As a result, the punishment aspect of the game is absent in some areas of the UK.

[edit] Strategy

The game spawns an element of bluffing, commonly used in poker, as players sometimes act as if they are holding certain cards when in fact they aren't, such as looking depressed as if one is holding the odd Queen in one's hand.