Old maid (card game)

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"Old Maid" redirects here. For other uses, see Old Maid (disambiguation).
Old Maid
Origin England, Scotland
Type Going-out game
Players 2–9
Cards 49, 51, or 53
Play Clockwise

Old maid[1] is a Victorian card game for two to eight players probably deriving from an ancient gambling game in which the loser pays for the drinks. It is known in Germany as Schwarzer Peter, in Sweden as Svarte Petter, in Norway as Svarteper, in Denmark as Sorteper, in Hungary as Fekete Péter, in Finland as Musta Pekka (all meaning "Black Peter"), in France as le pouilleux ("the lousy/louse-ridden one") or vieux garçon (literally "old boy", but a de facto pejorative for confirmed bachelor),[2] and in Japan as ババ抜き　(Babanuki). The game spawns an element of bluffing, commonly used in poker.

How to play[edit]

There are retail card decks specifically crafted 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.[3] The unmatchable card becomes the "old maid," 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.

Deck of 19th-century cards

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.[4] 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 or her hand face-down to the person on his or her 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 objective 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.


  • A commonly marketed version of the game is called "Donkey" in which the odd card is the Donkey and the rest of the set is made up of farmyard animals.
  • A variant is called jackass, played with jacks instead of queens as the odd amount of cards. It is known in Dutch as zwartepieten ("playing Black Pete") or pijkezotjagen ("Chasing the jack of spades"), in Polish as Piotruś ("Peter"), in Icelandic as Svarti Pétur ("black Peter") and in Swedish as Svarte Petter ("Black Peter").
  • In Greece the game is called "mu(n)tzuris" (μου(ν)τζούρης, "smudged, smutted"), because winners used to smudge the loser with soot.
  • A variant in East Asia is called baba-nuki (ババ抜き, "old maid") in Japan and dodukjapki (도둑잡기, "catching the thief") in Korea. 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.
  • Another 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). A similar variant exists in Indonesia by the name of "Kartu Setan" which literally translates to "Ghost Card", and in Japan by the name of jiji-nuki (ジジ抜き). It is seen in some anime, like baba-nuki; an example of this is in When They Cry.
  • Another 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 has the entire deck scraped across his knuckles (known as snipes. A skilled player can draw blood with the opening 'snipe'). 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 with all playground games, the rules are often lost in translation and regional variations are common (school-specific rule-sets are not unusual).
  • Another variant played in Egypt in the Middle East is called "Abu Foul" or "blind king"; this follows roughly the same rules, except all Kings are removed except one. Pairs are discarded at the outset and everybody takes turns until only the King is left. If a player can take a card, he must. Pairs are discarded once they are formed. Multiple decks can be used depending on the number of players. Jokers are not present. Punishment is played two ways, depending on the group; wishes or strikes, chosen before the game strikes. At the end, the cards are shuffled and spread and the loser pulls a card for every player. Pictures are worth 10, king 20. Strikes are to the hand outstretched, or wishes are short and simple, local to the area and usually involve some sort of mild humiliation.
  • Another variant played in Turkey is called "Papaz Kaçtı" with nearly same rules.
  • In Brazil, two variants of the "Old Maid" game are played: One called "Fedor", literally "Stink", played with a regular deck out of which one card has been removed; the other one, played with a specialty deck is called "Jogo do Mico", or "Capuchin Monkey Game". The cards depict animals, each one having a male and a female card representation; only the capuchin monkey (mico) does not have an opposite-sex representation.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Not usually capitalised in UK or US English as shown by entries in encyclopedias and dictionaries, though some books uppercase many games. old maid in Encyclopædia Britannica, old maid (def. 2, no capitalisation) in Oxford Dictionaries, old maid in Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, old maid (def. 3, no capitalisation) in Merriam-Webster Dictionary
  2. ^ David Parlett, Oxford Dictionary of Card Games, in Russian as Акулина ("Ahkoolina"), pg. 181 Oxford University Press (1996) ISBN 0-19-869173-4
  3. ^ L. Dawson, Edmond Hoyle Hoyle's Card Games pg. 234 Routledge (1979) ISBN 0-415-00880-8
  4. ^ Sid Sackson Card Games Around the World pg. 61 Dover Publications (1994) ISBN 0-486-28100-0

External links[edit]