How to play Old Maid

Objective

Avoid holding the final unpaired queen. You become safe by getting rid of your cards; the last queen’s holder loses. This page follows Bicycle’s standard-deck Old Maid for 2–5 players, with pairs matched by rank.

Setup

Remove one queen from a standard deck without jokers. Any queen will do: the remaining three queens leave one that cannot be paired.

Shuffle the 51 cards and deal them all, one at a time, clockwise. Unequal hands are fine. For example, with four players, three receive 13 cards and one receives 12.

Everyone looks through their own hand and lays down all pairs of equal rank, face down. Two fives are a pair regardless of suit or colour. With three fives, discard two and keep one; four fives make two pairs.

Keep the remaining cards hidden. There is no draw pile.

Turns

The dealer begins by spreading their remaining cards face down for the next active player on their left. That player takes one card without seeing its face and adds it to their hand.

If the draw creates a pair, lay both cards down face down. Otherwise keep the drawn card. Then offer your own hidden cards to the next active player on your left. Continue around the table in this way.

Empty hands

Once your hand is empty, you are safe and take no further part. Skip empty-handed players when offering cards. If the player who just drew empties their hand, the next active player offers their cards onward instead. The same skipping rule applies if someone starts with only pairs.

Worked turn

You hold 5♣, 9♦ and Q♥. You draw 5♥ from the player on your right. Discard 5♣ and 5♥ together: their colours differ, but their ranks match. You now offer your remaining 9♦ and Q♥ face down to the next active player on your left.

Later, only two players remain. One holds Q♠ and 7♦; the other holds 7♣. If the second player draws 7♦, they discard both sevens and become safe. The other player is left with Q♠ and loses. If they draw Q♠ instead, no pair forms and play continues.

Winning

Normally, play ends with 25 discarded pairs and one queen. Everyone who emptied their hand is safe; the player still holding that queen loses. Finishing first does not earn extra points in this ruleset.

Check your pairs: Bicycle says a player found to have discarded two cards that were not a pair loses and becomes the Old Maid. Such a mistake can leave three unpaired cards instead of the intended one. Do not declare the ordinary ending until the pairs are correct.

Common mistakes

• Keeping a same-rank pair because its colours differ.
• Discarding all three cards of a three-of-a-kind.
• Leaving undealt cards as a stock; all 51 cards are dealt.
• Drawing from an empty-handed player instead of skipping them.
• Choosing a card while its face is visible.

Variants

Special Old Maid decks use matching pictures and a single unmatched character. Use that deck’s pair markings and instructions.

Pagat also describes removing a jack instead of a queen and a reversed game where the final odd-card holder wins. These are separate versions; this page uses the unpaired queen as the losing card.

For a different matching goal, try Go Fish: it collects four-card books by asking for ranks, rather than drawing blindly from another hand.

Common questions

Which card do you remove for Old Maid?

Remove any one queen and all jokers. The resulting standard-deck game uses 51 cards.

Do pairs have to be the same colour?

No. Two cards of the same rank make a pair here, whatever their suits or colours.

What do you do with three of a kind?

Discard one pair and keep the third card. Four of a kind makes two pairs.

What happens when you have no cards left?

You are safe and sit out. The remaining players skip you when passing cards.

Is the first player out the only winner?

No. All players who empty their hands are safe. The ordinary ending has one loser: the last queen’s holder.