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Old Maid Rules in Plain Words

Old Maid is a silly card game about one card nobody wants. One Queen has no match. At the end, one player is stuck holding her. That player is the Old Maid. This game has no money, no sign-up, and nothing to buy.

What the game is

Cards are passed around the table one at a time. Players drop pairs as they make them. One by one, players run out of cards and are safe. At the very end, one player holds one card: the Queen with no match. That player loses — and usually everyone laughs.

Players: 3 or more is best. 2 can play too. What you need: one deck of 52 cards.

Setting up

  1. Take one Queen out of the deck and set it aside. Now the deck has 51 cards, and one Queen can never make a pair.
  2. Deal out all the cards, one at a time. It is fine if some players have one more card than others.
  3. Look at your cards. Find your pairs — two cards of the same rank, like two 4s or two Jacks. Lay every pair face up in front of you.
  4. If you have three of a kind, lay down only two. Keep the third one.

How a turn works

  1. The dealer holds their cards out like a fan, face down, to the player on their left.
  2. That player picks one card without looking and adds it to their hand.
  3. If the new card makes a pair, they lay the pair down.
  4. Now that player fans their cards to the next player on the left. Play keeps going around the circle.
  5. When a player has no cards left, they are safe and done. The game skips them from now on.

How the game ends

One by one, everyone runs out of cards. In the end, one player holds one card: the unmatched Queen. That player is the Old Maid. Everybody else wins.

Official rule, house rule, or schoolyard rule?

The trap in the book: Bicycle's rules print a warning most kids never hear. If you lay down two cards that are not really a pair, you become the Old Maid, right away. So look twice before you drop a pair.

Pairs must match in color too: House rule. Some families say a pair must be the same color — two red 8s match, but a red 8 and a black 8 do not. The book rules match by rank only, any color.

The Joker way: Some books play it the other way. They keep all four Queens and add a Joker to the deck. The Joker is the card nobody wants. Same game, different odd card.

Picture decks: Many Old Maid decks sold in stores have funny pictures instead of numbers. The rules are the same: match pairs, dodge the one card with no match.

Black Peter: In Germany, kids play a game like this called Black Peter. There, one Jack is taken out instead of a Queen. It is the same idea in another country.

Words to know

Pair — two cards of the same rank, like two 10s.

Fan — to spread your cards out in a curve, like a hand fan, so another player can pick one.

Safe — out of cards and out of the game. A safe player cannot lose.

Common questions

Can I shuffle my cards around before I fan them?

Yes. Most players mix their cards so nobody can guess where the Queen is hiding. That is part of the fun.

I drew the Queen! What do I do?

Smile and say nothing. Mix her into your fan and hope the next player picks her. A straight face is your best tool.

What if nobody wants to be the Old Maid?

Being the Old Maid is the joke of the game, not a real loss. Shuffle and play again. The Queen lands somewhere new every time.

Source: Bicycle Cards, "Old Maid" — bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/old-maid/ — read in full and rewritten in our own plain words.