Old Maid is a constant favorite with children and lots of fun for families playing cards together. Colorful decks made especially for the game are popular, but regardless of the playing cards used, the rules are the same. Old maid definition: 1. A woman who is not married or has not had a sexual relationship and is not now young 2.
Origin | United Kingdom |
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Type | Shedding game |
Players | 2-12[1] |
Skills required | Matching, pairing and recognising numbers[1] |
Age range | 4-10[1] |
Cards | Any odd number depending on the number of players, typically 25, 49, 51, or 53 |
Play | Clockwise |
Random chance | Low-medium skill[1] |
Easy to play[1] |
Old maid[2] is a Victoriancard game for two or more players probably deriving from an ancient gambling game in which the loser pays for the drinks. The game includes an element of bluffing.[3][clarification needed]
The rules of the game are first recorded in 1884 by Green [4] and referred to in Bazaar, Exchange and Mart in 1883 as a 'newly invented game'.[5] However, it may well be much older and derived from the French game of Vieux Garçon, whose rules first appear in 1853,[6] or from the German game of black Peter whose rules are recorded as early as 1821.[7] All these games are probably ancient and derived from simple gambling games in which the aim was to determine a loser who had to pay for the next round of drinks (c.f. drinking game).[8] They originally employed a pack of 32 or 52 French cards, the queen of diamonds or jack of spades typically being the odd card and the player who is last in and left holding a single queen or jack becoming the 'old maid', 'vieux garçon', or 'black Peter' depending on the game.
There are retail card decks specifically crafted for playing old maid, but the game can just as easily be played with a standard 52-card deck. 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 or queen of hearts or to add a single joker.[9] It is also possible to remove one card face-down from the top of the deck before hands are dealt; if this is done, players will not know which card is unmatchable. The unmatchable card becomes the 'old maid', and whoever holds it at the end of the game is the loser.
The dealer shuffles and deals all of the cards to the players, one card at a time. Some players may have one or two 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.[10] Players do not discard three of a kind. In common variants, the suit colors of a discarded pair must match: spades (♠) must match with clubs (♣) and diamonds (♦) must match with hearts (♥).
Beginning with the dealer, each player takes turns offering their hand face-down to the person on their left. That person selects a card without looking and adds it to their hand. This player then sees if the selected card makes a pair with any of their original cards. If so, the pair is discarded face up as well. The player who just took a card then offers their hand to the person on their left, and so on.
The objective of the game is to continue to take cards, discarding pairs, until no more pairs can be made. The player with the card that has no match is 'stuck with the old maid' and loses. When playing with more than two players, the game is somewhat unusual in that it has one distinct loser rather than one distinct winner.
Scabby queen is old maid played with a standard pack of cards from which the queen of clubs has been removed. The player left with the 'scabby queen' (queen of spades) is the loser and receives a number of raps on the knuckles with the edge of the pack. The number of raps is decided by reshuffling the pack and getting the loser to draw a card. They get the number of raps based on the face value of the card or, if it is a jack or king, 10 raps; if it is a queen, 21 raps. If the loser draws a red card he or she receives soft raps; if a black card, hard raps.[11]
The equivalent game in many European countries is known (in each country's own language) as 'Peter' or 'black Peter', and is played with special cards, typically 31 or 37, in which the odd one out is typically a chimney sweep or a black cat. The game can also be played with a standard 32-card pack from which a black jack is removed. The loser often gets a smudge on his or her face with a piece of soot or piece of burnt cork.[12]
The Queen of Hearts is taken out of a full pack of cards, which is then dealt...
The cards are dealt one at a time until all are dealt. If some players have one more card than others it doesn't matter... The players look at their hands for pairs (such as two aces, two kings, etc.) and discard every pair they find face up on the table before them.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Old Maid. |