Old Maid

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Old Maid (card game) Also: Queen of Spades, Chase the Ace

Players	3+
Deck	49, 51, or 53
Cards	Anglo-American-French
Play	Clockwise

Old Maid, Queen of Spades, or Chase the Ace is a card game for two to eight players. 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. In some variants, the colors in a discarded pair must match: ♠ with ♣ and ♦ with ♥.

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. In some variants, all players discard after the dealer has drawn.

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"), in German as Schwarzer Peter (“black Peter”), in Dutch as zwartepieten ("playing Black Pete") or pijkezotjagen ("Chasing the jack of spades") and in Polish as Piotruś ("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 knuckles. 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. As with all playground games, the rules are often lost in translation and regional variations are common (school specific rule-sets aren't unusual).

Another variant played in Egypt in the MiddleEast is the "Blind King"; same rules roughly, except all kings removed save one -- pairs are discarded at the outset and everybody takes turns until only the King is left - if you can take a card, you must. Pairs are discarded as 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 - numbers are just that, 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.