How to play Old Maid

Objective

Avoid being the player left holding the unmatched queen.

Setup

1. 1

   Remove one queen from a standard deck, shuffle, and deal all cards.

2. 2

   Each player discards all rank-matched pairs from hand.

How play works

1. 1

   On a turn, draw one unseen card from the player to the left.

2. 2

   Discard any new pair. Continue clockwise until only one card remains.

Scoring and winning

1. 1

   The holder of the unmatched queen loses the hand.

2. 2

   For a longer match, record one loss point per hand; low total wins.

Rules to settle before play

1. 1

   Pairs normally match by rank and color, leaving one queen unmatched.

2. 2

   A designated joker can replace the odd queen.