Old maid (card game): Difference between revisions
There are commercial card packs specifically designed for playing Old Maid, but the game can just as easily be played with a standard 52-card pack. The following rules are based on Arnold (2011), supplemented by other sources where indicated:Arnold (2011), p. 216–217.
There are commercial card packs specifically designed for playing Old Maid, but the game can just as easily be played with a standard 52-card pack. The following rules are based on Arnold (2011), supplemented by other sources where indicated:Arnold (2011), p. 216–217.
A 52-card pack is used, or two if more than six play, from which a single queen is removed.[[Shuffle]] and [[deal (cards)|deal ]] are as in Cassell (1882) and it does not matter if some players have an extra card. Players discard any pairs dealt at the outset. If a [[triplet (cards)|triplet]] is held, two are discarded; if a [[quartet (cards)|quartet]] is held, two pairs are discarded. [[Play (cards)|Play]] starts with the player to the dealer’s left offering a fan of face-down cards to the next player on the left. That player selects a card and discards it by pairing or adds it to the hand. Play continues clockwise in this manner, players dropping out when they have no hand cards left. The player left holding the single queen is the ‘old maid’ and loser.
A pack is used or two if more than six play from which a single queen is removed.[[Shuffle]] and [[deal (cards)|deal]] are as in Cassell (1882) and it does not matter if some players have an extra card. Players discard any pairs dealt at the outset. If a [[triplet (cards)|triplet]] is held, two are discarded; if a [[quartet (cards)|quartet]] is held, two pairs are discarded. [[Play (cards)|Play]] starts with the player to the dealer’s left offering a fan of face-down cards to the next player on the left. That player selects a card and discards it by pairing or adds it to the hand. Play continues clockwise in this manner, players dropping out when they have no hand cards left. The player left holding the single queen is the ‘old maid’ and loser.
== Variations ==
== Variations ==
Card game
Old Maid is a Victorian card game for two or more players, probably deriving from an ancient gambling game in which the loser pays for the drinks.[2]
History[edit]
The rules of the game are first recorded in a book for girls by Eliza Leslie who published them in England in 1835[3] and in America in 1840 under the names Old Maid (when played by girls) or Old Bachelor (when played by boys).[4] However, it may well be older and derived the German game of Black Peter whose rules are recorded as early as 1821.[5] Meanwhile the rules of the French game, Vieux Garçon, first appear in 1853.[6] 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).[7]
These games 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. The term “old maid” predates the game, and is a way to refer to a childless or unmarried woman.[8]
The game appears sporadically in the literature on both sides of the Atlantic during the 19th century,[a]. When proprietary cards emerged with nursery rhyme figures in 1883 under the name Merry Matches, it was referred to in Bazaar, Exchange and Mart as a “newly invented game”, no reference being made to its obvious derivation from the game played with a standard pack.[11][12]
Earliest rules (1835)[edit]
The following is a summary of the rules by Leslie (1835):[13]
Old Maid is a girls’ game and any number may play. Three queens are removed from a standard pack of 52 cards, leaving the fourth queen representing the “Old Maid”. The cards are dealt equally all round. In turn and beginning with the player to the left of the dealer, players throw down any pairs in their hands e.g. two kings or two threes. The discards are placed face up in the middle of the table. If a player is unable to discard a pair, she must draw a card from the player to her left who, for this purpose lays down her cards face down on the table. If the card drawn pairs with one in her hand, she discards the pair, otherwise she keeps it and misses a turn. The first to shed all her cards, wins the game. The rest continue and the one left with the Old Maid loses.
If the game is played by boys, it is called Old Bachelor and three knaves are discarded instead of three queens.
Merry Matches[edit]
“Merry Matches”, a proprietary card game by Wyman & Sons of London, appeared in 1883. It was originally published as a black-and-white game, but a coloured version appeared in 1884. There were 31…
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