Printable Old Maid rules

Old Maid in one page

2–8 players · 1 deck minus one queen

Remove one queen from a standard deck, leaving 51 cards, and deal them all out. Everyone discards their pairs, then players take turns drawing one card, unseen, from the hand of the player on their right. Make a pair and you discard it. When every card is paired except one queen, whoever holds that queen is the Old Maid and loses.

In brief

• Remove one queen: 51 cards
• Deal them all out; uneven hands are fine
• Discard all pairs face down
• Three of a kind: discard two, keep one
• Dealer fans cards face down to the left
• Draw one card; make a pair, discard it
• Offer your hand to the next player left
• Out of cards? You're safe
• Last queen left in your hand: you're the Old Maid

Setup

1. Take one queen out of a standard 52-card deck and set it aside without using it. That leaves 51 cards. If you have an Old Maid deck, use it as it comes.
2. Shuffle and deal all 51 cards one at a time, face down, starting to the dealer's left. Some players will get one more card than others.
3. Everyone looks at their hand and discards every pair face down in the middle. A pair is two cards of the same rank, like two 7s or two kings.
4. If you hold three of a kind, discard two of them and keep the third. If you hold four, discard both pairs.

On your turn

1. The dealer goes first. Fan your cards face down and hold them out to the player on your left.
2. That player draws one card from your hand without seeing its face.
3. If the drawn card matches a card in their hand, they discard the pair face down. If not, they keep it.
4. That player then fans their own cards face down and offers them to the next player on their left. Play keeps moving left around the table.
5. When you run out of cards, you're safe and drop out. The player on your left then draws from the next player who still has cards.

Scoring

Winning

There's one loser per hand: the player left with the last queen. Everyone else is safe. Pagat.com mentions a reversed version where the holder of the odd card wins instead. Some families use it for a change of pace.