Old Maid

How to play Old Maid

Old Maid is a classic family card game for children and grown-ups alike, played for generations around the world under many names. It uses an ordinary deck of cards with one card removed so that a single card — the "Old Maid" — has no partner. Players race to get rid of all the cards in their hands by matching them into pairs, and the one poor soul left holding the unmatchable Old Maid at the end is the loser. The rules are gentle enough for a five-year-old, yet the hidden draws and the tension of passing the dreaded card around the table make every round fun. In this version you play against three friendly computer opponents at three difficulty levels, and every game you survive earns ranking points.

The goal

Match every card in your hand into pairs and discard them until your hand is empty. Being emptied out first is perfectly fine — you are then "safe" and out of danger. The single player left at the very end holding the lone, unmatchable Old Maid loses the round. As long as that unlucky player is not you, you win.

The deck and the Old Maid

A standard 52-card deck contains four Queens — two matching pairs. To create the Old Maid, one Queen is removed from the deck before play, leaving 51 cards: exactly 25 complete pairs plus one leftover Queen with no partner. That partnerless Queen is the "Old Maid". Because every other rank still has all four of its cards, only the Queens are left uneven, and one of them can never be matched no matter how the cards are shuffled and dealt.

Setting up

All 51 cards are dealt out one at a time around the table to every player. With three or four players the hands come out slightly uneven — one player may hold a card more than another — and that is completely normal and fair. You take the first seat and the three computer players fill the rest. Pick 3 or 4 players in total and a difficulty level before you start.

What counts as a pair

A pair is any two cards of the same rank — two Kings, two 7s, two Queens, and so on. Colour and suit do not matter: the red 8 and the black 8 make a pair just as happily as two black 8s would. As soon as the game begins, everyone looks at their hand and discards every pair they were dealt. If you happen to hold three of a kind you discard one pair and keep the odd card; four of a kind is simply two pairs. After this opening clean-up, only single, unmatched cards remain in every hand.

How a turn works

• On your turn you draw one card, face down, from the hand of the next player who still has cards. You cannot see the card you are taking — every opponent hand is shown as a fan of card backs, and you simply tap one.
• If the card you drew matches the rank of a card already in your hand, the two form a pair and are discarded immediately. If it does not match, it stays in your hand and your turn ends.
• Play then passes on: the player you just drew from takes their turn, drawing from the next player, and so on around the table.
• The moment a player runs out of cards they are "safe" and drop out of the round — there is nothing left in their hand to draw or to be drawn from, so play simply skips past them.
• This continues until just one player is left holding a single card. That card is always the Old Maid, because every other card has by then been matched and discarded.

Winning and losing

The round ends when only one player still holds a card — the unmatchable Old Maid — and that player is the loser. Everyone else has emptied their hand and is safe. You win simply by not being the final holder of the Old Maid, so getting rid of your cards quickly and shedding the Queen whenever you can hold it are both good things. There are no points for finishing "first"; being safe at the end is all that matters.

Playing the computer (ranked)

You face three computer opponents at one of three difficulty levels. On Easy the computers draw and hold cards carelessly, so the Old Maid moves around at random and beginners often stay safe. On Normal they play a little more shrewdly, avoiding the most obvious ways of getting stuck with the Queen. On Expert they keep track of where the odd Queen is likely to be and steer it away from themselves, which means it drifts toward you more often. Every game runs entirely on your device, so it works offline. Survive a round to earn ranking points — Easy +10, Normal +30, Expert +100 — and sign in to record your best result on the leaderboard.

Why there is no two-player same-screen mode

Old Maid depends on hidden hands: the whole game is about not knowing which face-down card you are about to draw, and about hiding the Old Maid among your own cards so the next player picks it up. If two people shared one screen they would see each other's cards and the surprise would be gone. That is why this version is single-player against the computer, whose cards stay secret from you. If you want to play with friends in the same room, deal a real deck of cards instead — the computer game is designed for solo play.

Tips and light strategy

• Old Maid is mostly a game of luck, but small habits help. Keep your hand shuffled in your mind: the card you dread is only dangerous when someone draws it, so do not fret about holding it for a turn or two.
• When it is your turn, you draw blind, so there is no wrong card to tap — relax and pick any back. What matters more is what happens when the Queen lands in your hand: you want to pass it on at the first chance.
• Try to end your turn holding as few cards as possible. The smaller your hand, the fewer chances the Old Maid has to reach you, and the sooner you can go safe.
• Against Expert opponents the Queen tends to come your way, so treat every draw calmly and remember that even a strong computer cannot control a blind draw — luck evens things out over many games.
• Play several rounds. Because the deal and the draws are random, a single game is a coin-flip, but over a session a careful player noticeably survives more often, especially at Easy and Normal.

Frequently asked questions