Be smart and get rid of all your cards by creating pairs of cards to avoid being the louse! Discover the rules of the Old Maid.
Equipment
The following items will be essential to play Old Maid:
a 32-card deck for 2 to 4 players
a 52-card deck, if the number of players is more than 4
Goal of the game
The object of the game is to get rid of all your cards and avoid being the last player in possession of the Jack of Spades.
Setup
- Before dealing the cards, remove all jacks except the jack of spades from the deck
- Shuffle the cards
- The dealer deals 3 cards face down to each player in a clockwise direction
- The last player receives the last 2 cards When all players have their cards in hand, make up pairs
NB: A pair consists of 2 cards of the same value and suit (2 of diamonds + 2 of hearts (red), 4 of spades + 4 of clubs (black), 10 of hearts + 10 of diamonds (red)).
How the game unfolds
Each player removes the pairs from his deck and places them face up in front of him
- The remaining cards will remain in each player’s hand so that the others cannot see them
- The player who starts the game asks his right-hand neighbor to draw a card from his deck, so that the latter (the right-hand neighbor) cannot see his cards
- The player on the right checks if the card he has drawn can be a pair with one of the cards he already has in his hand
- If he manages to make a pair, he removes it from his deck and places it face down with the others
His neighbor on the right does the same and so on until there is only one player left with the last card, which is the Jack of Spades.
Remark:
You should try to get rid of the jack of spades because it is the only card that does not have a pair and it is the card that symbolizes the loser.
End of the game
The game ends when all players have successfully discarded all their cards, except for one player who still has the Jack of Spades. The player who still has the Jack of Spades is the loser and is also called the “Pussy”.
Variant
The slaughterer
- At the end of the game, the loser or “the Pussy” chooses a card from the deck and shows it to the other players
- This card is then randomly placed in the deck
- The deck will be shuffled and placed on the table face down
- The “Hussy” puts his hand on the table and the winning players draw the first card of the deck one by one
- Each color of the cards drawn by the players constitutes a sentence afflicted on the back of the hand of the Hussy
Clubs: pinch
Spades: a blow with the tip of the finger
Diamonds: a blow with the fist
Hearts: a restorative stroke
