One of our family favourite variations is to remove a random card without any players knowing which card it is. Some variations also involve creative card exchanges, where players offer their cards to each other and try to form pairs. Old Maid can have various rule variations, such as using multiple decks of cards to accommodate more players or adding additional cards to make the matching process more challenging. The player who ends up with this card is considered the loser of the game. The goal of Old Maid is to avoid being the last player with the “Old Maid” card. The player left with the unmatchable card (the “Old Maid”) is the loser. The game continues until all pairs have been formed and discarded.

If a player runs out of cards, they are out of the game.

Players take turns drawing cards from the player to their right and forming pairs if possible. If the card they picked doesn’t match any of the players cards they are holding, they add the new card to their holding collection.

Old maid cards from the 70's