Old Maid
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Old Maid is a card game for two or more players. It takes its name from the expression "old maid", meaning a single, usually elderly, woman. Although there are retail card decks specifically for playing Old Maid, it is just as easy to play with a regular deck of 52 cards. In this case, one Queen is taken out of the deck and the remaining 51 cards are used.
The dealer deals all of the cards to the players (some players may have 1 more card than others, this is acceptable). Players look at their cards and discard any pairs they have (i.e., 2 Kings, 2 Sevens, etc).
Beginning with the dealer, each player takes turns offering his hand facedown to the person on his left. That person selects a card and adds it to his or her hand. This player then sees if the selected card makes a pair with their original card. If so, the pair is discarded. The player who just took a card then offers his or her hand to the person to their left and so on.
The object of the game is to continue to take cards, discarding pairs, until one is left with no cards. The player left with the odd queen (that has no matching queen) is stuck with the "Old Maid" and loses.
The game spawns an element of bluffing, commonly used in poker, as players sometimes act as if they are holding certain cards when in fact they aren't, such as looking depressed as if one is holding the odd Queen in one's hand.
This game most likely originated in China or India.
There are at least two variants of this game.
One variant played in the Philippines is called ungguy-ungguyan. The game is played exactly as Old Maid except any card can be removed at the start of the game. That card is revealed at the end of the game and the person left with its "partner" (the odd card) loses and is called unggoy (Tagalog for monkey).
Another variant, Baba-Nuki (ババ抜き), is played in Japan. It is played exactly as Old Maid, but instead of removing a Queen or any other card, a Joker is added, and player who is left with it loses. This game is commonly depicted in some scenes in certain anime where the characters play cards.he: למך (משחק קלפים) ja: ババ抜き