 19th-century pack | |
| Origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Type | Shedding game |
| Players | 2-12 [1] |
| Skills | Matching and pairing [1] |
| Age range | 4-10 [1] |
| Cards | Typically 31, 51 or 53 |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Chance | High [1] |
| Related games | |
| Black Peter, Vieux Garçon | |
| Easy to play [1] | |
Old Maid is a 19th-century American card game for two or more players, presumed to have derived from an ancient European gambling game in which the loser pays for the drinks. [2]
The rules of the game are first recorded in a book for girls by Eliza Leslie, who published them in America in 1831 [3] and England in 1835 [4] under the names Old Maid (when played by girls) or Old Bachelor (when played by boys). However, it may well be older and derived the German game of Black Peter, whose rules are recorded as early as 1821. [5] Meanwhile the rules of the French game, Vieux Garçon, first appear in 1853. [6] All these games are probably ancient and derived from simple gambling games in which the aim was to determine a loser who had to pay for the next round of drinks (c.f. drinking game). [7]
These games originally employed a pack of 32 or 52 French cards, the queen of diamonds or jack of spades typically being the odd card and the player who is last in and left holding a single queen or jack becoming the "old maid", "vieux garçon", or "Black Peter" depending on the game. The term "old maid" predates the game and referred to a childless or unmarried woman. [8] In its day it was seen as the equivalent of "old bachelor". [3]
Apart from reprints of Leslie, the game largely disappeared from the literature during the mid-19th century but experienced something of a revival in the 1880s. [lower-alpha 1] . This was boosted in England when proprietary cards emerged with nursery rhyme figures in 1883 under the name Merry Matches which, according to Bazaar, Exchange and Mart was a "newly invented game", despite its obvious derivation from Old Maid. [11] [12]
The following is a summary of the rules by Leslie (1831): [3]
Old Maid is a girls' game and any number may play. Three queens are removed from a standard pack of 52 cards, leaving the fourth queen representing the "Old Maid". Players may cut for deal, the one cutting the highest card dealing first. Aces are high. The cards are dealt equally all round and face down. The player to the left of the dealer begins by throwing down a pair of cards held in her hand e.g. two kings or two threes. The discards are placed face up in the middle of the table. If she is unable to discard a pair, she must draw a card from the player to her left who, for this purpose, lays her cards face down on the table. If the card drawn by the player whose turn it is pairs with one in her hand, she discards the pair; otherwise she keeps it and misses the opportunity to discard a pair. The turn then passes clockwise and players have the same options. The first player to shed all her cards wins the game. The rest continue to see who will be left with the Old Maid.
If the game is played by boys, it is called Old Bachelor and three knaves are discarded instead of three queens.
"Merry Matches", a proprietary card game by Wyman & Sons of London, appeared in 1883. It was originally published as a black-and-white game, but a coloured version appeared in 1884. There were 31 cards, the pairs "to be wed" including: Tommy Tucker and Goody Two-Shoes, Little Jack Horner and Miss Muffet, Father Christmas and Mrs Bond, Jack and Jill, Little Boy Blue and Little Bo Peep, the Prince and Cinderella, Dr Faustus and Dame Darden, The Man all tattered and torn and The Maiden all forlorn, Simple Simon and Lucy Locket, Father William and Old Mother Hubbard, Little Red Riding Hood and Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son. The odd card was Mistress Mary. The aims were threefold: to wed as many couples as possible, to make a match between Father Christmas and Mrs Bond, and to avoid being left with Mistress Mary, the penalty for which was to give every other player 2 counters. The player who weds Father Christmas with Mrs Bond sweeps the pool and those making matches during the game receive "wedding presents" of 1 counter from each other player. [11]
There are commercial card packs specifically designed for playing Old Maid, but the game can just as easily be played with a standard 52-card pack. The following rules are based on Arnold (2011), supplemented by other sources where indicated: [13]
A standard pack is used (or two if more than six play) from which a single queen is removed. The cards are shuffled and all 51 are dealt out singly; it being irrelevant if some players have an extra card. Players discard any pairs dealt at the outset. If a triplet is held, two are discarded and one kept; if a quartet is held, two pairs are discarded. Play starts with the player to the dealer's left offering a fan of face-down cards to the next player on the left. That player selects a card and discards it by pairing or adds it to the hand. Play continues clockwise in this manner, players dropping out when they have no hand cards left. The player left holding the single queen is the 'old maid' and loses.
Scabby queen is a modern variation of Old Maid played with a standard pack of cards from which the queen of clubs has been removed. The player left with the "scabby queen" (♠Q) is the loser and receives a number of raps on the knuckles with the edge of the pack. The number of raps is decided by reshuffling the pack and getting the loser to draw a card. He or she get the number of raps based on the face value of the card or, if it is a jack or king, 10 raps; if it is a queen, 21 raps. If the loser draws a red card, he or she receives soft raps; if a black card, hard raps. [17] Scabby Queen is recorded in 2002 as a game played in Perthshire, Scotland, but also known as Raps in Derbyshire, Raps or Chase the Bitch in Staffordshire, and Executioner in Hampshire. It some parts of Britain it is called Chase the Ace, but that is also the name of a different game. [18]
The equivalent game in many European countries is known (in each country's own language) as "Peter" or "Black Peter", and is often played with special cards, typically 31 or 37, in which the odd one out is typically a chimney sweep or a black cat. The game can also be played with a standard 32-card pack from which a black jack is removed. The loser often gets a smudge on his or her face with a piece of soot or piece of burnt cork. [19]
Hearts is an "evasion-type" trick-taking playing card game for four players, although most variations can accommodate between three and six players. It was first recorded in the United States in the 1880s and has many variants, some of which are also referred to as "Hearts", especially the games of Black Lady and Black Maria. The game is a member of the Whist group of trick-taking games, but is unusual among Whist variants in that it is a trick-avoidance game; players avoid winning certain penalty cards in tricks, usually by avoiding winning tricks altogether. The original game of Hearts is still current, but has been overtaken in popularity by Black Lady in the United States and Black Maria in Great Britain.
Games of patience, or (card) solitaires as they are usually called in North America, have their own 'language' of specialised terms such as "building down", "packing", "foundations", "talon" and "tableau". Once learnt they are helpful in describing, succinctly and accurately, how the games are played. Patience games are usually for a single player, although a small number have been designed for two and, in rare cases, three or even four players. They are games of skill or chance or a combination of the two. There are three classes of patience grouped by object.
Black lady is an American card game of the hearts group for three to six players and the most popular of the group. It emerged in the early 20th century as an elaboration of hearts and was initially also called discard hearts. It is named after its highest penalty card, the queen of spades or "black lady". It is a trick-avoidance game in which the aim is to avoid taking tricks containing hearts or the black lady. American author and leading bridge exponent, Ely Culbertson, describes it as "essentially hearts with the addition of the queen of spades as a minus card, counting thirteen" and goes on to say that "black lady and its elaborations have completely overshadowed the original hearts in popularity".
The Joker is a playing card found in most modern French-suited card decks, as an addition to the standard four suits. Since the second half of the 20th century, they have also been found in Spanish- and Italian-suited decks, excluding stripped decks.
Pig is a simple, collecting card game of early 20th century American origin suitable for three to thirteen players that is played with a 52-card French-suited pack. It has two very similar and well known variants – donkey and spoons. It is often classed as a children's game. It may be descended from an old game called vive l'amour.
Cheat is a card game where the players aim to get rid of all of their cards. It is a game of deception, with cards being played face-down and players being permitted to lie about the cards they have played. A challenge is usually made by players calling out the name of the game, and the loser of a challenge has to pick up every card played so far. Cheat is classed as a party game. As with many card games, cheat has an oral tradition and so people are taught the game under different names.
Slapjack, also known as Slaps, is a card game generally played among children. It can often be a child's first introduction to playing cards. The game is a cross between Beggar-My-Neighbour and Egyptian Ratscrew and is also sometimes known as Heart Attack. It is also related to the simpler 'slap' card games often called Snap.
Spite and malice, also known as cat and mouse, is a relatively modern American card game for two or more players. It is a reworking of the late 19th-century Continental game crapette, also known as Russian bank, and is a form of competitive solitaire, with a number of variations that can be played with two or three regular decks of cards.
Accordion is a patience or card solitaire using a single deck of playing cards. It is so named because it looks like accordion pleats, which have to be ironed out. The object is to compress the entire deck into one pile like an accordion.
Conquian, Coon Can or Colonel is a rummy-style card game. David Parlett describes it as an ancestor to all modern rummy games, and a kind of proto-gin rummy. Before the appearance of gin rummy, it was described as "an excellent game for two players, quite different from any other in its principles and requiring very close attention and a good memory to play it well".
Smear is a North-American trick-taking card game of the all fours group, and a variant of pitch (setback). Several slightly different versions are played in Michigan, Minnesota, Northern and Central Iowa, Wisconsin and also in Ontario, Canada.
Reversis, or more rarely Réversi, is a very old trick-taking card game in the Hearts family. Its origin is uncertain, but it may have emerged in Italy before spreading to Spain and France. It is considered one of the two probable ancestors of Hearts, Black Lady and Black Maria, the other being Coquimbert or Coquinbert. It was very popular with the French aristocracy in the 17th and 18th centuries, and much played elsewhere, except in Britain. Initially quite simple, the game eventually developed more complex mechanics such as vast quantities of counters and a system of pools and side-payments. Its name may have possibly come from the reverse order and construction of the game itself, or even from its exceptional slam which, like "shooting the moon" in Black Lady, reverses the entire aim of the game.
The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific, but apply to a wide range of card games played with non-proprietary packs. It should not include terms solely related to casino or banking games. For glossaries that relate primarily to one game or family of similar games, see Game-specific glossaries.
Royal Parade is an old, English, two-pack patience of the half-open builder type. The object of the game is to move cards to the foundations to create a 'gallery' full of picture cards.
Gaigel is a card game from the Württemberg region of Germany and is traditionally played with Württemberg suited cards. It is a Swabian variant of Sechsundsechzig and may be played with 2, 3, 4 or 6 players. However, a significant difference from Sechsundsechzig and other related games like Bauernschnapsen is the use of a double card deck. The four-player game is usually called Kreuzgaigel. The game emerged in the early 19th century.
Black Peter is the English name of the European game of Schwarzer Peter which originated in Germany where, along with Quartett, it is one of the most common children's card games. Old Maid is similar in concept to Black Peter and may derive from it.
My ship sails, also called my bird sings, is an English card game for children that is played with a 52-card French-suited pack in which the aim is to collect a hand of cards in one suit.
Vieux garçon is a card game played with a standard 52-card pack from which the jack of clubs is removed. It is a game for two to eight players. It is of the same family as old maid and Black Peter.
Comet is a very old, French card game of the stops family for 2 to 5 players that is still played today. It was originally called manille, but acquired a new name on the appearance of Halley's comet in 1682. It is not related to the modern trick-taking game also called manille. The American game of commit is an evolution of comet.
Baśka is a fast-moving, Polish card game for four players played using traditional French-suited playing cards. It uses a shortened pack of just 16 cards and is similar to kop which is also played in Poland. Both are derived from German Schafkopf.
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