The goal
Get rid of all your cards in pairs, and don’t be the player left holding the odd queen.
Setup
2 to 6 players. Take one queen out of a 52-card deck, leaving 51 cards.
The deal
Deal all the cards one at a time. Some players may get one more. Everyone throws out their pairs.
A turn
- Fan out your cards, backs outwards, and offer them to the player on your left.
- They pick one without looking.
- A card that makes a pair: throw the pair out. Otherwise keep it.
- Then that player offers their cards to the next player on the left.
Special cards
- Three of a kind: throw out two, keep one.
- A player with no cards left is safe and drops out.
Scoring
- No points. One player loses: whoever holds the last queen.
Winning
Everyone except the player holding the odd queen at the end wins.
House rules
- Jack out. Take out one jack instead of a queen. The odd jack is the card nobody wants.
- Old Maid deck. Special picture decks come in pairs plus one single Old Maid card, so no card needs removing.
- Lucky last. Play it in reverse: whoever ends up holding the odd card wins.
