👵 Old Maid

How to play

Old Maid against the CPU with a 53 card pack — a standard deck plus one Joker, which is the Old Maid. The cards are dealt out and any matching pair in a hand is discarded automatically before play. You then take turns drawing a card from each other's hand, discarding pairs as they form. The Joker has no partner, so somebody will be left holding it.

• Click a card in the CPU's row — draws it into your hand. The cards are face down, so you are choosing a position rather than a card.
• New Game button — reshuffles, redeals and discards the opening pairs again.

Scoring

Nothing is scored beyond the two card counts. After your draw the CPU waits 0.8 seconds and then takes a card from your hand at random. You win by emptying your hand, or if the CPU is left holding only the Joker. You lose if the CPU empties first, or if the Joker is your last card. Pair removal treats all four cards of a rank as two separate pairs, so a hand can shed several cards from one draw.

Tips

• Count your own hand. If you hold the Joker you want the CPU to take it, and a smaller hand makes its random draw more likely to find it.
• If you do not hold the Joker, keep pairing off and race to empty — you cannot be caught with a card you never drew.
• The CPU picks at random, so there is nothing to bluff; play around counting instead.
• Watch the CPU's count after your draws. A drop of two means the card you gave it completed a pair.

Frequently asked questions