Old Maid Game

Source: What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games And Pastimes
Category: TABLE AND CARD GAMES



This game can be played by any number, either with a home-made pack or
with ordinary playing cards from which three of the queens have been
taken away; the remaining queen being the old maid. The cards are then
dealt and each player first weeds out all pairs, such as two knaves,
two aces, two fives, and so on. All having done this, the player who
begins offers her hand, with the cards face downward, to her neighbor,
and her neighbor takes one. She then looks through her cards to see if
it pairs with any that she already has, and, if it does, throws the
pair on the table. Having finished her examination she offers her
cards in the same way to the next player, and so it goes on. As the
possessor of the old maid card is, at the end, the loser of the game,
each one who gets it does all in her power to induce the next player
to take it. As the cards get fewer and fewer the excitement grows and
grows.

"Old Bachelor" is played in the same way, except that three of the
kings are then thrown out.


Pig

"Pig" is a very noisy game. It is played with ordinary cards, unless
you like to make a "Pig" set, which would be very easy. Having
discovered how many persons want to play, you treat the pack
accordingly. For instance, if five want to play you throw out all
cards except five sets of four; if six, or three, you throw out all
cards except six sets of four or three sets of four. Thus, if five
were playing, the cards might consist of four aces, four twos, four
threes, four fours, and four fives; or, if you began at the other end,
four kings, four queens, four knaves, four tens and four nines. The
cards are shuffled and dealt round, four each, and the game is for
each player to complete a set of four. You do not, as in "Old Maid,"
select one from the cards that are offered, face downward, but each
player hands whatever card he likes to the next player, who is bound
to accept it. Directly a player has a set of four complete he lays the
cards on the table, either very stealthily or with a bang, whichever
he likes. Immediately a set is laid on the table (or directly the
other players notice it) all other cards have to be laid there, too.
The player who is last in laying them down is Pig. The game is played
for as many rounds as you like, the player who was last the fewest
times being the winner. The word Pig alters with each round. The last
player to lay down his cards in the second round is not merely Pig,
but Little Pig; in the third, Big Pig; in the fourth, Mother (or
Father) Pig; in the fifth, Grandmother (or Grandfather) Pig; in the
sixth, Ancestral Pig; in the seventh, Venerable Pig; in the eighth,
Primeval Pig; in the ninth, Crackling.


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